Yiddish is German, but also Jewish.

 Yiddish is German, but also Jewish.
Yiddish is German, but also Jewish.

For an inexperienced person, Yiddish and Hebrew are interchangeable concepts. However, in fact, these are two Jewish languages, which differ from each other in many respects, including age, origin, spheres of use, etc.

Yiddish and Hebrew are two different languages, and a person who knows only Hebrew, will not be able to talk to a man who knows only Yiddish.

Origin and written memo

Hebrew is one of the most ancient human languages \u200b\u200brelating to the Semitic Group. Regarding its origin, one does not exist. Some believe that this language separated from the northwestern part of the Semitic Group, becoming independent in the XIII century. BC. Others attribute him to Sima - the descendant of Noah. If you trust the Sacred Scriptures, it was not only a sim, but also and even the first person Adam on Hebrew. The language did not change until Abraham - the first Jew.

Of course, the centuries-old story imparted an imprint on Hebrew. So, the old covenant of the period from XV through the V century BC. It was written in the Hebrew form of this language. He is the main document for the study of the primacy of Hebrew. There are thousands of manuscripts, fragments in which you can trace how the writing writing changed. Written non-biblical memos are few. This is a heger calendar x in. BC, SAMARYAN CRYS CARDS VIII C. BC, from Lahist VI century. BC, Siloam inscription Wezekia times. These historical documents allow you to learn about the semantic system, lexical borrowings from the Arab, Aramaic, Akkadian languages, the grammatical structure, the development of Hebrew.

Yiddish is one more tongue compared to his fellow. His emergence on the territory of Central and Eastern Europe dates back to the X-XIV centuries. The basic part of the tongue is the vocabulary of mediterlaneci dialects with broad borrowings from Aramaic and Hebrew, Slavic, and later - German. In other words, Yiddish is a peculiar mixture of the German, Semitic, Slavic linguistic systems. Most of his words have German roots, are built on the grammatical rules of the German language. So initially, Idish was perceived more as a jargon, not an independent language or a dialect.

Naturally, he, because of his origin, cannot boast of such ancient written sources as Hebrew.

Further development

Until certain time, Hebrew, being the only language of everyday communication, was used for writing, and for oral speech. However, already in II century. AD He stopped serving an active colloquial adverb. The language began to use exclusively for worship. However, he managed to preserve thanks to Masoretam - the rewriters of the Old Testament. But the whole thing in the interesting features of this Jewish language: the words on it in writing consisted of some consonants. The vowels were inserted when reading.

When Hebrew began to leave everyday life, and the Jewish speech was rare, the new generations did not know the pronunciation of some words. And then the vocusing system was invented by masters, that is, the symbols of vowel sounds on the letter. This made it possible to preserve Hebrew to the present. It was not used for the 18th centuries as a conversational, but remained as a language on which civil servants were conducted, artistic and journalistic works were written.

The revival of Hebrew is associated with the formation of Israel. Since 1948, he is the official state language. Thanks to the movement that supported the active introduction of Hebrew to all life spheres, Hebrew after his stay in the book again ranked on the streets, in schools, shops, institutions.

Yiddish did not have such widespread as Hebrew. Only Jews who lived in Europe were spoken. However, despite the fact that Yidysh carriers were here more than 11 million, this language was officially recognized as a full-fledged only at the beginning of last century.

By virtue of the established circumstances, Yiddish was ousted by Hebrew. This is largely due to the extermination of a huge number of Jews who spoke to the Yiddish, during the Second World War. In addition, it is Hebrew, and not Yiddish, is the language of Jews of the Land promised.

Alphabet

The basis of the writing of these two languages, the alphabet of which consists of 22 letters and is called consonant (after all, the letters indicate only consonant sounds), served as ancient European square letter. Modern writing was fixed in the VI century. BC. After the Babylonian captivity.

In Hebrew, sometimes to facilitate reading, telecoms are added, which are not in Yiddish. This is one of the main differences when writing letters. In the alphabet of Hebrew, letters are located on the European sample - from left to right, and in Yiddish - right to left.

Summing up

The differences between two Jewish languages \u200b\u200bcan be distinguished by such fundamental factors:

Hebrew is significantly ancient idis;

Hebrew belongs to the group of Semitic languages, Idish, in addition to the Semitic roots, has Slavic and German;

Hebrew has vocabulary, Yiddish is not;

Hebrew has a greater distribution area than Yiddish.

In general, these two Jewish languages \u200b\u200bhave a lot in common. If they concern purely everyday factors, then by and large they differ in the use of use. Previously, Hebrew was a bookbook language, served for religious shipments, Yiddish was used for everyday communication. Currently, the situation has changed dramatically.

For the inexperienced Ear of the Russian man Hebrew and Yiddish - interchangeable concepts, can be said, even synonyms. But is it so, and what is the difference? Hebrew and Yiddish are two languages \u200b\u200bon which Jews are spoken, but they differ from each other and age, and the origin, and the spheres of use, and many others. This article is devoted to the main differences between the two linguistic systems. But first you need to give a general description to both languages.

Hebrew: Origin

Difference

So, based on all the above facts regarding these two languages, what's the difference? Hebrew and Yiddish have some fundamental differences. Here they are:

  • Hebrew for several millennia ancient than Yiddish.
  • Hebrew belongs exclusively to the Semitic languages, and at the heart of Idisha, except Semitic, there are also Germanic, and Slavic roots.
  • Text on Idische write without heading.
  • Hebrew is much more common.

The original carriers knowing and the other language can even better explain what the difference is. Hebrew and Yiddish have a lot in common, but the main difference is most likely not in vocabulary or grammar, but in the purpose of consumption. This proverb existed among the European Jews 100 years ago about this: "God speaks to Yiddish on weekdays, and in Hebrew - on Saturday." Then Hebrew was tongue only for religious shipments, and everything was told on Idishe. Well, now the situation has changed exactly to the opposite.

You're used to use certain words, we sometimes do not think that we can make a serious mistake to be larch. So, often synonyms sound Hebrew and Yiddish, but is it right? Not really.

Definition

Hebrew- Jewish language, part of the group of Semitic languages, whose independent history began in the second half of the II millennium BC and there are six periods.

Yiddish- The language of European Jews-Ashkenazov, historically belonged to the Mediterranean dialects of the Upper Beculus subgroup. It appeared between the X and the XV centuries in the upper reaches of the Rhine.

Comparison

Perhaps nothing will give the difference between these languages \u200b\u200bbetter than the Jewish sayings. For example, this: "Who does not know Hebrew, that is uneducated who does not know Idisha, he is not a Jew." In it and other similar similar it reflects the main one, you can even say the sacred difference: Yiddish - the language of everyday life, everyday communication for the Jews, it is distinguished by the mobility and ability to change, Hebrew is the language of prayer, philosophical books and conversations, it is not so subject to the trends of time.

Such ideal coexistence was broken, and over time, these languages \u200b\u200bwere changed in places, they pushed one another. Today, Yiddish goes deeper goes into the past. If about 11 million people communicated to the second world war, in 2012, this figure fluctuated between 500 thousand and 2 million people (although it should not be overlooked by the factor of the overall decrease in the number of Jews). But at the same time, today everything is increasing the number of reborn interests.

As for the actual differences, Yiddish did not have his own alphabet, he used Hebrew alphabet (in fact, Hebrew became for the same church Slavonic for Russian). However, this was expressed only in the form, while the rules of grammar did not coincide: Hebrew uses the audit system to give the desired sound of words from some consonants. In Yiddish, this purpose serve some letters.

Conclusions Site

  1. Historically, Hebrew treated "sublime" languages, being the language of books, religion, philosophy. Yiddish belonged to everyday communication.
  2. Today, Hebrew is more common, while the number of talked on Eidis has declined.
  3. To give the desired sound consisting of some consonants in Hebrew, the system of calling is used, in Yiddish - special letters.

In contact with

Yiddish - the Jewish language of the German group, historically the main language, in which at the beginning of the XX century. About 11 million Jews spoke around the world.

Yiddish originated in Central and Eastern Europe in the X-XIV centuries. Based on the middle-age dialects (70-75%) with extensive borrowings from and Aramaic (about 15-20%), as well as from Romance and Slavic languages \u200b\u200b(in dialects, 15% reaches).

The alloy of languages \u200b\u200bgave rise to the original grammar, which allows combining words with the German root and syntactic elements of the Semitic and Slavic languages.

About title

The word "Yiddish" in the most Yiddish means literally "Jewish, Jewish".

Historically, Taich, Idish Taich (from ייִדישייַטש) - "People's Jewish", or on another version - "interpretation" in connection with the tradition of the oral interpretation of Jewish texts when studying them.

The word Takes is kinder than Deutsch and Dutch, but not equivalent, for example, adjective "German" in the sense of belonging to the German nation. The word is older than this concept, and simply means in the original sense of "folk", that is, the Taich in this context means a conversational language.

B XIX century and early XX century. In Russian, Yiddish was often called "jargon." Also used the term "Jewish-German language".

In Russian, the word "yidish" is permissible to use as an inclined and unclear noun.

Questions classification

Traditionally, Yiddish is considered to be Germanic language historically related to the average dealers of the Verkhneven Maletsky cluster of the West German Group.

Slavic theory

In 1991, Professor Linguistics Tel Aviv University Paul Veksler on the basis of the analysis of the structure and dictionary of Idisch put forward a hypothesis related to the group of Slavic, and not German languages.

Later, in the book "Ashkenaz Jews: the Slavic-Turkic people in search of Jewish identification" Waxler proposed to revise the whole theory of the origin of Ashkenazov, who spoke on East European Jewry.

He considers them not as descendants of immigrants from the Middle East, but as a fundamental European people, originating from the descendants of the Western Slavs - Luzhitsky Sorbov, Poland, and others.

Later, Waxler included the estimated ancestors of Eastern European Jews also Khazar and numerous Slavs who lived in Kievan Rus in the IX-XII century.

The Theory of Waxes did not gain support in the scientific community. In academic circles (including the University of Tel Aviv, where P. Waxler works), it is considered as a curiosity generated by the author's own political views.

At the same time, some researchers believe that the role of the Slavic component in Idiš may be somewhat more significant than previously thought.

Lingvogeography

Areal and numbers

The beginning of the XXI century.

Determine the current number of speakers in Idisch is very difficult. Most of the Ashkenazic Jews within the XX century. Switched to the language of those countries where they live. Nevertheless, from the censuses of some countries you can get the number of speakers.

  • Israel - 215 thousand people. According to ETHNOLOGUE for 1986 (6% of the number of Jews in Israel).
  • USA - 178 945 people. They speak at home on Yiddish (about 2.8% of all US Jews, with 3.1% speakers in Hebrew).
  • Russia - 30 019 people. They speak Yiddish in the 2002 census (13% of all Jews in Russia).
  • Canada - 17 255 people. Named Yiddish native language by census 2006 (5% of persons of Jewish origin).
  • Moldova - 17 thousand people. Named Yiddish Native Language (1989), that is, 26% of the total number of Jews.
  • Ukraine - 3213 people. Named Yiddish native language according to the 2001 census (3.1% of the number of Jews).
  • Belarus - 1979 people. They say houses at Yiddish in 1999 census (7.1% of the number of Jews).
  • Romania - 951 people called Yiddish native language (16.4% of the number of Jews).
  • Latvia - 825 people called Yiddish native language (7.9% of the number of Jews).
  • Lithuania - 570 people called Yiddish native language (14.2% of the number of Jews).
  • Estonia - 124 people called Yiddish native language (5.8% of the number of Jews).
  • According to the results of Hungary's census out of 701 Jews, 276 people (40%) are spoken in Hebrew. It is possible that this is a mistake of interpretation of the concept of "the language of their nationality" and either they all had in mind the Yiddish, or a part of Yiddish, and part of Hebrew (as in the census of Russia).

A significant number of carriers of Idisch also live in the UK, Belgium, France, to a lesser extent in Australia, Argentina and Uruguay.

Based on the above data, the total number of speakers in the world can be estimated at 500 thousand people. Close data are given in some other sources: 550-600 thousand. At the same time, there are much higher estimates: 1 762 320 (ETHNOLOGUE, 16th edition) and even 2 million (CEE), but is not explained, based on which methodology They are obtained.

Sociolinguistic information

Although among the majority of Jews, Yiddish gave way to the languages \u200b\u200bof the surrounding population, deeply religious Jews (Haredi and especially Hasidi) communicate with each other mainly on Yiddish.

Dialects

Yiddish consists of a large number of dialects, which are customary to be divided into West and Eastern adverbs. The latter, in turn, are divided into three main dialects:

  • northern (t. N. Belarusian-Lithuanian dialect: Baltic States, Belarus, Northeast Areas of Poland, West of the Smolensk Region of Russia and part of the Chernihiv region of Ukraine),
  • southeast (t. N. Ukrainian dialect: Ukraine, Moldova, Eastern regions of Romania, primarily - Moldova and Bukovina, southern part of the Brest region of Belarus and Lublin Voivodeship Poland)
  • central (or southwest, etc. Polish dialect: Central and Western Poland, Transylvania, Carpathian areas of Ukraine).

There are transitional dialects.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a single label was created by a common language, which received distribution mainly in universities.

In North America, a general dialect was crystalized in the Hungarian environment based on the "Hungarian" Yiddish, which was previously common in Transylvania.

In the USSR, the grammatical basis of the literary standard was the Ukrainian dialect, while the phonetics was based on the North Dialect. Theatrical Yiddish, in accordance with the tradition of leading his origin from A. Goldfajen, corresponds to an averaged Ukrainian dialect (sometimes in this context known to Volynsky). Western Yiddish, which some researchers (for example, P. Veksler) are considering how a separate language in which the Jews spoke in the Western regions of Germany, Switzerland and Holland, today is almost dead.

Regional variants of the Yiddish detect large differences in the system of vowels, ranging from the opposition between the brief open I and long closed I, and ending with models with full parallel rows of short and long vowels. In dialects, ü and difthongs ending on -w are also found.

However, in the system of consonants, the largest diversity detects a literary yidish. In some dialects, there is no phoneme H, in some there are fewer palatal, and there is no difference in the walker in Western Yiddish. Articulation R varies in different areas from R apical to (mainly) R dishalled.

Writing

Spelling

Yiddish uses a "square" letter. There are several options for the spelling of Yiddish. The basis of writing is the alphabet of the Hebrew language with some standard diacritical signs: אַ, אָ, בֿ, וּ, יִ, ייַ, כּ, פּ, פֿ, שֹ, תּ.

Most words borrowed from Hebrew and Aramaic retained the traditional writing. The rest of the vocabulary is a system of unambiguous correspondence between sounds, on the one hand, and letters or their combinations, on the other. At the same time, the established traditions concerning, for example, graphs of certain finite letters, or the rules on the initial non-disproportionate א.

In the process of evolution, the trend intensified the tendency to systematically use the letter א to indicate the sound / A /, אָ - for transmission / o /; כ is used to transmit / x /, וו - for transmission / V /. Over time, the use of the letter ע as a symbol of voice / e / was established. This innovation, characteristic of the Ashkenazic pronunciation of Hebrew, lost the consonant sound, denoted by the letter ע, belongs to the XIV century.

Methods for transmitting difthong and unstressed vowels, as well as the rules of the stubborn, differed significantly in different periods of history. Nowado / Oi / is denoted by the combination וי, difthong / Ei / - combination יי, Diftong / AI / - the same combination with an additional diacritical sign - ייַ (a diacritical sign is not used in all publications). / ž / and / Č / are transmitted according to the digraphs זש and טש.

Some publishers still do not comply with all the rules. The standard is considered an IVO spelling, but religious publishers prefer the old system. In many newspapers, the old proofreaders refuse to change the extended skills since the time before the Second World War in Europe.

From the 1920s. In the Soviet Union (and then in the Communist and Soviet Publishers of a number of other countries), the principle of historical and etymological writing of the words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin was rejected and a phonetic principle was adopted, denying the traditional adherence of the Hebrew and Aramaic spell when writing words from these languages.

In 1961, the USSR returned to writing final letters.

Linguistic characteristic

Phonetics and phonology

Yiddish has expiratory stress, and although the place of emphasis in the Word is not always completely predictable, there are several characteristic distributions of verbal stress. The system of vowels triangular type with three degrees of the solution and two positions of articulation:

Vowels: I u e about a

The most characteristic difthongs are the combinations of EI, AI and OI. In Yiddish, the same as in the southern dialects of the German, the reflection of the middle-heeded diefththong Ei and the long vowel î is distinguished:

There is a reduction of many German difthongs, for example PF.

The system of consonants is highly symmetric:

m n n '
b d d 'g
p t t 'k
v z z 'z c r
f s s' Š Č x H y
l l '

Note: The apostrophe is designated palatal consonants.

Unlike the German language, the ranks of explosive and fricatives differ in non-tension, and the belligent is obviously under the Slavic influence, which also affected the emergence of palatal consonants. Unlike German, there is also an occurrence of ringing consonants in the outcome of words. Due to the inflow of the words of Hebrew-Aramaic and Slavic origin, the numerous initial combinations of consonants, unknown by the German language (for example, BD-, PX-) penetrated (for example, BD-, PX-).

Morphology

The Hydish grammatical system must basically follow the German model, but with a significant number of changes. The syntax has new models of the word order. The order of words in the main and pressing proposals was the same. The distance between noun and their definitions, as well as between parts of the verb phrases, was reduced.

Nouns names are characterized by four cases and three kinds. However, the genitive case has turned into a stronger, losing most other functions. The indicator of the vinitive case after the predictions is descended. The German difference between the weak and strong declaration of adjectives disappeared, but a new difference between the variable predicative adjectives appeared. Many nouns were distributed among different multiple-number models. Influenced by Slavic languages \u200b\u200bdeveloped decreasing forms of nouns and adjectives. In the verb, all times and inclination, in addition to the present time, the expressive inclination began to be formed analytically. It develops an alien system of Germanic languages \u200b\u200ba consistent distinction of a perfect and imperfect form; A number of new verb forms expressing species and collateral shades appeared.

Helpful information

yiddish
ייִדיש
translite. "Yidish"
and אידיש.
translite. "Yiddish"
ass "Jewish"

From language history

Coat of arms of the Belarusian SSR, 1926-1937. The motto "Proletarians of all countries, connect!" in four languages \u200b\u200b- Belarusian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish

In the 1920s, Yiddish was one of the official languages \u200b\u200bof the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Some time slogan "proletaria of all countries, connect!" He was drawn on the coat of arms of the BSSR for the Yiddish, along with Belarusian, Polish and Russian languages. T.

just as one of the state languages \u200b\u200bof the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917

Effect of Yiddish on other languages

Odessa dialect

Yiddish, along with the Ukrainian language, had a great influence on the formation of the Odessa dialect.

Source slang

Hebrew words (Ksiva, Shmon, etc.) hit the Russian language through the Yiddish - this is evidenced by, in particular, their Ashkenaz pronunciation ("Ksiva" (Ashkenaz. Hebrew, Yidish) - "CVIT" (con. Hebrew)).

History >> Unknown about famous

"Partner" No. 10 (97) 2005.

Yiddish - German, but also Jewish

Many senior Jewish immigrants understand the German well enough and try to talk on it, using in their speech not only German, but also the Idish words. In most cases, their German interlocutors understand the "strange" German language of these immigrants. Two years ago, our author Marina Agranovskaya has already told about the language of Yiddish, but today we want to grant the Word of Mikhail Pievsky - a man who owns Idysh and knows his story. What do you know, dear reader, about this language?

First of all, turn to the history of the Jewish diaspora. Jewish society in the diaspora is divided into Ashkenazov and Sefardov. Many readers know the meaning of these words: Ashkenaz is the Jewish name of Germany, and Ashkenazov, who spoke in Yidiš, are called Jews - immigrants from Western European countries, excluding Spain and Portugal, as well as settlers to Eastern Europe and their descendants. Also, Ashkenazami is called the descendants of the Jews that moved to the American continent and speaking Yiddish. The name of Sefard happened from the word Sfarad - Spain. The languages \u200b\u200bof Jews - immigrants from Spain and Portugal, later moved to Turkey, other countries of the Mediterranean and Arab countries, island, we will talk about separately.

The largest Jewish community in the world is Ashkenaziya. At least the thirties of the twentieth century for the Jews of this community "home" was Yiddish. The number of people speaking Yiddish on the eve of World War II was estimated at 11 million people. It sharply decreased due to the destruction of millions of European Jews and the later displacement of Idisch by the languages \u200b\u200bof the surrounding peoples, and in Israel - Hebrew.

According to the majority of the Jews of the Diaspora, it is Yiddish who is able to unite people from different communities. Even ultrautodoxes who are generally standing aside from secular life, attend cultural events held on Idisch, including performances of climet musicians.

Orthodoxs believe that Hebrew is the sacred language of the Torah (Horsight Koidesh) and it can be used only for conversations with God. In everyday communication, they speak Yiddish. Therefore, Yiddish continues to exist as a spoken language in places such as Bnei Marriage in the Tel Aviv area, Mea-Shearim in Jerusalem, Brooklyn in New York. In these quarters you can hear Yiddish on the streets even in the mouths of children.

It is believed that Yiddish is one of the Indo-European languages \u200b\u200b(German Group), the household and literary language of Ashkenazi (i.e. Germanic) Jews. It has developed in the X - XIV centuries on the basis of one of the Verkhnenexian dialects, which was undergoing intensive hebraization, and later - the Slavic. Writing is a traditional Hebrew, adapted for the transfer of the phonetic system of Yiddish.

Where was Yiddish born? On this, as well as many other questions relating to this language, there is no definite answer. Researchers put forward various versions enriching scientific literature with new facts and ideas. History of the language Yiddish is full of mysteries and white spots. One of the researchers - Max Weinrayh - believed that Yiddish, characterized by a steady combination of the German and Semitic elements with the addition of the living Slavic humor later in Eastern Europe, arose in the Western regions of Germany, in the Rhine River Basin. Gershon Ben-Yehud (960 - 1028) lived there, which Weinraych considers the founder of Ashkenazi Jewish civilization. Pupils Ben-Yehudi were the teachers of Rashi (Rear Shlomo Itzhaki, 1040 - 1105), the spiritual leader of the Jewishness of Northern France, the largest commentator Talmud and Tanah. According to another theory, Yiddish was born not in the Rhine basin, but in Mezhda Danube and Elba. This version is based on the fact that in the XII century in Rotenberg there was the most ancient Jewish quarter in Germany. Rabbi Yehehhhi Hasid (1150 - 1217) lived in it (1150 - 1217), the head of the "Hasida Ashkenaz" movement and the author of the book "Seyper Hasidim". The author of an essay "What is Yiddish" Hoax Prilutsky (1882 - 1941) says that there is no such dialect of Yiddish, who would not be related to any German dialect.

Projects of Prilutsky about dialects and phonetics of Yidysh largely determined the modern spelling of this language. But this does not mean that all German dialects are presented in Yiddish. To reduce the number of its sources to a minimum, it is necessary to correlate with the German dialects of the German language where the Jews lived in the Middle Ages. Then it will be more famous where Yiddish originated. Some later researchers have established the relationship of the German elements in Yiddish with the Bavarian dialect. And in the 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, a number of works appeared about the presence of semitic elements in Yiddish and their distribution among Ashkenazov. The presence on one territory of various languages \u200b\u200bhad a certain impact on each other.

Yiddish is German. Therefore, it is natural that most words in Yiddish German origin. Next are semitisms (Gebraisms, arameism), Slavicami, Romisers. Yiddish originated in the environment of the assimilated Jewishness of Germany and contains, according to the latest studies, 68% of German words, 17% of Hebrew and 15% of Slavic. The new Jewish language was originally called "Takes" (read Doych), later - Jewish-German, and from the XVIII century, the enlighteners of Mendelssian school gave him the name "Jargon". From the XIX century to this day, it is called "Yiddish". According to many lingules, until the Jews spoke the Jews only in Germany, this was not an independent language, but only an option (jargon) of German. Yiddish became the tongue in the full sense of the word, when, starting with XIII, and mostly from the XV-XVI centuries., Ashkenazi Jews moved from Germany to Slavic lands.

It is of interest to the question of the similarity of Idisch with other German languages. The similarity of Idisha with German for a long time served for some authors the reason to consider it by an option (jargon) of the German language. In fact, Yiddish and modern German are different languages \u200b\u200bthat are connected only by the generality of origin. According to Weinrayha, they have a common ancestor in dialects of medieval Germany. Over time, the differences between Idishem and the Middle Enthannevik became increasingly visible. Developing his own way, Yiddish turned into an independent language, while the Middle Enth transformed into modern German. There are differences between Yidyshem and German, the phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels. Yiddish is not an option any language. This is the original language of Germanic origin, which takes a special place among Germanic languages \u200b\u200binherent in him only. Yiddish uses a square Jewish letter from the XII century.

On the territory of Eastern Europe, Yiddish is also divided into a number of dialects. Northeast: Lithuania, Belarus; Eastern dialect: Latvia, Pskov, Smolenskaya, Bryansk region. Russia; Central dialect: Poland, Western Galicia; Southeast dialect: Ukraine, Moldova, Romania.

As a rule, the Jews used Yiddish where they experienced serious discrimination. The Jews of Poland and Russia, for example, spoke on Eidis, while the vast majority of France and German Jews used French and German languages. When the Jews migrated to countries where they had equal rights, Yiddish was usually used only by the first generation. For example, in the 20s of the last century in New York, it was sold daily by 200,000 newspapers on Idiš.

Yiddish is a colorful language, and many of his most striking words entered the lexicon non-Jews. Including in modern German, more than 1,000 words from Yiddish language are widely used. I will give only a few examples. Schlamassel - misfortune, trouble; Massel - Good luck, luck; Meschugge is stupid, crazy; Mischpoke - Family, Schickse - Light Conduct; Schmonzes - useless business; Tacheles - honestly, openly; fairly; Stuss - nonsense, nonsense; Tinnef - trash, waste; Schtetl - place; Kassiber - a secret note; Schmiere - Ointment, Lubrication; Schmock - Idiot, Fool, Ganeff - Thief, Maloche - Heavy and Useless Work.

Today, Yiddish is used more and less. However, it would be premature to predict the dying of this language. Nobel laureate of 1978, Yitzhak Bashevis-Singerpiece, writing on Idise, noted that the decline of the Yiddish language was predicted at the time of his arrival in the United States in 1935, however, this language still lives, being in the blissful ignorance that He is already considered dead.

Not denying, but, on the contrary, supporting the confidence that Yiddish belongs to the German group of languages \u200b\u200band was born in the territories of Germany, do not forget that this is still a language of the Jews, who also imagined the elements of the Holy Language - Host Kodhish (read - Hebrew). From Hebrew to Yiddish, and then, and then, they fell as decent purely speaking words, and not very decent. For example, the Idyshevsk "Bakiszer" (in Ukraine - Bikitzer), in value faster and shorter, came to us from the Hebrew word "Akitur", which has the same meaning. We all since childhood the famous word "Toshes" (in Ukraine - "Tuheshes"), in the meaning of the ass, came to us from the Hebrew word "Tahat". The word "Mishpokh" - the family occurred from Hebrew - Mishpach. The wedding ceremony ends with a wedding - "Hasene" - in Hebrew "Hatun". At the wedding, the groom is "HOSN", and in Hebrew "Khatan". The bride is "Cale" and in the same way in Hebrew. Relatives of the bride and groom become "Mehutonim", and in Hebrew it sounds "Mehutan". Even the idashev version of this word is more often used in Israel. The acquaintance of the young most often, as adopted by the Jewish rite, is carried out by a wool - "Shadkin". In Hebrew, this word sounds "Shadkhan", and the Watching process itself is called Yiddish "widths", and in Hebrew "Width". The wedding ceremonial celdahin is called Yiddish "Hupe" (in Ukraine - "Hip"). Also in Hebrew. Take such a characteristic Idian word as "Ben-Yolid". I, too, was "Ben-Ohid" - the only son in the family. In Hebrew "Ben" - this son, and "Ohid" means the only one. In Yiddish, there are a number of phrases containing the word "Balabos" - the owner taken from the Hebrew "Balabaite" - the owner of the house. And how did the walker drive occurred - "Baratela" or "Balagul"? This is the Hebrew "Baal Agal", where "Agala" is a cart, a wagon, and the Baal Agala - Agriculture, the cab driver. "Balmelokha" (or "Balmelukha") is an artisan, in Hebrew "Bal Melacha", and "Melacha or Meloh" is a craft. Consider now also well-known from the language Yiddish words: "Maleh" and "Malka". Very beautiful idish song begins in words: "Amol from Geev and Maleh ..." - lived once the king. "Maleh" is the Hebrew "Meleh" - the king, "Malka" - in Hebrew "Malka" means the Queen.

The word "Havver" - Comrade remained on Yiddish "Havver", the Hebrew "Yat" - "Yosem" sounds on Yiddish. The second chapter of the story of Sholom Aleichema "Boy Motil" begins in words: "The world from Gut, their bin a yosem" - "I am good, I am an orphan."

Who does not know the words "Ganef" - the thief (in Hebrew "Gavan")? This word entered the jargon of German and English. In good English or the German dictionary you will find it without any reference to Hebrew or Yiddish. Congratulations "Mazltov" is entirely built from Hebrew elements: "Mazal Tov" - good happiness, good happiness. Many know the words "Melamed" and « header . Melamed is a teacher in Heder. "Header" - the so-called school in which "Melamed" taught Jewish children the basics of Hebrew and Tanah. The word "Heder" in Hebrew means simply "room" or "class for classes". What does Melamed mean? This is also the Hebrew word and means "training". Let's not stop learning! Let's and we will try to not forget the language of our grandparents.

Complete this article wants the quatrain of Boris Slutsky:

Yiddish, their tongue has long been Ruin.