tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post3489611987605998542..comments2024-03-20T01:06:12.181-04:00Comments on MEI Editor's Blog: A New Burst of Commentary on Qadhafi's NameUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-4992508847229870822011-08-30T09:33:24.359-04:002011-08-30T09:33:24.359-04:00Thank you, Mike, for transliterating the name in t...Thank you, Mike, for transliterating the name in the manner you do. As a young political officer and translator/interpreter at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli in September 1969, I decided on the "correct" transliteration. Doubling the dh consonant would have been more purist but really too fussy for the largely non-Arabist readers of US government reports. In those days, before more sophisticated word searches became possible, biographic files could be lost forever if they did not use a standard spelling. Pity the Arabists who obstinately tried to use a standard fusha transliteration from the written Arabic for Gamal Abdel Nasser or Habib Bourguiba.David Macknoreply@blogger.com