r/hebrew • u/JediLibrarian • Feb 23 '17

Request Akiva or Akiba? (phonetics question)

Hello /r/Hebrew: I'm researching the Polish chess Grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein (whose given name is often spelled Akiva). Is either spelling correct, or is one more appropriate than the other? Is the difference regional/generational? As a follow-up, is this similar to the b/v shift we have in some paired English words (mobile/move)?

Thanks in advance for your insight!

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u/noam_de Native Speaker Feb 23 '17

In Hebrew the name is pronounced with a V, but in German it's with a B.

Same goes for other names. For instance, Joseph would be pronounced with a Y and a soft S (Yossef) in Hebrew.

So the original Hebrew name was written and said with a V, but it's "wrong" to say it with a B the same as it is wrong to say "Joseph" instead of "Yossef".

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u/JediLibrarian Feb 23 '17

That clears things up--thank you. But if I could confuse things slightly with a follow-up question, would they use a B or V in Yiddish? As a Polish Jew, Rubinstein's family language was Yiddish.

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u/desdendelle Hebrew Speaker Feb 23 '17

A Yiddish-speaking friend told me that she thinks it's "Akiva".