People ask me all the time how to spell the classic Hebrew name for the Festival of Lights. And I give the same response that I give regarding how to spell any Hebrew word: as long as you are spelling it in English, you are spelling it wrong...sooooooooooo, spell it wrong any way you like!
How do you like to represent that lovely guttural sound? "ch," "h," or, perhaps, the Spanish "j"?
One "n" or two?
One "k," two "k"s, or "ck"?
An "h" at the end or do you prefer to end with the "a"?
I am sure that there are even more options that I have not even considered but you get the gist.
If possible, use actual Hebrew letters: chet, nun, vuv, kof, hey. If Hebrew is not an option, here's the rule I go with: Chanukah should have eight letters--one for each day and each candle.
Therefore, whether you spell it Chanukah, Chanukka, Channuka, Hanukkah, Hannukah, Hannukka, or, even, Janukkah, give it eight letters and it is as right as you are going to get in English!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
in honor of the 5th candle
ReplyDelete