What's the right way to spell Qaddafi?

[forrestcupp]

There are over a hundred different ways the media spells Muammar Qaddafi's name. What is the right way to spell it in English?

Note: this discussion is only about the spelling of his name, not about his political views or leadership.

[NCLI]

There are over a hundred different ways the media spells Muammar Qaddafi's name. What is the right way to spell it in English?

Note: this discussion is only about the spelling of his name, not about his political views or leadership.

There's no "right way" to spell it in English. There are several methods for converting arabic text to western text, so Qaddafi and Khadafi are both "correct", just like "arigatou", "arigatõ", and even "aligatou" are all correct ways to write the Japanese word for "thank you", though the last one looks silly.

[Simian Man]

I've also seen "Mao Zedong" spelled dozens of different ways.

[NCLI]

I've also seen "Mao Zedong" spelled dozens of different ways.

Nothing wrong with that either :)

[NMFTM]

There's no "right way" to spell it in English. There are several methods for converting arabic text to western text, so Qaddafi and Khadafi are both "correct",
I would say that whichever spelling looks more phonetically correct is the one you should go with. For example: Koran instead of Quran.

[NCLI]

I would say that whichever spelling looks more phonetically correct is the one you should go with. For example: Koran instead of Quran.

I think the pronunciation depends on the country, really. And in the Khadaffi example, both ways are phonetically correct.

[coolbrook]

It's detailed on his wiki. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi#Name)

You could just call him Moe. It was one of the funniest instances on the Simpsons.