קונגרס העולמי ה-18 למדעי היהדות

Final Aleph Branding Strategy in Israeli Hebrew

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Final /a/ corresponding to aleph א <ʔ> has recently come to acquire the semiotic feature [+archaic] → [+authentic], cf. “antiquarian spelling of stressed /ɪ/ in English place names” (Carney 1994: 137). It is particularly productive for branding Israeli commercial names as “boutique”, e.g., זיתא /zeta/, a high-quality olive oil manufacturer (zetaoliveoil.co.il), and place names as “spiritual”, e.g., קדיתא /kadíta/, an ecological resort village situated in the Central Galilee (kadita.co.il). The trendy category of graphemic branding, which may be named “Ye Olde Final Aleph”, has been made possible by the spelling reform of the Academy of the Hebrew Language from the 1980s, which sanctioned final hé ה instead of aleph א <ʔ> in Hebrew words of Aramaic origin, e.g., דוגמא /dugma/ ‘example’ → דוגמה .

The beginning of this trend probably goes back to the foundation in 1996 of עלמא <ʕlmʔ> /álma/: “ALMA, Home for Hebrew Culture” (alma.org.il). The choice of the Aramaic term עלמא <ʕlmʔ> /álma/ ‘The Universe’ suits the Talmudic expertise of its founder, Dr. Ruth Calderon. The use of Aramaic for branding combines the idea of a reappropriated Judaism through a “Talmudic past” with contemporaneous refreshing liberal concepts: “Alma is a Tel Aviv based cultural and intellectual center”. This is how Aramaic in brand names became signature for depth, quality, and authenticity. Later on, the branding strategy that initially used only Aramaic words spread and evolved into what has now become final aleph spelling in Hebrew words.

The commercial use of the final aleph now enjoys constantly-increasing numbers, and sometimes triggers respelling from a final hé, as when producing and selling not just regular tahini, but “Raw tahini filled with pre-sprouted full unroasted sesame seeds,” thus in need for rebranding from the spelling טחינה to authentically raw טחינא (facebook.com/thina.raw/).

Bibliography

Neuman, Yishai (2021). Sociocultural motivation for spelling variation in Modern Hebrew. In: Yannis Haralambous (Ed.), Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, volume IV (489–499). Brest: Fluxus.