Yiddish vs. German: an experiment.

A comparison between Yiddish and German. I made up a bunch of sentences to highlight some of the differences between German and Yiddish with respect to vocabulary, grammar (especially word order), phonology (sounds) and vowels. The sentences were read aloud in English and my friend Frank, a native German speaker from Bavaria (but speaking Hochdeutsch/standard German) translated them into German and I translated them into my non-native Ukrainian Yiddish. Even if you don't speak either language you can hear where the two are different and perhaps pick up a bit of either one or both. German speakers should note that other Yiddish dialects (Litvak, northern Ukrainian) pronounce "u" the same way as in German so "und" (and) is "und" but in my dialect it becomes "in". Otherwise all of the differences in the vowels between the two languages are pretty normal. You may also notice that there are words in Yiddish that exist in German dialects but not Hochdeutsch ("epes" for "etvas", "do" for "hier") and there are words in German that Frank uses that are also used in Yiddish (Geschaft, Stunde) but which I don't use. Of all the German dialects Yiddish is probably closest to some forms of Badisch and Swiss German. Yiddish was the language of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jews until the Holocaust and is now primarily spoken in Hasidic communities in Israel, the USA, England, Australia, Canada and Belgium. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet.
, דײַטש, ייִדיש, אידיש, שפּראַך, דיִאַלעקט, דײַטשיש , גרמנית, ידיש, דיאלקט, שפה, מדגישה, בלשנות

[@gulliverthegullible6667]

to me as a native German speaker, Yiddish sounds like one of the many German dialects. It is just as easy for me to understand than a dialect I am unfamiliar with.

[@joe710920]

For me as a german I understood nearly everything of the yiddish language. This is amazing.

[@kennethrocheldecamargo]

My grandfather was a French Jew, in the same street we lived I had a friend whose grandfather was German, and they managed to talk to each other.

[@jdi0093113]

yiddish is easier to learn than german

[@tinchentinchen2079]

Jiddisch is German without a doubt.

[@gaguy1967]

Yiddish is to German what Ladino is to Spanish

[@HesseJamez]

Yiddish is just a german dialect with some hebrew words and a slawic accent. It's closer to high german than swiss german, swabian or bavarian,

[@am74343]

What many people don't realize is that virtually every language came from another language before it. Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese all came from Latin. As they spread out, they developed differently, yet still kept the "roots" of their languages intact. English, German, Frisian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, etc... all came from Proto-Germanic. Yiddish is just an offshoot of German, mixed with Hebrew, Russian, and other Slavic (and yes, Romance) languages.

[@gustavoiceland1]

Also in Argentina jewish community speaks Yiddish.

[@scarletapril12]

German sounds harsher - which comes as no surprise.

[@coolcat1813]

yiddish= 80% german + 10% slavic + 10% hebrew

[@abw5340]

Grapes are also in german "Weintrauben", not "Früchte" that means fruits..

[@ndrstrapp]

For me, Yiddish sounds also a little bit like dutch.

[@h-mh93]

That is very interesting! I hope Yiddish will not die out as a spoken language!

[@kowoba]

There are many German dialects that are further away from standard German than Yiddish is, would have been fun if the Bavarian guy had also spoken out the sentences in "boarisch" to compare.

[@topspin4456]

for me, as a german. yiddish definitely sounds like a geman dialect - there are a lot of german dialects differing greatly - with some loan words, which is normal..

[@519djw6]

Actually, the native German-speaker mistranslated some of the individual words-probably because he couldn’t remember the sentences given to him exactly. For instance, he translated “grapes” as “Früchte“ (fruits), instead of

[@ikhveysnit]

Yiddish isn't my first language but I heard it a lot growing up which helped tremendously when I learned it latter. I use it pretty much every day, I don't always get to speak to someone in Yiddish but I'll at least exchange an email or two or a facebook message. My work also involves materials in Yiddish so I'm reading and translating things constantly, as well as transcribing interviews in Yiddish.

[@RafaelRabinovich]

The German man finds funny that the Yiddish word for "hour", in the Ukrainian-Russian dialect, sounds like "shoo". It it an Ashkenazic rendering of the Hebrew word שָׁעָה. He may have recognized the word שטונדע, "shtunde", which is less used but does exist in Yiddish.

[@TremereTT]

This video doesn't show how close both languages realy are, because the commonly used words of both languages are different.