Re: Second invention of the alphabet?

Peter T. Daniels scripsit:

> The Hebrew and Aramaic components of the Yiddish lexicon take over the
> historical spelling (though not the pronunciation) of the words, but the
> majority of the vocabulary is spelled quite phonemically. Every vowel is
> written, unlike with scriptio plena of Semitic languages.

Granted. But the actual structure of the orthography is not much like
German at all. If it were, we'd see things like samech + khaf instead of
shin. Even alef ornans reflects a vowel no longer pronounced.

> Yiddish doesn't have consonant letters and vowel points; it has lots of
> letters, some of which look a lot like consonants with vowel points
> under them, but that's not what they are or how they're counted.

I should rather say that the Yiddish letters a and o are vowels with
vowel points under them.

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John Cowan jcowan@... www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com
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