From: John Cowan (cowan@mercury.ccil.org)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 08:45:25 EDT
Peter_Constable@sil.org scripsit:
> Can anybody fill me in on the use of 05BC dagesh, 05BF rafe, or shin/sin
> dots 05C1, 05C2 in modern languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, etc.)
Yiddish has changed the Hebrew abjad into an alphabet, and when diacritics
are used, they are used invariably[*]. The alphabetic letters can be
divided into two classes: those used everywhere, and those used only in
words of Hebrew origin.
In the former class, non-final /f/ is written with pe-with-rafe; final
and non-final /p/ may be written with pe-with-dagesh, although plain pe
is the more usual form. (Final pe is always /f/.) As for the vowels,
/a/ is written with alef-with-patah (pronounced "pasekh" in Yiddish); /o/
is written with alef-with-qamats, and /ai/ is written with yod-yod-patah.
(Plain alef is silent, and normally reflects a schwa no longer pronounced,
as in the article cognate to German "die", which is normatively spelled
dalet-yod-alef.)
In words of Hebrew origin, Hebrew consonants continue to be used that
otherwise are not used in Yiddish. These include: beth-with-rafe for
/v/ (normally written vav-vav), kaf-with-dagesh for /k/ (normally
written qof), shin-with-sin-dot for /s/ (normally written samekh),
and tav-with-dagesh for /t/ (normally written tet). Shin dot is not used.
[*} Since yod means /i/ or /j/, yod-yod means /ei/, vav means /u/,
vav-vav means /v/, and yod-vav means /oi/, ambiguities can occur when
these letters are adjacent. These can be resolved by using yod-with-hiriq
and vav-with-holam, which are unambiguously /i/ and /u/ respectively.
These combinations are not AFAIK normally considered part of the Yiddish
alphabet, however.
-- There are three kinds of people in the world: John Cowan those who can count, http://www.reutershealth.com and those who can't. jcowan@reutershealth.com
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