NO ONE knows how much longer we'll have to write about Libya's dictator, so now seems a good time to take a crack at his name. Why is the man The Economist calls Muammar Qaddafi spelled so many ...

LAMEEN SOUAG at Jabal al-Lughat catches Saif Qaddafi, in a speech to Libyans, announcing his intention to forgo written notes and speak "directly" to the people in dialectal Libyan Arabic. We noted ...

Read about the unrest in Libya and you might wonder: The man has been in power for 41 years, can’t anyone spell his name? For a leader so notoriously mercurial, perhaps it’s fitting no one can pin ...

Arabic dialects have long carried a stigma and been dismissed as slang, but linguists are calling for them to be viewed as a source of pride. On the closing day of the International Congress of Arabic ...