Re: Yiddish spelling

On Fri, 7 Jan 2000 14:12:26 +0100 BP Jonsson <bpj@...> writes:
> What is the normal spelling of Yiddish /e/ anyway?  If i understand
> my
> source correctly -- which is far from certain -- it should be Ayen,
> but
> then it transcribes Tsvey Yudn as E with a grave accent, rather than
> as EY,
> which suggests that it too should be pronounced /e/ in some
> contexts, or is
> the idea that some dialects realize /ey/ as [E:]?  BTW it beats me
> why /ay/
> is written asPaseh Tsvey Yudn, and not as Alef Yud, since even tho
> some
> dialects do merge /ay/ and /ey/ the standardizers did obviously
> prefer
> keeping them distinct -- they seem to have introduced a good deal of
> innovations anyway.  Similarly if /o/ were written as Alef Yud one
> could
> dispense with diacritics altogether (or almost; the dagesh sign
> would still be necessary.)
.

Yiddish /e/ is written with an Ayin.  Double-Yud is /ej/, and
Double-Yud-Patahh is /aj/.  However, in some dialects /e/ is pronounced
[ej], and /ej/ is merged with [aj].  /aj/ is written that way because
Yiddish orthography is just an adaptation of Hebrew orthography (as John
mentioned, the only innovation is using a pure consonant /3/ as /e/) -
you can write it just as well *without* the vowelletters, and using
diacritics, because all the vowel letters are are over-used "mothers of
reading".  /aj/ in hebrew is represented /a/, Patahh, with a following
consonant /j/, Yud.  Doubling the Yud in Hebrew and Aramaic tells the
reader in diacriticless texts that it is *consonantal* /j/, and not a
marker of /i/.  The same thing for /ej/ - in diacritic-marked Yiddish
it's preceded by a Tzeireh.
Dagesh?  I've never seen that as necessary in Yiddish - the Rafeh mark,
however, which marks the opposite of a dagesh, is what i've always seen
used more often.  But then again, i've seen a lot of Yiddish texts with
only pure Hebrew letters without any diacritics whatsoever.

> Finally one wonders why/if nobody has hit on the idea to vocalize
> modern
> hebrew Yiddish-style...
.

Because it's already the same system - Yiddish is vocalized (except for
/e/) Hebrew-style.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "survival is insufficient."


>  B.Philip Jonsson  <mailto: bpj@...> <mailto:
> melroch@my-deja.com>
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