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Anyone speak/learning Yiddish here? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Neil_UK Tetraglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5072 days ago 50 posts - 64 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto, Welsh Studies: Polish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic, French | Message 1 of 15 06 February 2012 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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If so, how do you find the language? I'm quite interested in learning it at some point,
just to be different. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5191 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 15 06 February 2012 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I studied it for a semester in university (even received an award for it!). I was the only student who wasn't Jewish and who had never had any exposure to either Yiddish or Hebrew, but my knowledge of German in itself put me miles ahead of the rest. It's really a dialect of German with a lot of Hebrew-influenced words.
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5409 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 3 of 15 06 February 2012 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a native German, who has studied Hebrew and Russian, I got Yiddish practically as a gift. As a start I read ארום דיא וועלט אין 80 טעג by a certain זשול ווערן and than I tackled some more systematic teaching books. The literature written in a German style is very easy for me to read, for the spoken language and the Eastern style or more Hebrewized formal styles you have to take more time.
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| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 15 07 February 2012 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Yiddish branched off from medieval German, i.e., relatively recently, as languages go. It has, based on estimates I've heard and find reasonable, about 80% Germanic vocabulary, with most of the rest coming from Hebrew, and a small but significant amount from Russian, Polish, Latin, and elsewhere. Some of this vocabulary seems to be regional, e.g. Polish dialects include far more Polish vocabulary than others.
The grammar is in many ways similar to modern standard German, but has some minor differences such as word order (verbs aren't so forcibly shoved to the end of clauses), some different ways of making plurals, etc. If you know German, Yiddish isn't that hard to pick up, especially with some Polish and Russian vocab. The more Yiddish-speakers in the world the better! More directly responsive to the OP's question: ikh hob take lieb zu redn Yiddisch! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 5 of 15 07 February 2012 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
Oder zog verkehrt, "a sprach iz a dialekt met armey un flot"... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5218 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 6 of 15 07 February 2012 at 9:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Your knowledge of German should make it easy for you to tackle Yiddish grammar. I made a post some months ago about the main differences between Standard German and Standard Yiddish.
From a linguistic point of view, I'd say Yiddish is a German dialect but there's a huge cultural gap between the two and that's what make it worth learning. And of course, the gap can also be a linguistic one depending on the subject touched, the author's origin, etc). Since I began studying Yiddish, I have been in love with it. I read and listen to it daily and the more I do, the more I want to. It's a beautiful, very expressive language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mauritz Octoglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 4878 days ago 223 posts - 325 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Esperanto, French Studies: Old English, Yiddish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean, Portuguese, Welsh, Icelandic, Afrikaans | Message 7 of 15 07 February 2012 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yiddish is one of the most interesting languages that I've studied. I'm neither Jewish nor have I ever studied
German, but Yiddish is really an interesting take on a Germanic language. For me, the most interesting thing about is its wide range: A text in Yiddish can either be almost like a dialect of German (and mutually intelligible) or a completely different language, just depending on the author's origin and/or the style chosen. When you combine this with the culture and history of European Jews, it gets even more interesting. However, I really have to say that Yiddish shouldn't be considered a dialect of German, but rather like a sister language. I have tried talking to Germans only in Yiddish, and it only works if you also know German well, meaning that you are able to know which words and constructions would be understood by a German. The result is that I can at least converse with Germans using only Yiddish, but it's not the same language as if I were speaking with someone who knows Yiddish. I also have a question to anyone who feels tempted to answer. I often find it easier to understand people from southern Germany or Austria. Are these dialects closer to Yiddish than northern (High) German dialects? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 8 of 15 07 February 2012 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | ||
That whole wide-ranging thing generally shows up more as a frustration for me, when I suddenly go from understanding 99% or so down to 80%, but the other side is that Yiddish can very easily be called a "rich" language with infinite expressive capabilities. I saw an estimate of 180,000 words in the Yiddish lexicon, though we all know how meaningless those numbers can be, and you could almost claim that every German, Hebrew, and now English word is by default a Yiddish word if it's used by a Yiddish speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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