Sukkos/t vs Succos/t

amother

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 6:49 am

I’m always so intrigued by this. I notice how people tend to have their way to write this, and the wrong way. So I decided to make a poll.

amother

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 7:02 am

SuperWify wrote:

AFAIK there is no right or wrong way to write it because it’s not a English word. The proper English word is Succoth.

Why is that the correct one? And why with a C?

SuperWify

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 7:08 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Why is that the correct one? And why with a C?

Again, you can write sukkot or succot and either is ok. I personally write sukkot. These are not English words do you can spell it however you’d like. Just like Chanukah can be spelled Chanukkah. It’s a Hebrew word.

In English the proper spelling is Succoth/Hanukkah.

amother

Olive

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 8:10 am

Why is that the correct one? And why with a C?

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I believe international phonetic transcription rules dictate that the letter כ in Hebrew is represented by the letter c and the letter ק in Hebrew is strictly represented by by the letter q but the letter k is commonly used. That being said, I tend to write sukka with a k....I have never actually given the matter much thought.

zaq

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 9:16 am

You left out Suqqot.
It makes zero difference. There’s no right or wrong in transliteration.

However... if you really want to spell phonetically it would be Sukkot. Not really—instead of the o there would be a symbol that looks like an upside down and backwards lower case C. But the o is close enough if you want to stick to Latin letters. There is no C in the phonetic alphabet. (Not talking about the NATO phonetic alphabet Alpha Bravo Charlie.)

Last edited by zaq on Sun, Sep 26 2021, 9:25 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Olive

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 9:37 am

zaq wrote:

Yes you are right. I think I meant transliteration rules and not phonetic transcription embarrassed

In any case a quick perusal of Wikipedia on the subjects suggests that are several acceptable standards for the Romanisation of Hebrew texts.

It is interesting because I'm sure I learned about the c vs k rule for כ and ק somewhere.

I think I'll stop here now before I further expose my ignorance in a subject that I am not that well versed in.

zaq

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 10:51 pm

1. why there are two k’s or c’s in the name of the Jewish harvest holiday also known as Tabernacles?

And for the grand prize:

2. Should there be a double N or a double K in the name of the Jewish Festival of Lights? Why or why not?

—double N single K
—single N double K
—both double
—both single

zaq

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 11:02 pm

SuperWify wrote:

In English the proper spelling is Succoth/Hanukkah.

Because Hebrew uses a non-Latin alphabet, there is no true right or wrong spelling in English. There are fashions in this. 50 years ago Chanukah or Chanuka was standard. Today, all the greeting cards say Hanukkah.

If one knows the dikduk, one can be guided by it. Any word ending in kamatz heh should be written with an -ah or an -oh depending on whether the accent is Ashkenazit or Sefaradit. Any mid-word letter that has a Dagesh should be doubled. And so on.

amother

DarkMagenta

Sun, Sep 26 2021, 11:55 pm

zaq wrote:

Wow Zaq. I'm duly impressed. Thumbs Up

etky

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 2:15 am

zaq wrote:

More confounding to me is why Succot is called the Feast of Tabernacles in English?
Tabernacle is the English designation for the Mishkan which technically was a tent.
Succot are booths, not tents and there is no obvious connection between the Mishkan and the mitzva to dwell in succot for 7 day.
I've always found this very strange.

Raisin

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 4:38 am

k is better because it always makes a k sound, unlike c which can be s or k. So confusing, there is a cleaning fluif which used to be called jif but is now cif. I have no clue how it is pronounced.

C should just be abolished as a letter, its kind of useless. Although than we would have to write khasidim and Khalla and Khanuka like fancy academics do. Maybe not.