re: kul(l)onu

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

The proper transcription of Hebrew in Roman script is indeed quite
difficult. Before you know, a transcription ends up looking like some
sort of Russian.

I've always had mixed feelings regarding such scientific transcription
methods. People who know the language being transcribed don't need a
precise transcription--- they will be able to make up what was meant
anyway. But people who don't know the language won't be able to make any
sense of such a detailed transcription.

> and I don't see a reason to double the 'l' in "kulonu,"

Well, the lamed of kullonu has a dagesh (a small point) in it.
This sign indicated that the letter in question,
really is an abbreviation of a double letter...

The Hebrew script tries to be as efficient as possible.
Therefore not only the vowels get dropped,
double letters are frequently discarded as well in writing.

Regards,
Irwin Oppenheim

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