Bat Mitzvah (1921, 1949); Kosher (1620); Mellah

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Fred Shapiro wrote:

#This appears to be the earliest in the Times, with the spelling "bas
#mitzvah":
#
#1938 _N.Y. Times_ 22 May 45  Mr. and Mrs. George N. Janis announce the bas
#mitzvah of their daughter, Ruth, Saturday, May 28, 1938.

The /s/ pronunciation, deriving from the Yiddish pronunciation of the
Hebrew tav ("sav, thav"; the undotted form of the last letter of the
aleph-bet) is the only one I would expect in the US in that period.
"Bat" is the Sephardi pronunciation used in Modern Hebrew. Cf.
        Yiddish         ModHeb          gloss
        shabbos         shabbat         Sabbath
/       bris                            circumcision
\                       brit (milah)    covenant (of circ.)

-- Mark A. Mandel