[Heb-NACO] source of romanization: Gera?

[Kuperman, Aaron]

We should question the wisdom of the rules for Romanizing anything, and in particular, proper nouns, that result in the librarian-produced Romanization being different than what users use.  If users of our metadata refer to the “Gra”, one needs a rule that results in that as the form in our catalogs.  Calling some the “Gera” when everyone else refers to the “Gra” will results is everyone call librarians “obsolete”.  Making up names for things that no one else uses is the most efficient way to convince managers that they don’t need our systematic metadata.

If a rule results in a wrong Romanization, than the rule is wrong and should be changed to one that reflects the actual pronunciation.  One should also remember that Hebrew as spoken in Eretz Yisrael is evolving rather fast, and that a large part of the population (including non-Ashkenazim, late 20th century immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Hareidim) are probably affecting the pronunciation.  If we really insist on Romanization in our metadata, it should reflect modern spoken Israeli Hebrew rather than some rules dreamed up years ago.

Aaron Kuperman, LC Law Cataloging Section.
This is not an official communication from my employer


From: Heb-naco [mailto:heb-naco-bounces+akup=loc.gov at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Yossi Galron
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2017 3:03 PM
To: Hebrew Name Authority Funnel
Subject: Re: [Heb-NACO] source of romanization: Gera?

Once it was established that the abbreviation of Gaon Rabi Eliyahu (גאון רבי אליהו) is accepted as a pronounced word, it follows the rules of the Hebrew grammar, and the Gimmel gets a sheva na (Sheva be-rosh milah hu Sheva na =שווא בראש מלה הוא שווא נע)




Joseph (Yossi) Galron-Goldschläger
E-Mail: galron.1 at osu.edu<mailto:galron.1 at osu.edu>  or jgalron at gmail.com<mailto:jgalron at gmail.com>
Tel.: (614) 292-3362,  Fax: (614)292-1918
Lexicon of Modern Hebrew Literature: http://go.osu.edu/hebrewlit

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 2:49 PM, Shinohara, Jasmin <jshino at pobox.upenn.edu<mailto:jshino at pobox.upenn.edu>> wrote:
Hi, I’m working on a title that has גר"א in the title and finding the romanization Gera. I’m wondering what the source is for this (mis?)romanization; it does not appear in E-Sh. or Alkalai (or in the Romanization FAQ). I tried searching the Heb-NACO archives, to no avail. Anybody have ideas? Why is it not just Gra?

Thanks, Jasmin


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