9/24/07

Thirteen days late
and a few shekels too short.

Why - you might wonder - do American Jews, of mostly Ashkenazi ancestry but converted in recent decades to "Sefardic"* pronunciation, mostly say "Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur" rather than "-shanah" and "Kippur" (or "shanah" and "Kiper")**?

I wondered that too. But I have no idea. Any takers?

*Ashkesfardic.
**I know I'm supposed to use IPA. So [su] me.
***Where is Naomi Chana, anyway? I miss her and her footnotes.
Posted by שלום בערגער Zackary Berger at 11:55 PM
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2 comments:

  1. Michael Koplow12:19 PM

    Thirteen days late is no big deal; I'm commenting over ten months late.

    I think they (in point of fact I should say "we") do say "Rosh Hashanah" and "Yom Kippur." I think where we get the accents wrong is in those pesky hif'ils that are in the well-known brachot--hamotzi and lehadlik. I think the reason in the case of "lehadlik" is that it sounds like a Yiddish adj with that -ik at the end--"Nu, 'siz a lehadlike mayseh."

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  2. שלום בערגער Zackary Berger2:53 PM

    I'll take a comment whenever and wherever! Thanks.

    ...but I respectfully disagree. From experience (not unbiased data collection) I think many and perhaps most do still say HaSHANe and KIPPer. The comment on "lehadlik" is funny but implausible, I doubt people are analyzing the word as Yiddish in their heads.

    And, most importantly, "Ashkenazic" (mostly penultimate) accenting of Hebrew is not wrong. No sirree...

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