The problem with transliterating foreign words and names into English is that there's no specific and definitive way to spell or say any of them. For example, in the past six hours, I've read or heard at least 5 different ways to say or spell what I'd always thought to be called "General Tso's Chicken." (Furthermore, who is this general and why did they name this dish after him? Why chicken? I could think that it's a chicken dish because he was a chicken and ran away, but it's damn good and somewhat spicy chicken, so maybe it's because he was a good general. But that's another debate for another entry, I suppose.) There's about fifteen different ways to spell "Mohammed" and "Koran." No one knows for sure where the h's and the ch's in "Chanukah" go or how many k's to put in it. The problem even extends to our own language. For example, both "focused" and "focussed" are correct, according to the Oxford English dictionary.

It's enough to make a copyeditor's head spin.