Saturday, April 13, 2013

Yiddish 101


Salam w.b.t.

How are you my precious readers? I hope this weekend will give you plenty of quality time to spend with your family or your loved one.

Have you ever come across the word "Yiddish"? Frankly, it is not related to childish or Swedish. It is not a name of a place also. It is a name of a language spoken by Jews in or from central and eastern Europe, originally a German dialect with words from Hebrew and several modern languages.

According to history a long long time ago, the Jews were scattered all over the world when they were chased out of their land previously. Some of them migrated to eastern Europe where they developed a new language quite similar to German language. It is due to the geographical factor maybe, which implement some of German influence in this Yiddish language.

Now let's have a look at few examples of Yiddish as well as German language so that I can give proof to you all regarding those similarities as stated above.

Basic Phrases

                                                                 Yiddish                                   German

1. Good morning.                                  Gut morgn                           Guten morgen
2. Good afternoon.                               A gutn tog                                Guten tag
3. Good evening.                                  A gutn ovnt                           Guten abend
4. Thank you.                                          A dank                                      Danke
5. Sorry.                                                Antshuldik                           Entschuldigung
6. Please.                                                    Bite                                            Bitte
7. Yes.                                                          Yo                                               Ja
8. No.                                                         Neyn                                          Nein


Let's discuss a little bit about how should we pronounce the above words.

German language is pronounced as what is written there. No any change in pronunciation like English.

For example, Guten Abend is pronounced as Gu-ten Ah-Ben. 

While any J alphabet is pronounced as Y. So Ja becomes Ya. Any 'EI' is pronounced like 'AI'. For Nein, we say as Nain. Simple right?

Those are the basic rules in speaking German language. It is not as complicated as Russian language.

Yiddish language also has the same pronunciation rules. Say the words according to the writing.

Thus, Bite is pronounced as Bi-Te, not as Bayt in English language.

Hmmm.. I think it is enough for this time. I'll share other interesting words and phrases next time ok.

See ya.

Have a pleasant weekend..

Wassalam...

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