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Yiddish

thumb|The opening page of the 1828 Yiddish-written Jewish holiday of Purim play Esther, oder die belohnte Tugend from [[Fürth (by Nürnberg), Bavaria]]

AI overview

Yiddish is a language historically spoken by Jewish communities, as evidenced by written texts dating back at least to the early 19th century. It matters as a record of Jewish cultural and literary expression, including religious and secular works like the Purim play shown here from 1828 Bavaria.

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Key facts

Language.name: Yiddish
Language.altname: Judeo-German
Language.nativename: , , yidish, idish
Language.states: Central, Eastern, and Western Europe
Language.region: Europe, Israel, North America, South America, other regions with Jewish populations
Language.ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jews
Language.speakers: ≤ 600,000
Language.date: 2021
Language.familycolor: Indo-European
Language.fam2: Germanic
Language.fam3: West Germanic
Language.fam4: Elbe Germanic

Article

39 sections

Contents

History
Origins
Written evidence
Printing
Secularization
20th century
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Dialectal variation
Comparison with German
Comparison with Hebrew
Grammar
Writing system
Numbers of speakers
Status as a language
Israel and Zionism
South Africa
Mexico
Former Soviet Union
Russia
Ukraine
Council of Europe
Sweden
United States
Present U.S. speaker population
United Kingdom
Canada
Religious communities
Modern Yiddish education
Internet
Influence on other languages
Language examples
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

thumb|The opening page of the 1828 Yiddish-written Jewish holiday of Purim play Esther, oder die belohnte Tugend from [[Fürth (by Nürnberg), Bavaria]]

Yiddish, historically Judeo-German or Jewish German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew (notably Mishnaic) and to some extent Aramaic. Most varieties of Yiddish include elements of Slavic languages, and the vocabulary contains traces of Romance languages. Yiddish has traditionally been written using the Hebrew alphabet.