Yiddish orthography

Yiddish is a language that is written using the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, each of which represents a specific sound. However, when Yiddish is written using the Hebrew alphabet, things get a bit tricky.

That's because Yiddish contains sounds that are not found in Hebrew. To represent these sounds, Yiddish uses special markers, like dots and lines, that are added to certain letters in the Hebrew alphabet. These markers tell the reader to pronounce the letter differently than they would in Hebrew.

For example, the letter aleph in Hebrew represents a silent sound, like the "a" in "about". In Yiddish, if the aleph is marked with a dot, it is pronounced like the "e" in "bet". And if it's marked with a line, it's pronounced like the "o" in "pot". This might seem confusing, but it's helpful for Yiddish speakers to easily understand and read the language.

There are also some letters in Yiddish that don't exist in Hebrew at all. These letters were created specifically for Yiddish, and they have unique sounds that are not found in any other language. One example is the letter "tsvey" which represents the "ts" sound, like the "ts" in "cats".

Overall, Yiddish orthography is all about using the Hebrew alphabet to represent the unique sounds and characteristics of the Yiddish language. It might be a bit complicated, but it helps Yiddish speakers to communicate and understand each other easily.