Tallits - pronunciation and pluralization
The word tallit 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 tallits 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."
A person generally selects or receives his/her first full tallit during the process of preparation for b-mitzvah. Some Jews always wear a light-weight tallit under their clothes called a tallit kattan, "little tallit" and others prefer the full shawl-style talit for prayer and special occasions in life. For example:
- A Jewish wedding canopy is often a large talit, canopy of spirit, held over the couple on four poles.
- A Jewish person is buried wearing a talit.
-An old talit that is unsightly/torn/unusable gets donated to the synagogue or a Judaic library and will be used to wrap worn out or superfluous documents like photocopies with Adonai, the sacred name of G*d on them in Hebrew script so that they can be buried with dignity in a geniza, a Jewish cemetery section set aside for this purpose.
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