Phonetic alphabet showing consonants and vowels

Alphabets like this one helped children to learn reading. The focus is on the individual letters, presented in pairs. The dots under the letters represent the vowel signs. The alphabet shows the different possible pronunciations of all the vowels. Schooling was not mandatory for girls and their education was not regulated. Teachers who did take on girls usually confined themselves to teaching them how to read Hebrew letters. This allowed the girls to read Yiddish works written in the Hebrew alphabet.