Words of the Month - Happy Khanike and Merry Xmas

         This month as I was once again dutifully attempting to correctly spell the holiday my Jewish neighbors were celebrating, I finally did a little more research into the issue and discovered some interesting wrinkles.  First of all, transliteration causes problems right from the get-go.  The Hebrew alphabet doesn’t map directly onto the English pronunciations spelled with the Latin alphabet, so already there are choices to be considered.  Derived from a Hebrew verb meaning “to dedicate,” the two most common versions in English are Hanukkah and Chanukah.  Some sources, however, claim as many as twenty different possible “correct” spellings, although admittedly those include versions back to the seventeenth century before the spelling of even normal English words was standardized to our modern expectations.

        There are four primary points of variability: the initial letter (H or CH - or even KH), one N or two, one K or two, and whether or not to add an H at the end.  The confusion of the initial letter is  based on the fact that the Hebrew letter doesn’t have an exact English equivalent.  The CH spelling reflects an attempt to capture the uvular fricative like in loch, while the H is how most people pronounce the word in English.  But here’s the wrinkle: the ancient Hebrew pronunciation was actually closer to an H, albeit a throaty one, while the CH version is more modern.  This means that Ashkenazic Jews generally prefer the modern pronunciation and CH spelling, which is consistent with lots of other Yiddish and Hebrew words, while Sephardic Jews generally prefer the older pronunciation and H spelling.

        I’ll skip next to the question of how many Ks to use.  This point of variability is based on the fact that the Hebrew letter in question has a diacritical mark making it geminate: doubled.  This would be pronounced like the double K in bookkeeper, and thus spelled with two Ks.  Once again, however, modern Hebrew pronunciation has shifted and the majority of Jews don’t pronounce a geminate K anyway, making it perfectly fine to use a single K in the spelling.  So to return now to the question of how many Ns to use: unlike the K, there is no reason to use two Ns, either historical or otherwise, in the transliteration.  Versions of Hannukah are sometimes seen and may even be considered acceptable, but there’s no justification for them.

        As for that final H (or not), it’s simply a question of which version of English spelling seems to capture a final vowel sound better.  For example, do you prefer to spell “Oh come, all ye faithful,” or “O come?”  Sarah or Sara?  To add one final wrinkle to the whole crumpled mess, Yiddish academics actually favor the spelling Khanike, on the theory that this is the most accurate transliteration of modern Yiddish pronunciation.  I’d argue, however, that this is not how to spell the holiday in English, and therefore can be ignored by the average English speller.  I think going forward I’m going to go with Hanukkah.  What’s your spelling of choice?

        Meanwhile, what about Christmas?  The OED does include a number of different spellings, including such gems as Cristesmæsse and Kyrstemes, but since these are simply obsolete, we can ignore them.  The only real competition for Christmas is Xmas, so what’s the deal with that?  Many people think Xmas must be a modern version, and possibly even a secular one, but neither charge is true.  In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written around 1100 (when English was still Middle English), it was on at least one occasion written Xres mæsse.  Here the X is not Latin but Greek Chi.  Chi rho are the first two letters of Christ in Greek and were often used as an abbreviation both standing alone and in other words such as Xpian and Xpmas.  The X (chi) alone as an abbreviation for Christ dates back to at least 1380, and the exact spelling Xmas in English is first recorded in the early 1700s.  So definitely neither modern nor secular.  I still think it’s hideous, though, and will stick to Christmas, myself!  Only 338 days until Hanukkah and 359 days until Christmas, but I’m ready!

[Picture: December, woodcut by Wharton Esherick, 1923 (Image from Wharton Esherick Museum).]