# Need help with some odd Hebrew spelling.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-some-odd-hebrew-spelling/707412>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 16, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-some-odd-hebrew-spelling/707412 "2014-12-16T18:16:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-some-odd-hebrew-spelling/707412/1 "2014-12-16T18:16:33Z")

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In [this](http://i.imgur.com/HiqRV9W.png) little snippet from a 1899 letter, an aspiring occultist/magician dude suggests a name for a new lodge: “Pantaurès.” As you can see, he writes it out twice – first in French, and then in Hebrew.

Two questions about his Hebrew spelling:

1. Does he get it right? I.e.: Do the Hebrew letters truly spell out the word “Pantaurès”?

2. What are the names of the letters he uses (listed from right to left, natch)?

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**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-some-odd-hebrew-spelling/707412/2 "2014-12-16T19:38:19Z")

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> [@Steken](#):
>
> In [this](http://i.imgur.com/HiqRV9W.png) little snippet from a 1899 letter, an aspiring occultist/magician dude suggests a name for a new lodge: “Pantaurès.” As you can see, he writes it out twice – first in French, and then in Hebrew.
> 
> Two questions about his Hebrew spelling:
> 
> 1. Does he get it right? I.e.: Do the Hebrew letters truly spell out the word “Pantaurès”?
> 
> 2. What are the names of the letters he uses (listed from right to left, natch)?

1. Yes, with a few "but"s:

a) As is typical in Hebrew (and Yiddish), those letters correspond to only the consonants in “Pantaurès” - you have to interpolate the vowels yourself.\* The first letter can be pronounced “p” or “f,” and the last letter “s” or “sh.” Resolving all these ambiguities would require writing out the word with the seldom-used [niqqud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niqqud).

\*Technically, the second letter isn’t even a consonant. It’s an [aleph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleph), which has (AFAIK) no sound of its own, so he could have left it out without changing the pronunciation.

b) The third letter appears to be a [heth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heth) (pronounced “[fishbone caught in throat”]) rather than a [taw](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taw) (pronounced “t”). He may well have meant to write a taw and left out the “tail” due to error or pen failure. (Note that the fifth letter, [resh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resh), is missing its lower half.)

1. From right to left:

pe - aleph - nun - taw (probably) - resh - sin.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-with-some-odd-hebrew-spelling/707412/3 "2014-12-17T15:38:24Z")

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Brilliant explanation, **Flywheel** , thank you so much!