romanization of hebrew script 419 why the Jews, who were one component of the of Romanian developed among region’ ethnic mosaic, did not identify with of Romanian origin, a variety which mani- this language. Moreover, in the sovereign state fests considerable Hebrew relexification. This of Jews were granted citizenship only type of ‘Israelized’ Romanian can be found in in 1923, an indication of their marginal status the columns of Via–a noastr, a Romanian- in the Romanian nation-state. The traditional language Israeli newspaper. In this and other languages of Romanian Jews were and Israeli media in the (for Judeo-Spanish. In and in instance, the Broadcast Authority’s news the Jews underwent a process of Magyariza- bulletin in Romanian), whatever is connected tion, as a result of their identification with the to Israel or to Jewish concepts is borrowed Hungarian ruling class in the framework of the directly from Hebrew. Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In 2004, the Israeli dairy company Tnuva There were thus two possible ways for Hebrew (from the Hebrew word tënùå< ‘pro- words to enter Romanian: via the language of duce, yield’) opened a branch in Romania. the Bible and by mediation of the Jewish lan- Subsequently, the word tnuva has become a guages in contact with Romanian (Yiddish and generic term for dairy products in Romanian. Judeo-Spanish). Most remain unaware of the word’s The Bible was translated into Romanian Hebrew/Israeli origin. from the Church Slavonic Bible, itself a trans- As for the influence of Romanian on Modern lation from the Greek Septuagint, and from Hebrew, it is worth noting that the name of the Vulgate Bible (under the influence of the well-known dance the ( hora) Hungarian Calvinists or Austrian Catholics). comes from Romanian hor, itself an avatar Because the translations were not made from of Greek xoros ‘dance’. The interjection the Hebrew original, there are far fewer Hebra- hayde ‘let’s go’, though its source is ulti- isms in the registers of the Romanian language mately Turkish, may have entered Hebrew via that are influenced by the Bible than in English, Romanian, although Judeo-Spanish cannot be for instance, where the highly influential King ruled out as the intermediary. James Version has exposed the speakers of the language to some elements of Hebrew. Cyril Aslanov (The Hebrew University of ) Nevertheless, a number of learned Kultur- wörter have penetrated the scientific/academic registers of Romanian, for instance sabat ‘sab- bath’ (< šabbå< ). However, the common Romanization of Hebrew Script word used both in the Bible translation and in daily life is sâmbta, ‘Saturday’, which entered Romanization describes a specific form of writ- Romanian through the mediation of Church ing reform whereby a Roman-based alphabet Slavonic. Likewise, the term Tora (< is provided for a speech community, which has tòrå< ) is nowadays part of learned Romanian, traditionally employed either a non-alphabetic although the corresponding term in the vari- script or a non-Roman alphabet. The Hebrew ous translations of the Bible into Romanian is alphabet, or the so-called square script, is a leage ‘law’, a calque-translation of Greek non-Roman alphabet and has been the tradi- nomos ‘law’ through the mediation of Church tional for Jewish communities Slavonic ÁaÍÓÌ zakon ‘law’. since the 6th century ... Romanization of As for Hebrew words mediated by Jewish the Hebrew script entails replacing the char- languages, Yiddish words of Hebrew origin acters of the square alphabet with Roman were occasionally introduced into Romanian, characters and inventing new characters where for example –adic ‘Hasidic leader’, from Yid- necessary to meet the requirements of the pho- dish tsadik (< Hebrew ßaddìq ‘righteous, nemic repertoire of the . pious’). Romanization of the Hebrew script was first In the 1970s, after the mass emigration of proposed by Isaak Rosenberg in 1898 (Raizen Romanian Jews to Israel between 1948 and 1987:16–19), but the idea became popular 1960 (approximately 200,000 people, almost through the efforts of Itamar Ben-Avi, half of the local Jewry at the time), a special of the celebrated Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (Aytürk 420 root: medieval karaite notions 2007:628–637). He published Avi in 1927, tarian regimes that could silence opposition by a short biography of his father in romanized fiat. However, neither the semi-autonomous Hebrew, as the first step in that direction. quasi-state of the Yishuv, nor the democratic, Next came a romanized Hebrew supplement participatory political system of the State of to The Palestine Weekly, ha Shavua ha Pales- Israel created an environment conducive for the tini, which appeared from December 1928 to successful implementation of a political plan to May 1929 in twenty issues altogether and sold romanize the Hebrew script. approximately 300 copies in the Yishuv and the Sample of romanized Hebrew: Diaspora. The most vocal supporter of Ben-Avi in those projects was none other than . . Awiron Nafal be Ramallah: Ha awiron ha Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Zion- tzevai ‘Victoria’ asher boh tàsu 18 (shem- ists. Finally, Ben-Avi took the most daring step ona asar) hhayalim, nafal be Ramallah. Kul- with the publication of a Hebrew weekly jour- lam nitzelu, be dérekh nes, mi màwet, akh 6 nal in the Roman alphabet, Deror, appearing (shisha) me-hem niftzeu kàshé. Deror, No. 1 from November 1933 to March 1934 in sixteen (17 November 1933), . 3. issues. The journal sold several thousand copies ‘’ : in its first few issues, but sales later declined to . , ( ) 18 about 1000 copies. Discouraged by the failure () 6 , , , of those attempts, Ben-Avi did not pursue the . idea any longer, with the exception of publish- ‘Plane Crashes (lit. ‘has fallen’) in Ramallah: ing a collection of romanized Tanakh verses in The military plane Victoria, carrying (lit. ‘in 1938, entitled Yeshâyaùt. Ben-Avi’s attempts which flew) 18 (eighteen) soldiers, crashed in were not received warmly at all in the Yishuv, Ramallah. Miraculously, all (on board) were where the majority of the intellectual elite con- survived (lit. ‘were saved from death), but 6 sidered his romanization project an insult to his (six) of them were severely injured.’ father’s legacy. The Chief Rabbinate, as well, stood firmly against romanization and commu- References nicated the displeasure of the religious estab- Aytürk, ÷lker. 2010. “Script charisma in Hebrew and lishment to Ben-Avi on several occasions. The Turkish: A comparative framework for explaining success and failure of romanization”. Journal of idea of romanization resurfaced briefly in the World History 21:97–130. 1960s and 1970s, this time put forward by ——. 2007. “Attempts at romanizing the Hebrew the brothers Yonatan Ratosh and Uzzi Ornan, script and their failure: Nationalism, religion and alphabet reform in the Yishuv”. Middle Eastern standard-bearers of the Canaanite Movement. Studies 43:625–645. Ratosh and Ornan demanded romanization to Nedava, . 1985. “Projects for the latinization of get rid of the square script, which they saw as the Hebrew script”. Hebrew Studies 26:137–146. a relic of the Diaspora and an instrument of Raizen, Esther. 1987. “Romanization of the Hebrew script: Ideology, attempts, and failure”. Unpub- religious control over the Hebraic spirit and lished PhD dissertation, University of Texas, culture (Raizen 1987:41–62). Austin. There are three major factors which account Shraybom Shivtiel, Shlomit. 1998. “The question of for the ultimate failure of the proposals to romanization of the script and the emergence of nationalism in the ”. Mediterranean romanize the Hebrew script (Aytürk 2010:129). Language Review 10:179–195. First, romanized Hebrew, in all versions pre- Tsifroni, Gavriel. 1987. “Deror: A Hebrew journal pared by its proponents so far, does not provide printed left to right” (in Hebrew). Kesher 1:65–72. for economy of writing; from this perspec- Weinberg, . 1972. Reform of the Hebrew script (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Magnes. tive, it cannot rival the square script in terms of writing with fewer and simpler characters. ÷lker Aytürk Second, the authenticity of the square script is (Bilkent University, Ankara) firmly pegged to canonical texts of the Jewish people, namely the Tanakh and the Talmud, while the romanization project has no religious Root: Medieval Karaite Notions and nationalist legitimacy. Finally, all cases of successful romanization so far have been offi- According to the medieval Karaite grammar- cially-sanctioned and took place under authori- ians the base of the process of the deriva-