There is a word: Hallelujah. It is a Hebrew -> english sounds-like. It means praise (Hallelu) Jehova (Jah). The word Alleluia seems to me to lack this meaning: so what is its root? Just a mispronouncement of the original?

-- Sean Cleary (seanearlyaug@hotmail.com), May 25, 2004

Answers

I believe it is the Latin form of the same word.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), May 25, 2004.

Sean,

The root of 'Alleluia'is as follows:

"Middle English, from Medieval Latin alleluia, from Late Greek allelouia, from Hebrew halllū-yh, praise Yahweh. See hallelujah."

(extracted from www.dictionary.com)

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), May 25, 2004.

Think of it like "Mary" vs "Maria," or "Ann" vs "Anne" vs "Anna" vs "Hannah."

Different forms of the same thing, influenced by different languages. As Paul said, Alleluia is Hallelujah in Latin.

The Romans didn't distinguish between vocalic and consonantal I (the letter J came centuries later), so they used I for both. That's why you see the Latin form with an I, pronounced as the consonant Y.

The Greeks represented an initial H with a small mark that looks like an apostrophe ('allelouia). The Romans didn't replace it with an H in this word; they just dropped it.

And concerning the final H: the Greeks couldn't (and can't) end a word with an H, because the H sound has to precede a vowel. In Hebrew, you can end a word with an H (the Hebrew letter Heh), but it's pronounced "a" as in Father.

This may be more than you wanted to know; I hope it isn't less.

-- JoeJeff (soon2b@catholic.com), May 26, 2004.

Thank you all for your good answers

-- Sean Cleary (seanearlyaug@hotmail.com), May 27, 2004.