[Ipg-smz] Tchotchke

[Dennisf63]

On 01/25/2019 07:52 PM, Stephen Lawton wrote:
>
> Like almost everything in Yiddish, Mac, spelling is optional. Have you 
> ever noticed how many different spellings there are for Chanukah? Or 
> Hannukkah, or Hanukkah, or Chanukkah (or almost any of these options 
> without the ending “h”).  Yiddish spelling is sort of like the New 
> Math – you don’t need to get the right answer just so long as you 
> understand the concept (or the person you’re talking or writing to can 
> understand.)
>
> Stephen
>
That's illustrative of the problem of transliterating foreign languages. 
In this instance there is no alphabet letter or even combinations of 
such that can be seen as the guttural of -- oh hell, can't do it here, 
can I? It sounds a bit like clearing your throat.

I was corrected, quite carefully, by a young lady who attends the 
Unitarian/Universalist Society of Oneonta (UUSO, which is NOT a church, 
if you please) who spells her first name Chava (she is Jewish) that it 
is [gargle]hava, not Chava like in chuff-chuff. There ain't no letters 
for that. Hence the many spellings of the (sort of) Winter solstice 
celebration for Hebrews, which, of course, drifts with the phases of the 
moon.

It behooves us to be flexible.

-- 
Dennis Fowler
P. O. Box 70
Otego, NY 13825
dennisf63 at wildblue.net

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