Figure 5

But Katchor doesn't just use the Hebrew alphabet to render Yiddish or Hebrew. Those oxygen-loving residents of New Afflatus have also bought into the belief that language shapes identity, and they have resolved to replace the English alphabet with Hebrew characters, respelling words phonetically in accordance with Yiddish orthography [fig. 5; 27.1, 28.3-4]. The leader of New Afflatus, Septum Dandy, shows the visiting Nathan Kishon a copy of the Declaration of Independence thus transliterated, and he declares that American independence depends on such alphabetic estrangement from English forebears: "We hope someday to see all American printing and writing done in Hebrew characters—only then can an indigenous language develop; only then will our severance from English culture be complete!" (28.4)  continue...