Re: Yahrzeit

[Sylvie Braitman <curlySylvie...>]

I wonder what would be the most efficient transcription system.
So far Yivo has done the best. But there  are a few issues.
The Yivo transcription system is anglophone.
For a French (like me for example!) it doesn't make sense. You have to first 
speak English to understand it. In that sense, a Germanophone system makes more 
sense, if one  speaks German. But also because it is congruent to Yiddish 
(rootwise) 
Also, I've always wondered why Yivo did not use the wonderful IPA 
(International Phonetic Alphabet). It's something we used in France to learn 
English, and also all over the world as a tool for classical singers. 
Anyway, the best way to read Yiddish is in it's original spelling, with Hebrew 
letters. Right?
Sylvie (back from La Paz)
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Spudicmikhl (at) aol(dot)com 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 6:35 AM
  Subject: Re: Yahrzeit


  A quick opinion on this issue, would be to refer back to the original email 
that questioned the spelling of "Yahrzeit" in light of the YIVO standard of 
transcribing Yiddish into English.  From what I understand, Bob Rothstein was 
asking that the YIVO standard be adherred to, especially when presently 
transcribing this term.   I don't think Bob meant any slight to Irwin Oppenheim 
in asking for this, and all the Yiddishists on this list know the story all too 
well, that what is at stake is whether to continue recycling "daytshmerish 
Yidish" into the future, or to try to emphasize a standardized way to 
transcribe the language so that there is consistency all over the world. 
         I don't know if this is tune with "globalization" or even whether it 
is "anti-global;"  perhaps like anything much is gained and lost in such a 
process.  I personally love the serendipity of people's transliterations from 
the way they hear the Yiddish language, but on the practical side, if there is 
not a basic, standard way to transliterate  a term such as "Yortsayt," when you 
consider the internet as repository of information, imagine the confusion when 
searching a topic and you have to go through several hurdles in imagining how a 
word was transcribed from the Yiddish.    The issue here does not seem to be so 
much the inveighing against Germanic transcriptions for Yiddish expressions, 
terms, songtitles (why this should continue to this day in America, beats me, 
even in places like the English Forward), but moreso to further strengthen and 
project what is inherently YIDDISH about the language, also as Bob mentioned, 
to stop promulgating a macaronic quality in spelling out words that often add 
charm but at the expense of precision.  The precision is helpful when all agree 
to a common system of rules in transcription and this of course does not apply 
to verbal expression, only to writing i.e. transcribing Yiddish.   
  Michael Spudic