Recent events in Libya have us wondering: How do you write Khadafi?
There are at least 96 permutations on his last name alone, and this causes problems for writers and search engines alike. How do we put Arabic script into English letters, and how do computer systems bridge the gap?
Linguist Daniel Midgley spells it out on this week’s Talk the Talk.
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http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlShow notes
Intro
http://boston.com/community/blogs/less_is_more/2011/02/gaddafi_qaddafi_khadafi_khadaf.html
Why is it so darn hard? This Wikipedia page shows the Arabic characters and some suggested Roman (English) equivalents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Arabic
It’s not the first time Arabic Romanisation has come up.
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/01/57167
How he transliterates his own name.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2011/03/01/134163629/where-the-gadhafi-spelling-comes-from
Ninety-six permutations at least.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/018961.html
How do computers do it? Here’s a recent scientific paper, if you’re really keen.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1371086
