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  • 1.
    Yiddish language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Yiddish (ייִדיש yidish or אידיש idish, literally "Jewish") is a non-territorial ... Yiddish is conventionally written in the Hebrew alphabet. ...
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_language
  • 2.
    Yiddish: Definition from Answers.com
  • Yiddish n. The language historically of Ashkenazic Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, resulting from a fusion of elements derived principally from
  • http://www.answers.com/topic/yiddish
Questions/Answers
yiddish...?
well my dad is jewish and he speaks a little yiddish but i want to learn more! i know like a few basic words, like levuna, katz, hunt, and some others. so if anyone wanted to just share some words or phrases that would be great:D oh and do all yiddish words that start with "ch" have that "h" sound, i dont know how to type that sound lol
Depending on how close you live to one, the best way to learn Yiddish is to hang out in a Northern European Jewish neighborhood (there are usually Hasidim, Ashkenazim, etc.; not Sephardim). Yiddish comes from the German word "Jüdisch", meaning "jewish", and is German-based, grammar-wise, but borrows a lot from Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and so on. My favorite Yiddish word is "kvetch", meaning "chat" or talk. In parts of Germany, they still say "Quatsch" for idle talk. I also will refer to people as "mensh" or "Mensch", if they are good people. It pretty much just means "human". (For example, "Wow, thanks for helping me shlep my bags; you're a real mensh!" EDIT: I almost forgot Part 2 of your question. Yiddish is written using the Hebrew alphabet (or "aleph-bet"), so that beautiful sound that falls between "k" and "h" can be transliterated either as "ch" or "kh". The author Abraham J. Heschel (if you're a scripture nerd, read his book, "the Prophets") transliterates this sound as an "h" with a dot below it. However it's written in the Roman alphabet, it is pronounced like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch" or the German name "Bach" (not "Bock").
How many people here isproficient in the Yiddishlanguage?
If so, is German, in any of its dialect, mutually intelligible with Yiddish?
Well, I don't speak Yiddish, but I can tell you alittle about it. I believe that German is, without doubt, a Germanic language and so is Yiddish. One of the major differences of these two languages is the way they are written. German used the Latin alphabet and Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet. I guess you could pretty much say that Yiddish is just German words written in Hebrew script. So, the answer is yes, German, in some ways, is mutually intelligible with Yiddish.
How can I learn to speak theYiddish language?
I live near a big Chassidic/Hasidic Jewish community in New York and they always speak Yiddish. I'm interested in learning about their teachings and maybe becoming Hasidic. But how can I learn how to speak Yiddish to communicate like they do together? What is the best way to learn to speak it? I'm a secular Jew interested in becoming more religious.
one way is to take classes at a college or through something like the 92nd street Y, or through a private tutor. the other way is immersion. live amongst them and pick it up as you go along. i think that learning yiddish, though, is separate from any interest in increasing religious observance.
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