10.1 Khojali - How to Spell Khojali

Spring 2002 (10.1)
Page 45

Khojali
X-O-C-A-L-I
How to Spell Khojali

by Thomas Goltz

See articles about Khojali by Thomas Goltz:
Khojali: Eyewitness Account From the Following Day (1992) (AI 10.1, Spring 2001)
Khojali: A Decade of Useless War Remembered (AI 10.1, Spring 2001)
Khojali: Facts (AI 13.1, Spring 2005)
Khojali: 13 Years Later: Remember, But Be Sure to Preserve Your Souls (AI 13.1, Spring 2005)

Also:
Khojali: Quotes: Never Forget Khojali and other Massacres by Photographer Reza (1999)
Khojali: Documenting the Horrors of Karabakh: Chingiz Mustafayev in Action by Vahid Mustafayev (AI 7.3, Autumn 1999)
Khojali: Finally Documented in U.S. Congressional Record by Dan Burton (AI 13.1, Spring 2005)

Trying to spell Azeri words in English is often tricky, especially for those letters that have sounds that don't correspond to the English alphabet. The name "Khojali" is a typical case. In Azeri, this town is spelled XocaÎ°. Azeri "x" sounds like a hard "kh" as in the Scottish word "Loch Ness". Azeri "c" sounds like English "j", and the undotted "i" (°) sounds somewhat like a short "i" in English.

When we spell Azeri names in the magazine through English, we usually write the Azeri "x" (kh), the "c" (j) and the undotted "i" (i, not y). However, on the Internet, we found that Khojali is being spelled in many different ways - at last count, more than 20.

Most Web sites write it as "Khojali" or "Khojaly", but we found a wide variety of other spellings, including:

Hocali
Hodjali
Hodjaly
Hojali
Hojaly
Khocali
Khocaly
Khodjali
Khodjaly
Khojally
Xocali
Xodjali
Xodjaly
Xojali
Xojalli

But that's not all-through Armenian, it's also spelled Khodjalu, Khojalu, Xocalu and Xojalu. And don't forget Cyrillic and Armenian scripts.

Is there any wonder that so few people in the world know about the terrible tragedy that took place in this Azerbaijani town, when there are so many ways to spell it?

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