Vaybertaytsh

''Vaybertaytsh'' () or ''mashket'' (), is a semi-cursive script typeface for the Yiddish alphabet. From the 16th until the early 19th century, the ''mashket'' font distinguished Yiddish publications, whereas Hebrew square script were used for classical texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, and "Rashi" script for rabbinic commentaries and works in Ladino.

''Mashket'' was used for printing Yiddish in the Old Yiddish literature period, and later as the primary script used in texts for and by Jewish women, ranging from folktales to women's supplications and prayers, to didactic works.

Description

Unlike Yiddish block or square print (the script used in modern Hebrew, with the addition of special characters and diacritics), ''vaybertaytsh'' is a semi-cursive script, akin to the "Rashi" script. ''Vaybertaytsh'' may be handwritten or typed.

History

''Mashket'' originated as a typeface imitating the Ashkenazic semi-cursive used for both Hebrew and Yiddish. The earliest extant printed book in which Yiddish constituted a major segment, ''The Second Chariot'' ()
(1534), attributed to Rabbi Anshel ben Eliakim ha-Levi Tsion, was written in ''mashket''. The type family came to be used almost exclusively for Yiddish with the dominance use of block and "Rashi" scripts (the latter based on Sephardic semi-cursive) by early Hebrew typographers such as the Soncino family.

The typeface later became associated with devotional women's literature. As a result of their not being present in the yeshivot, women were usually fluent only in the Yiddish (the vernacular among Ashkenazi Jews), and literate only in Yiddish, if at all. Thus early religious works in Yiddish were mostly created for women's edification. The ''Tseno Ureno'' was a Yiddish-language prose adaptation of the Chumash, its corresponding Haftarah portions, and the Megillot. It dates to at least 1622 and has been published in block print and ''vaybertaytsh''. Similarly, '' tkhines'' were supplicatory prayers written in Yiddish (usually for women) rather than in Hebrew and Aramaic, in contrast to the normative Jewish liturgy. They proliferated in the 16th and 17th centuries, and continued to be written and published, usually in ''vaybertaytsh'', into the early- to mid-20th century.

Square print began to replace ''vaybertaytsh'' in Yiddish books in the 1830s. By the late 19th century, nearly all books in Yiddish were printed in square letters.

See also

* Rashi script
* '' Tkhine''
* ''Tseno Ureno''
* Joseph Athias
* Yiddish literature

Notes

References

{{Reflist, refs={{cite journal, title=Variety in the Typography of Yiddish: 1535-1635, first=Herbert C., last=Zafren, journal=Hebrew Union College Annual, volume=53, year=1982, pages=137–163, publisher= Hebrew Union College, jstor=23507628
{{cite web , last1=Katz , first1=Dovid , title=Language: Yiddish , url=http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Language/Yiddish , website=YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessdate=5 December 2018

Hebrew calligraphy
Hebrew typefaces
Judaism and women
Script typefaces
Yiddish