Name
Because of the lack of standardization of transliterating written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in many different ways. Even though the Arabic spelling of a word does not change, the pronunciation may vary in different varieties of Arabic, which may cause a different romanization. In literary Arabic the name ???? ??????? can be pronounced /mu??am?aru lqað?ða?fi?/. [?] represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative (?). Geminated consonants can be simplified. In Libyan Arabic, /q/ (?) may be replaced with [?] or [k] (or even [?]); and /ð/ (?) (as "th" in "this") may be replaced with [d] or [t]. Vowel often alternates with [o] in pronunciation. Thus, /mu??am?ar alqað?ða?fi?/ is normally pronounced in Libyan Arabic [mu??æm??r? ?l?æd?dæ?fi]. The definite article al- (??) is often omitted.
"Muammar Gaddafi" is the spelling used by TIME magazine, BBC News, the majority of the British press and by the English service of Al-Jazeera.[172] The Associated Press, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News use "Moammar Gadhafi". The Library of Congress uses "Qaddafi, Muammar" as the primary name. The Edinburgh Middle East Report uses "Mu'ammar Qaddafi" and the U.S. Department of State uses "Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi", although the White House chooses to use "Muammar el-Qaddafi".[173] The Xinhua News Agency uses "Muammar Khaddafi" in its English reports.[174] The New York Times uses "Muammar el-Qaddafi". The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times of Tribune Company use "Moammar Kadafi".[175] [176]
