Sunday, December 02, 2007

Transliteration Confusion

See the damage that varying methods of transliteration can cause:



UPDATED:

Let me break it down:

  1. Academic (as per Encyclopedia Judaica) and Sephardic Hebrew have it start with an "H" because they pronounce "ח" somewhere in between a guttural "ch" and "h"
  2. Ashkenazic and Modern Hebrew have it start with a "Ch" because they pronounce the "ח" the same way as the "כ"
  3. There should only be one "n" because there is no dagesh in the "נ"
  4. There can be two "k"s because there is a dagesh in the "כ", but some would only use one one "k" because the dagesh is already indicated in the change from "kh"/"ch" to "k" so there is no need to double the letter
  5. The word should end with an "h" because it has a "ה" at the end
In other words: Hanukah, Hanukkah, Chanukah or Chanukkah. Take your pick.

(hat tip)


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