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The tallit prayer shawl - pronunciation and pluralization
The word tallit prayer shawl in Modern Hebrew is pronounced tah-LEET, or [ta.lΓt] in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), with the stress on the final syllable. Less common today, but historically quite widespread, is the pronunciation tallet, or [ta.lΓ©t] in IPA. The same word is pronounced TAH-lis in Yiddish, transcribed [tΓ‘.lɛs] or [tΓ‘.lıs] in IPA, with the stress on the initial syllable. Both pronunciations are commonly interchanged and refer to the same object.
The correct plural of tallit in Modern Hebrew is tallitot, pronounced tah-lee-TOT, or [ta.li.tΓ³t] in IPA; the traditional Sephardi plural of tallΓ©t is talletot, pronounced tah-leh-TOT, or [ta.le.tΓ³t] in IPA. The Yiddish plural, which has its roots in the Mediaeval Ashkenazi masculine form tallēt (compare Modern Ashkenazi/Israeli Hebrew tallit gadol with the masculine form of the adjective) with the analogous plural ending -im and diphthongisation of the accented ē, is taleisim, pronounced, tah-LEY-sim, or [ta.lΓ©j.sɛm] or [ta.lΓ©j.sım] in IPA. Again, all these plurals are interchangeable and are more or less commonly heard.
The tasseled fringes on the tallit - the tzitzit, are pronounced TSI-tsit. The Ashkenazi pronunciation is tzitzis. Hebrew: ציצת (Biblical), ציצית (Mishnaic). The Torah states in Numbers 15:38: "Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of blue (Hebrew: תכלת - tekhelet) on the fringe of each corner."
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