Spelling it the right way

By Fernando R. Cabigao Jr.

“RIP to gaddafi qaddafi khadafy khaddafi kadhafi etc.”
– President Aquino III’s spokesman Edwin Lacierda

Even after the death of Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi, everyone including Philippine newspapers were still having problems spelling his last name.

Gadhafi Varieties

The Associated Press (AP) spelled it as ‘Gadhafi’; the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) also spelled it as ‘Gadhafi’. But The Philippine Star is switching from “Gaddafi’ and ‘Gadhafi’’, while the Manila Bulletin used ‘Gaddafi’ and ‘Khadafy’. The Manila Times spelled it as  ‘Qaddafi’.

Other local newspapers wrote their own version of Gadhafi’s last name. The Daily Tribune kept to ‘Kadhafi’, the Manila Standard Today used ‘Gadhafi’, ‘Gaddafi’ and ‘Qaddafi’, Malaya spelled it as ‘Gaddafi’, Business Mirror used ‘Gadhafi’, ‘Qaddafi’ and ‘Gaddafi’ while Business World couldn’t decide which to use–‘Kadhafi’,’Gaddafi’, or ‘Qaddafi’.

Why AP spelled it ‘Gadhafi’

The AP policy is to spell names based on a person’s preference. Gadhafi’s letters to schoolchildren were believed to be the first time since Gadhafi took power in 1969 that he indicated in writing how he wanted his name spelled.

A Yahoo! News (Why AP spells late Libyan leader’s name ‘Gadhafi’) article reported that Gadhafi himself tended to pronounce his last name as “Gath-thafi” with the middle letter pronounced the “th” in “either.”

In 1986, one year after the AP and other media institutions started to spell Gadhafi’s name as Khadafy based on the advice of Middle East experts, AP changed its spelling of the Libyan leader’s name to Gadhafi when he sent letters to American schoolchildren signed in Arabic script over his typed name: Colonel Moammar El-Gadhafi.

According to Yahoo! News, it is not just media organizations that are having trouble spelling Gadhafi’s name. Even the official Libyan government documents vary widely when rendering his name in Latin letters.