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- DictionaryYiddish/ˈjɪdɪʃ/
noun
- 1. a language used by Jewish people in central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust. It was originally a German dialect with words from Hebrew and several modern languages, and still has some 200,000 speakers, mainly in the US, Israel, and Russia: "Faigele was mum's name in Yiddish"
adjective
- 1. relating to Yiddish: "a Yiddish word"
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Yiddish ( ייִדיש, יידיש or אידיש, yidish or idish, pronounced [ˈ (j)ɪdɪʃ], lit. 'Jewish'; ייִדיש-טײַטש, historically also Yidish-Taytsh, lit. 'Judeo-German') [10] is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews.
Jun 15, 2024 · Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazim, central and eastern European Jews and their descendants. Written in the Hebrew alphabet, it became one of the world’s most widespread languages, appearing in most countries with a Jewish population by the 19th century.
The Origin of Yiddish. It is impossible to pin down exactly where or when Yiddish emerged, but the most widely-accepted theory is that the language came into formation in the 10th century, when Jews from France and Italy began to migrate to the German Rhine Valley.
• Yiddish is spoken chiefly by Jews of East European (Ashkenazi) origin or descent. Hebrew is spoken chiefly by Israeli Jews or Jews of Middle Eastern origin or descent. • In Yiddish, words of more than one syllable are generally stressed on the penultimate (or next-to-the-last) syllable.
For much of the last millennium, Yiddish was the lingua franca of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. It continues to be spoken by many Jews today, especially in Chassidic circles. Read on for 13 facts about this delightfully zesty and expressive language.
May 5, 2024 · The meaning of YIDDISH is a High German language written in Hebrew characters that is spoken by Jews and descendants of Jews of central and eastern European origin.
Yiddish is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originates from the 9th century Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew and to some extent Aramaic.
In many ways, Yiddish is the German equivalent of Judeo-Spanish. Yiddish is almost wholly German in its linguistic structure and vocabulary, but it is written in Hebrew characters. Yiddish originated in the Rhineland cities of Germany in the early Middle Ages, though the first recognizable Yiddish texts date from the 14th century.
The name Yiddish is probably an abbreviated version of ייִדיש־טײַטש ( yidish-taytsh ), which means "Jewish German". Yiddish at a glance. Native name: ייִדיש (yidish) [ˈ (j)ɪdɪʃ] Language family: Indo-European, Germanic, West Germanic, Elbe Germanic, High German, Yiddish. Number of speakers: c. 1.5 million.
a language spoken as a vernacular by Jews in Europe and elsewhere by Jewish emigrants, usually written in the Hebrew alphabet. Historically, it is a dialect of High German with an admixture of words of Hebrew, Romance, and Slavonic origin, developed in central and E Europe during the Middle Ages.
