Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Muammar Gaddafi" in English language version.
Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by The Straight Dope lists 32 spellings known from the US Library of Congress,[6] while ABC identified 112 possible spellings.[7]
A 2007 interview with Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi confirms that Saif spelled his own name Qadhafi[8] and the passport of Gaddafi's son Mohammed used the spelling Gathafi.[9] According to Google Ngram the variant Qaddafi was slightly more widespread, followed by Qadhafi, Gaddafi and Gadhafi.[10][11]
Scientific romanizations of the name are Qaḏḏāfī (DIN, Wehr, ISO) or (rarely used) Qadhdhāfī (ALA-LC). The Libyan Arabic pronunciation[12] is [ɡəˈðːaːfiː] (eastern dialects) or [ɡəˈdːaːfiː] (western dialects), hence the frequent quasi-phonemic romanization Gaddafi for the latter. In English, it is pronounced /ˈmoʊəmɑːr ɡəˈdæfi/ MOH-ə-mar gə-DAF-ee or /ɡəˈdɑːfi/ gə-DAH-fee.
