The Worlds Writing Systems

8 Pages·1996·0.39 MB·English

by  Aronson, Howard

Yiddish
Howard Aronson
I.
YiddishisfirstattestedinglossestoHebrewmanuscriptsdatingfromthetwelfthcen-
tury.ThefirstprintedworkinYiddishisdated 1534.LikeallJewishlanguages,mod-
emYiddishusesthesquareHebrewscript.Yiddishhasneverhadtheofficialstatusof
beingalanguageofstate(theso-called"JewishAutonomousOblast'"inSovietBiro-
bidzhancanhardlybeviewedas anexception). Consequentlytherehasneverbeena
generallyacceptedcentralauthoritythatcouldlegislateanormativeorthographicsys-
tem; this has resulted in wide variation. All the orthographic systems are, however,
basically alphabetic and can be viewed as either historically based or, preferably,
interdialectal. (Thereis alsono singlenormativeorthoepy; native speakers generally
speakinoneofthethreemajordialectsofthelanguage.)Variationinthe systems of
orthographyis showninfigure 67.
These variations are largely correlated with different religious and political
groups,withphonemicspellingofHebrewandAramaicwordsbeingtypicalofSoviet
Yiddish as well as ofnon-SovietYiddish in theusage ofradical left-wing organiza-
tions. Pseudo-etymological spelling is today found in some ultra-OrthodoxYiddish
usage. Theoverwhelmingmajority ofYiddishpublications today combine thetradi-
tional spelling ofHebrew andAramaic words with the interdialectal morphophone-
mic spelling;thesewecallstandardsystems.
Standard orthographies
Theoverwhelmingmajority ofmodemYiddishpublications combinethetraditional
spellingofmostHebrewandAramaicwordswiththeinterdialectalmorphophonemic
spellingofwordsofnon-Semiticorigin.Therearemanysub-varieties ofthis orthog-
raphy. Perhaps the most widely used in literary works today is the so-called YIVO
orthography proclaimed by the OlD^'OOrK 1i;Di7^t:&KU?3Dm lyiZ^n^** (KIT^) Yidisher
visnshaftlekherinstitut(YIVO) 'YiddishScientificInstitute' andthei?!!?''!:'''2;VK1t?3i;:i?
Phonemicspellingof Traditionalspellingof
Hebrew/Aramaicwords Hebrew/Aramaicwords
Interdialectalmorphophonemicspelling Pseudo-etymologicalspelling
Redundantpointing Noredundantpointing
FIGURE 67. Yiddishorthographicsystems(mostcommoncomponentsofstandardsystemsinbold).
)
TABLE 61.4: TheYiddishAlphabet
Letter^ Name Value^ YWa"Other Note^
X (shtumer)alef - -(') silent;occursinitiallybefore/,u,ey,ay,oy
X pasekhalef [a] a
X kometsalef [o] o
D beys [b] b
3 veys [v] v(b) 3 onlyinSemiticwords;neverword-initial
^ giml [g] g
1 daled [d] d
n hey [h] h
1 vov [u] u(w)
T melupmvov [u] u *;occursafter1*1v;occursbefore''y
n tsveyvovn [v] v
^^ vov-yud [oj] oy
T zayen [z] z
W
zayen-shin [3] zh
n khes [x] kh(h) onlyinSemiticwords
D tes [t] t(t)
^Vi tes-shin [tf] tsh
*» yud [j] y beforeoraftervowel
[HI] i betweenconsonants
y aftert,d,s,z,I,nandbeforeavowelindicates
thepalatalsinwordsofSlavicorigin
^ khirikyud [i] i *;occursafterinitial''y;occursaftervowels
'''' tsveyyudn [ej] ey
''_'' pasekhtsveyyudn [aj] ay
D kof [k] k !) onlyinSemiticwords
D, T khof,langekhof [x] kh(k)
V lamed [i, 1, X] 1
ZD,D mem,shlosmem [m] m
3, ] nun,langenun [n] n
D samekh [s] s
i7 ayin [e] e(^ unstressed=[e] or[i],dependingondialect
5 pey [p] p
5,f] fey,langefey [f] f(p)
2^, f tsadek,langetsadek [ts] ts(s)
P kuf [k] k(q)
1 reysh [r] r
V) shin [J] sh(s)
\27 sin [s] s(s) ^ onlyinSemiticwords
T\ tof [t] t n onlyinSemiticwords
n sof [s] s(t) onlyinSemiticwords;neverword-initial
a. Aletterafteracommaisthefinalform.
b. ThevaluesgivendonotnecessarilyapplytowordsofSemiticorigin,whichfollowadistinctsetofrules.
c. YIVOtransliteration;theHebrewtransliterationoftheletterisshowninparentheses.
d. Anasteriskindicatesthattheletter/digraphisnottreatedbyYIVOasaseparateitemforalphabetization.
i;'':^KnKnK~VlU; (XU?''l?) Tsentraleyidisheshul-organizatsye (TsIShO) 'CentralYid-
dish School Organization' in Poland on September i, 1936, and first pubHshed in
1937inVilnounderthetitleTakonesfunyidishnoysleyg 'RulesofYiddishorthogra-
phy'. Inwhatfollows,theYIVO systemisdescribedalongwiththemajordeviations
fromitinthemorecommonlyusedstandardsystems,table 61.4givesthetradition-
alorderoftheYiddishalphabet.
Variant orthographies
MostwordsofSemiticorigin(HebrewandAramaic)arespelledinthetraditionalway
inmostYiddishorthographies,e.g.,riDK X^C'emes] 'truth',^Vnm/^['m8jl8x] 'king',
VdH-^D sk-hkl [s(e)'xakl] 'total'. However, SovietYiddishauthors andmanypro-So-
viet radical organizations spelled such words according to the phonemic principle:
Di7DV, Di7V''''»or"|yV"'"'D,VpXDKD (theHebrew systemmayhaverepresentedforthem
"obsolete" religion; cf. Hary 1990: 79, 1992: 112-13 onorthographic manifestation
ofcompetingpolitical,religious,orculturalpreference).Asaconsequence,theletters
thatoccuronlyinwordsofSemiticorigin(5 ^,n/z,Sk, Ws,T\t,T\ t)werenotfound
there. InearlierSovietYiddish, the finalletters1| kh, D m,| /i,f]/, f ^^werereplaced
by the non-final letters: D, D, 3, S, 2?. In 1961 the final letters werereintroduced into
mostSovietYiddish(withthemainexceptionofpublicationsfromBirobidzhan).
Yiddishorthographyinthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies showed
a tendency to reproduce as literally as possible German orthography. We shall call
such spelling pseudo-etymological (table 61.5). In the same period certain texts
contained, in additiontotheregularvowel letters ofYiddish (K a, K o, 1 w, *> /, i7 e; ^^
ey,^_^ay,''Toy),theHebrewvowelpointsbelowtheconsonant: inwhatfollows, (a)is
atextwithredundantvowelpointingand(b)isthecorrespondingYIVOorthography
(wordsinitalics arefromHebrew).
]r^y\)X2ii;T^y\•'ITkfn•'nix'i^ijdkj^'ixpntjnki^khoiln (a)
DivoshobnabitokhnoyfGotveinzeyzaynazoyviderbargTsien.
'TheythathaveconfidenceinGod,theywillbejustlike(the)MountSinai.'
Suchorthographywasfoundinsecularworksinthenineteenthcentury;today,when
found,ittendstobeinworkspublishedbyultra-Orthodoxgroups.
TABLE 61.5: Pseudo-etymologicalvs. MorphophonemicSpelling
German
^8 PARTX: USEANDADAPTATION OF SCRIPTS
TABLE 61.6: DialectVariationinVowelRealization
Letter
TABLE 61.7: DifferencesbetweenYIVOandOtherOrthographies
SampleofYiddish
The transliteration here deviates from theYIVO system in two respects: words of
SemiticoriginaretransHteratedaccordingtoHebrewtransHteration(itahcized),with
theYIVOtransHterationinline 2; andtheshtumeralefis indicatedby ahyphen. (In
theright-to-lefttransliterations,theequivalentsthataredigraphsareunderlinedmere-
lyforclarity.)
klofrop sod khiz toh nthmhn tim ntmsrg nuf hnth red khon<—
ngeleg hmhn zi- tyats rekitkhir red uts .ndyeshab nu- litsh tbeleg
nu7?D DID |i7;Dipi7nK& v^ nnn ii;i pK y'rs^Jir j? DKn3;3i ,pXTOJi
/z^m tdk nemukegrof zi- tyrb red nu- elegniy a taheg ,nroveg
red nuf nsiregsyora khiz toh ebil etshtnebeg litsh id .Prsyw
dyerf red ni- treknaeg toh nu- tyektmyotseg rekid|"j/i^-murf
—
a mi- yez nboh yoza elednem elegniy nkidm^^lw^Z? reyez nuf
p2?xp pD ro ,Dm2? i7T'''n p5 pi?DVi7 n .pi^Jii?:^ |vdk3
kstok nuf yas ,mydds edyeb nuf nretle id nbegeg nemon
.nm ''n ]i& DKHVJi ]nKn ,Di?Vi;D ps t'o pK
.//in yez nuf taheg nboh ,melekh nuf yas nu-
/. Transliteration: nokh der htnh fun grsmcn mit nhmhtn
2. Normalization: nokh der khasene fun Gershemen mit Nekhomen
3. Transcription: noy der 'xasene fuq ger'Jemen mit ns'xomen
4. Gloss: after the marriage of Gershom.DATwith Nekhame.DAT
1. hotzikh dos porfolk gelebt shtil -un basheydn. tsu der
2. hotzikh dos porfolk gelebt shtil un basheydn. tsu der
5. 'hotsEx dos por'folk ge'lept Jtil- un ba'Jejdn tsu der
4. hasREFL the married.couple lived quiet and modest to the
1. rikhtiker tsayt -iz nhmh gelegngevom, gehat a yingele -un der
2. rikhtiker tsayt iz Nekhome gelegngevom, gehat a yingele un der
3. 'rixtiker 'tsajt iz ne'xome ge'legr) ge'vorn ge'hat a 'jiqgele un der
4. correct time is Nekhame gave.birth had a boy and the
——
7. bryt -iz forgekumen M/ m^/z wysr^l
2. bris iz forgekumen kedas Moysheve-Yisroel
3. 'bris IS 'forge'kumen ke-'das 'mojje ve-jis'roel
4. ritual.circumcision is occurred according.to-law.of Moses and-Israel
1. di shtil gebentshte libe hotzikh aroysgensn fun der frum-
2. di shtil gebentshte libe hotzikh aroysgerisn fun der frum-
3. di 'Jtil- ge'bentfte 'libe 'hotsex a'rojzge'risn fun der 'frum-
4. the quietly blessed love hasrefl wrested from the pious-
/. snyHdikcT getsoymtkeyt-un hot geankert -in der freyd fun
2. tsniesdiker getsoymtkeytun hot geankert in der freyd fun
S. 'tsniesdiker ge'tsojmtkejt un (h)3t ge'arjkert in der 'frejt fun
4. virtuous.DAT restraint and has anchored in the joy from
1. zeyer bswtpwtdikn yingele mendele azoy hobn zey -im a
2. zeyer beshutfesdikn yingele mendele azoy hobn zey im a
J. 'zejer be'Jutfesdikr) 'jiggele 'mendele a'zDJ 'hobm 'zej im a
4. their joint boy Mendele so they.have they him a
1. nomen gegebn. di eltem fun beyde sddym, say fun kotsk
2. nomen gegebn. di eltem fun beyde tsdodim, say fun kotsk
3. 'nomen ge'gebm di 'elter-n fum 'bejde 'tsdodim 'saj fur) 'kotsk
4. name given the parent-sfrom both side-s both from Kotsk
1. -un say fun khelem, hobn gehat fun zey nht,
2. un say fun khelem, hobn gehat fun zey nakhes.
3. un 'saj fun 'xeiem 'hobm ge'hat fun 'zej 'naxes
4. and both from Khelem have had from they pleasure
'AfterthemarriageofGershomandNekhome,themarriedcouplelivedquietly
andmodestly.AtthepropertimeNekhamegavebirth,hadaboy,andtheritual
circumcisionoccurredaccordingtothelawofMosesandIsrael.Aquietly
blessedlovearosefromtheirpiousandvirtuousrestraintandbecameanchored
—
inthejoyoftheircommonboyMendele sotheyhadnamedhim.Theirpar-
entsonbothsides,bothfromKotskandfromKhelem(twoPolishtowns),had
pleasurefromthem.' —Erlikh 1977:49.
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WRITING SYST'EMS ^^^^^^^^^^ "=^p=^"
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