Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00077)

Etzion Becker wrote:
> Baraka is blessing in Arabic. In Hebrew we say bracha, or more correct
> brakha. Etzion
You are, of course, trying to transliterate that which cannot be 
transliterated. The sound that you are rendering as "ch" or "kh" simply 
does not exist in English. Also, the first vowel is usually rendered in 
English as an apostrophe, as in "B'rakha" (unless in modern Hebrew, the 
pause is lost; for example, in English, many pronounce the word 
"chocolate" as "chock-lit", losing the second "o"; there is a current 
television commercial making fun of the way that many pronounce 
"caramel" as "car-mell").

Bart