Timothy Partridge wrote:
> The only exception I
> can find is the rare Yiddish with redundant pointing. Here most alefs
> represent a vowel and have a point on them, so no risk of jumping. Alef
> without a point (shtumer alef) only seems to occur at the start of a word,
IIRC there are two other kinds of unpointed alefs in Yiddish writing:
"ornans", which appears at the ends of words and represents a
schwa no longer pronounced (as in dales-yod-alef, "di"), now dropped
in Standard Yiddish writing but present in older manuscripts; and
"dividens", which is used to separate consecutive yods or vavs
to make it clear that they are not diphthongs.
-- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)
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