Re: OT: Slightly OT: dreidel question

On 12/27/05, Markus Miekk-oja <m13kk0@...> wrote:
>
> There is no such thing as "Yiddish letters" as distinct from Hebrew
> letters,
> except perhaps really minor typographic differences.

Yes,  I know.  I apologize for the imprecision; what I meant was  Hebrew
letters which represent Yiddish (not Hebrew) words.

On 12/27/05, Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> wrote:

> From what i've read it seems that the 'practical' meaning of the
> letters predates the 'religious' meaning of them, and that they were
> copied from similar German d4-based games which used similar words.
> It's unclear when exactly Yiddish developed into a recognizably
> separate language, but there's a long history of Jews writing their
> vernacular in Hebrew letters.  So even in Yiddish as such hadn't yet
> developed, there was still a kind of Judeo-German being written on the
> dreidls.

Ah, that makes sense.  Thanks!


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>