| Kosher
Yiddish Website |
| Click here for the Homepage. |
| Vowels (See below for Consonants) | ||
| Vowel |
Examples of Use |
Notes |
| ' | "Shewa" sound, as in Sh'ma, Bo-r'khu, Yis-m'khu | The "shewa" sound is often
transliterated using the letter "e" instead
of the apostrophe ('). Thus, the examples are often spelled Shema,
Bo-re-khu (Bo-re-chu), Yis-me-chu. |
| a | Basra, daven, Chanukah |
(sounds like u in bus, fuss) |
| ai | Taipei, aisle | Yos'l recommends ai over the YIVO's choice of ay. |
| ay | "Aye Aye, sir" | (same as ai) YIVO recommends ay rather than ai. |
| e | Bet, hen, bench | |
| ei | Weigh,
Taipei, freight, chow-mein, heinous |
(same as ey) |
| ey | They, hey | (same as ei) Yos'l and YIVO both recommend ey rather than ei. |
| er | Error, ersatz, Passover seder | |
| i | Machine, pita, pizza | (same as y) |
| o | Port, fort, Yosl, potz | |
| oi | Oil, troika |
Yos'l recommends oi over the YIVO's choice of oy. |
| oy | Toy |
(same as oi) YIVO recommends oy rather than oi. |
| oh | Ohm's Law | Not recommended by YIVO. |
| oo | Book |
Not recommended by YIVO. |
| u | Tune, duty |
|
| y | Duty, family, sticky | (same as i) |
| Consonants (See above for Vowels) | |
| Transliteration System in Common
Use (Universally Accepted & Recommended) |
YIVO's Transliteration System (NOT Universally Accepted & Thus NOT Recommended) |
| ch as in Channukah, Mincha, Machzor, Rosh Chodesh (used instead of YIVO's kh, at right) | kh as in Mikha'il Gorbatchev, khoydesh Elul -- See Comparison, below. |
| tch
as in "Mikha'il
Gorbatchev," batch, witch, glitch, af tchikaves, tchiribin (used instead of YIVO's tsh, at right) |
tsh same as tch - like ch as in cheese; like tch in batch, witch, glitch, af tchikaves, tchiribin |
| dzh as in the song "Hey Dzhankoya," like j as in judge | |
| zh as in zhurnal (Yiddish for journal), like s as in measure | |
| tz as in tzar, ritzy, blitz, ersatz, tzaddik, kurtz, tzu, mitzvah, Katz (used instead of YIVO's ts, at right) | ts as in tsar, tsadik, tsores, kurts, tsu, shtitse, mitsve -- See Comparison below. |
| Other consonants -- as in English | |
| Comparison of the Transliteration System in Common Use with YIVO's System |
ch, the gutteral German sound (as in "Bach" or the "loch ness monster") and not "kh" has traditionally been used by cantors for writing Cantorial/Liturgical Music, and by the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews in general for transliterating Jewish terms, such as Halacha, Channukah, Shacharit, Mincha, Machzor, etc. These words are almost ALWAYS spelled using ch, not kh. (See website 3 below.) This spelling is also used in all ArtScroll and Israeli publications. kh is recommended by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (Yiddisher Visnshaftlikher Institut). See the YIVO Transliteration Chart. Consequently, modern Yiddishist organizations such as the YIVO itelf, the Congress for Jewish Culture (Der Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-Kongres / CYCO), the Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring), Yugntruf, and others use kh exclusively in their transliterated emails and publications. And the YIVO is not alone in advocating the kh spelling. Many modern linguists also recommend it. The NY Public Library and the Mass Media use it - especially for the spelling of Non-Jewish names such as Mikha'il (Gorbatchev) and (Nikita) Khrushtchev or Khrushchev. The same applies to TZ versus TS. The YIVO recommends TS, but everyone else in the Jewish world uses TZ. What do I do personally? If I'm sending an email to one of the above-mentioned Yiddishist organizations (such as Yugntruf), I use kh. For other correspondence (to NON-Yiddishists), I use ch. Why argue? Life is too short ... If I am performing a GOOGLE search for a transliterated Hebrew or Yiddish expression, then I take the following into consideration: A Google search for the exact phrase "mayim chaim" OR "mayim chayim" got me 604 "hits." A Google search for the exact phrase "mayim khaim" OR "mayim khayim" got me a mere 20 "hits." Try it yourself. It has been my personal experience that I get vastly more hits when using the ch spelling than kh. Of course, if you have the patience and the need, try searching using both spellings. |