Ah, Those -ah words in English!

Ah, Those -ah words in English! Ah, Those -ah words in English! Ah, Those -ah words in English! By Maeve Maddox AJ Tapper wrote: Ive seen on a couple different books and websites two different spellings of the word, savannah. Is it savanna or savannah? The OED gives savannah as the only spelling. Merriam-Webster gives savanna as the first spelling and savannah as a variant. This question about savannah caused me to wonder about other -ah words in English. Here are the results of my inquiry. The OED prefers veranda to verandah. H. W. Fowler curtly concurs: OED gives the -da form first, there is no reason for the -h; In my opinion verandah looks more exotic than veranda. If I were writing a novel set in India or even England of a hundred years ago, I think Id go for the h. The OED and Merriam-Webster agree on the -ah ending for: mitzvah wallah howdah hallelujah menorah messiah selah torah chutzpah pariah ayatollah shah loofah Although Im pretty sure Ive seen the spelling hosannah, both the OED and Merriam-Webster give only hosanna. Depending upon which dictionary you prefer, the following words may be spelled either way: yeshivah/yeshiva megillah/megilla mezuzah/mezuza cheetah/cheeta hookah/hooka maharajah/maharaja pujah/puja rajah/raja mullah/mulla casbah/kasbah kabbalah/cabala/cabbala halvah/halva huzzah/huzza moolah/moola I havent taken the time to define all these words. If you dont already know what they mean, youre not likely to need to know how to spell them. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Direct and Indirect Objects50 Idioms About Meat and Dairy Productsâ€Å"Least,† â€Å"Less,† â€Å"More,† and â€Å"Most†