"Hallelujah" vs. "Alleluia" = Difference? Same thing?

followingtheway · #1 Mar 19, '12, 6:28 pm

Hello, this question is about the spelling of "Hallelujah" or is it "Alleluia" or what ever?

The reason why I asked this is because I memory from middle school popped into in my head. Now my middle school was a private school (though not religious affiliated) in fact the principle was adamantly atheist. So we were surprised to find a Catholic CCD book lying around.

So we read and my best friend (Baptist) said "oh no, they spelled 'Hallelujah' wrong", she crossed the words "Alleluia" off. But then she turned to me and said "wait David, that's not how Catholics spell is it?" And that age I wasn't sure, so it didn't matter to me but after I did realize we do spell it "alleluia" a lot and they spell it "hallelujah" a lot.

Are these two spellings denominational differences? Could some explain why some people spell it one way and not the other?

DaveBj · #2 Mar 19, '12, 7:35 pm

In the original, it's "hallel-u-jah," composed of the verbal stem (hallel), the 2nd-person plural imperative ending (-u-) and the short form of the name Jahweh (-jah, pronounced -yah). The initial h- got lost in the translation process through Greek and then Latin. And I didn't know this until I learned it on these forums a couple years ago, but the terminal -h is also pronounced, because it is one of the root letters from the Hebrew verb from which the name Jahweh was formed. There are final terminal -h's in Hebrew, but this one had a dot in it, which means it's meant to be said.

DaveBj (language geek)