Sixteen ways to spell Hanukkah
For the record:
Hanukkah : 8,470,000 hits.
Chanukah : 3,390,000 hits.
Hanukah : 862,000 hits.
Hannukah : 677,000 hits.
Chanuka : 335,000 hits.
Chanukkah : 274,000 hits.
Hanuka : 192,000 hits.
Channukah : 128,000 hits.
Chanukka : 116,000 hits.*
Hanukka : 86,300 hits.
Hannuka : 51,400 hits.
Hannukkah : 37,300 hits.
Channuka : 33,600 hits.
Xanuka : 992 hits.
Hannukka : 686 hits.
Channukkah : 508 hits.
Channukka : 489 hits.*
Chanuqa : 25 hits.
With the exception of a few wildcards, there are 16 different spellings, based on four phonetic variations:
- The word starts with “H” or “Ch”
- Second consonant is “nn” or “n”
- Third consonant is “kk” or “k”
- The word ends with “ah” or “a”
I think I must have grown up with “Chanukah”, because it look most right to me. At Lila’s pre-school Hanukkah party, there were three different spellings within 10 feet of one another. In the interest of ending the ridiculousness of the dozens of spellings, I’m going forward with “Hanukkah” which is the preferred spelling used by the Library of Congress. At least it’s always the same in Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה
This would be a fun thing to make dynamic, even chart over time. If only I had time… Jeremy Blachman did the same Hanukkah spelling thing in 2004, interesting to see how much bigger the Google indexes have grown in 12 months.
See results for other years: 2008, 2007, 2006.
* These seem to be popular spellings in German.
THERE ARE OTHER POSSIBLE WAYS TO SPELL IT:
WITH ””CK’-AT THE END, WITH KH at the beginning (it should be the main way since it is the approved way to express the guttural ‘h’, either with ‘kh’ or ‘ch’ like in scottish ‘loch’)
khannuckah, channucka, hanuqua, hhanoocka,
WHY CAN’T I SPELL THE ‘OO’ SOUND ITH ‘OO’?
So, if u count the kh, the ck at the end and the ‘oo’ with all possible variations, u will have much more.
chag sameach!
Interesting! We took a survey in which 65% of people preferred the spelling Chanukah. “Chanukah” looks right to me too.
I like this, I never knew how to spell hanukkah!! Thanks for the help!!
I think the CH gives it a more full-on Eastern-European yiddish vibe, and probably preferred by yids who can do that whole throat-clearing CH (as in ‘loch’, not ‘lock’)thang.
A lot of British Jews prefer the ‘H’-sound and spelling. I think they feel it is more refined in some way. Mark my word though, these are the people who fiddle with their children (or other people’s children).