Yiddish
Yiddish is an Indo-European language spoken in Ukraine, Israel, United States, and Sweden.
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Yiddish dialects are varieties of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish is divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. While the Western dialects mostly died out in the 19th century due to Jewish language assimilation into mainstream culture, the Eastern dialects were very vital until most of Eastern European Jewry was destroyed in the Holocaust, called the Khurbn in Yiddish.
The Northeastern dialects of Eastern Yiddish were dominant in 20th-century Yiddish culture and academia. By the 21st century, the Southern dialects of Yiddish that are preserved in many conservative Hasidic communities have remained to become the most commonly spoken form of Yiddish.
From Wikipedia · Yiddish dialects · CC BY-SA 4.0
Written down
יעדער מענטש װערט געבױרן פֿרײַ און גלײַך אין כּבֿוד און רעכט. יעדער װערט באַשאָנקן מיט פֿאַרשטאַנד און געװיסן; יעדער זאָל זיך פֿירן מיט אַ צװײטן אין אַ געמיט פֿון ברודערשאַפֿט.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR in Unicode).
Words in Yiddish
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| mother | מאַמע | mame |
| father | פֿאָטער | foter |
| child | קינד | kind |
| man | מאַן | man |
| woman | פֿרוי | froy |
| person | פּאַרשוין | parshoyn |
| name | נאָמען | nomen |
| friend | פֿרײַנד | fraynd |
| eye | אויג | oyg |
| ear | אויער | oyer |
| nose | נאָז | noz |
| tooth | צאָן | tson |
| tongue | צונג | tsung |
| hand | האַנט | hant |
| heart | הערץ | herts |
| head | קאָפּ | kop |
| blood | בלוט | blut |
| bone | ביין | beyn |
| skin | הויט | hoyt |
| knee | קני | kni |
| breast | ברוסט | brust |
| liver | לעבער | leber |
| water | וואַסער | vaser |
| fire | פֿײַער | fayer |
| sun | זון | zun |
| moon | לבֿנה | levone |
| star | שטערן | shtern |
| sky | הימל | himl |
| rain | רעגן | regn |
| snow | שניי | shney |
Most similar languages
Vocabulary
- Western YiddishIndo-European67% alike
- Pennsylvania GermanIndo-European64% alike
- GermanIndo-European61% alike
- Colonia Tovar GermanIndo-European54% alike
- Central East Middle GermanIndo-European54% alike
- Low GermanIndo-European53% alike
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · east2295 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · ydd