Yiddish is the state language. Yiddish language

Before modern man who has decided to go to Israel for permanent residence will have a choice: what language he will need to learn - Yiddish or Hebrew.

Many representatives modern society They cannot even imagine that, in essence, these languages ​​are not the same set of letters and sounds, but two independent languages. They say that one form of the language is colloquial, that is, generally accepted for the Jewish people, and the other is literary, or standard. Yiddish is also often considered one of the many dialects of the German language, which is absolutely true.

Yiddish and Hebrew are actually two separate worlds, two independent languages, but combines these linguistic phenomena only the fact that they are spoken by the same people.

Hebrew

Enough for a long time Hebrew was considered dead tongue, just like Latin. For hundreds of years, only a limited circle of people were allowed to speak it - rabbis and Talmudic scholars. For everyday communication, the spoken language was chosen - Yiddish, a representative of the European linguistic language group(German). Hebrew was revived as independent language in the 20th century.

Yiddish

This language was introduced into Jewish culture from the Germanic language group. It originated in southwest Germany approximately in 1100 and is a symbiosis of Hebrew, German and Slavic elements.

Differences

1. For Jews, Hebrew is a language related to religious culture; it is in it that the Holy Scriptures, the most important artifact of the Jewish people, are written. The Torah and Tonakh are also written in the holy language.
2. Yiddish today is considered spoken language in Jewish society.
3. Hebrew, on the contrary, is officially recognized as the official language of Israel.
4. Yiddish and Hebrew differ in phonemic structure, that is, they are pronounced completely differently and also heard. Hebrew is a softer sibilant language.
5. The writing of both languages ​​uses the same Hebrew alphabet, with the only difference being that in Yiddish vowels (dots or dashes under and above letters) are practically not used, but in Hebrew they can always be found.

According to statistical data, it is known for certain that about 8,000,000 people live in the territory of modern Israel. Almost the entire population today chooses to communicate with each other exclusively Hebrew. It, as stated above, is the official language of the state; it is taught in schools, universities and other educational institutions, where English, along with Hebrew, is popular and relevant.

Even in cinemas, it is customary to show English and American films on this foreign language in the original, occasionally accompanying some tapes with Hebrew subtitles. Most Jews speak exclusively Hebrew and English.

A small group of people use Yiddish in conversation - about 250,000, these include: older Jews and the ultra-dox population.

• At the very beginning of the 20th century, Yiddish was among the official languages ​​that could be found in the territory Byelorussian SSR, on it the famous communist slogan about the unification of the proletarians was written on the emblem of the republic.
• Perhaps the most important reason for the adoption of Hebrew as the official state language is the fact that in its sound Yiddish is very much like the German language, because it is essentially its variety. After the end of World War II, such similarity was extremely inappropriate.
• In Russian prison jargon you can find huge amount words from Yiddish: parasha, ksiva, shmon, fraer and so on.
• A scientist from the Tel Aviv Institute, Paul Wexler, suggested that Yiddish did not originate from the German language group, as previously thought, but from the Slavic one, but this fact has not been officially proven.
• Jews believe that a person who does not know Hebrew can neither be called educated nor be considered such.

Influence on folklore and literature

Yiddish has become a stable soil for the creation of literary and folklore works, which modern world are considered the richest cultural phenomena. Until the 18th century, researchers clearly traced the difference between literary works written in both Hebrew and Yiddish.

Hebrew was designed to satisfy preferences educated nobility, whose ideals were social, religious, intellectual and aesthetic life. The less educated society was content with works written in Yiddish: these people were not familiar with traditional Jewish education. Written sources in Yiddish were of an educational nature; they were presented in the idea of ​​various kinds of instructions.

In the 18th century, the Haskalah movement arose, which included Jews who advocated the adoption of European cultural values ​​that arose in famous era Enlightenment. During this period, a split occurred between old and new literature, and the same thing happened with folklore works. Literary works, written in Hebrew, ceased to be in demand and were banned, everything began to be written exclusively in Yiddish. The situation changed only in the 20th century, when the Hebrew language was revived.

Getting used to using certain words, we sometimes do not think that we may inadvertently make a serious mistake. So, Hebrew and Yiddish often sound synonymous, but is this correct? Not really.

Hebrew– Hebrew language, part of the group of Semitic languages, independent story which began in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC and has six periods.
Yiddish- the language of European Ashkenazi Jews, historically belonging to the Central German dialects of the High German subgroup. Appeared between the 10th and 15th centuries in the upper reaches of the Rhine.

Difference between Hebrew and Yiddish

Perhaps nothing conveys the difference between these languages ​​better than Jewish sayings. For example, this: “Whoever does not know Hebrew is uneducated; whoever does not know Yiddish is not a Jew.” It and others like it reflect the main, one might even say sacred, difference: Yiddish is the language of everyday life, everyday communication for Jews, it is distinguished by mobility and the possibility of change, Hebrew is the language of prayer, philosophical books and conversations, he is not so susceptible to the trends of the times.
This ideal coexistence was disrupted, and over time these languages ​​either changed places or pushed one another aside. Today, Yiddish is becoming deeper and deeper into the past. If before the Second World War about 11 million people spoke Yiddish, then in 2012 this figure fluctuated between 500 thousand and 2 million people (although one should not lose sight of the factor of the general decrease in the number of Jews). But at the same time, today the number of people interested in its revival is increasing.
As for the actual differences, Yiddish did not have its own alphabet; it used the Hebrew alphabet (in fact, Hebrew became for Yiddish what Church Slavonic is for Russian). However, this was expressed only in form, while the rules of grammar did not coincide: Hebrew uses a system of vowels to give the desired sound to words consisting of only consonants. In Yiddish, certain letters serve this purpose.

TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish is as follows:

Historically, Hebrew belonged to the “sublime” languages, being the language of books, religion, and philosophy. Yiddish related to everyday communication.
Today, Hebrew is more widely spoken, while the number of Yiddish speakers has declined.
To give the desired sound to words consisting of only consonants, Hebrew uses a system of vowels; in Yiddish, special letters are used.

yid - general
ydd - eastern
yih - western

Yiddish (ייִדיש Yiddish And אידיש Yiddish- verbatim: "Jewish" listen)) is a Hebrew language of the Germanic group, historically the main language of Ashkenazi Jews, spoken by about 11 million Jews worldwide at the beginning of the 20th century.

Yiddish originated in Central and Eastern Europe in X-XIV centuries based on Central German dialects (70-75%) with extensive borrowings from Hebrew and Aramaic (about 15-20%), as well as from Romance and Slavic languages ​​(in dialects reaches 15%). The fusion of languages ​​gave rise to an original grammar that made it possible to combine words with a German root and syntactic elements of Semitic and Slavic languages.

About the name

The word "Yiddish" in Yiddish itself means literally "Jewish, Jewish." Historically also - taich, Yiddish-taich (from ייִדיש־טײַטש‎) - “folk-Jewish”, or according to another version - “interpretation” in connection with the tradition of oral interpretation of Jewish texts when studying them. (The word Taich is related to the words Deutsch and Dutch, but is not equivalent, for example, to the adjective “German” in the sense of belonging to the German nation. The word itself is older than such a concept, and simply means “folk” in the original sense, that is, Taich in this context means colloquial language.)

In the 19th century and early 20th century in Russian, Yiddish was often called "jargon", "Jewish jargon" and "new Jewish language". The term "Jewish-German" was also used. In the 20th century in the USSR, simply the name “Jewish language” was often used (the functioning of Hebrew most of history of the USSR was practically prohibited) or “Jewish (Yiddish) language.”

In Russian, the word “Yiddish” can be used as both an indeclinable and an indeclinable noun.

Classification issues

Slavic theory

In 1991, Tel Aviv University linguistics professor Paul Wexler, based on an analysis of the structure and vocabulary of Yiddish, put forward a hypothesis that classifies Yiddish as a Slavic rather than a Germanic language. Later, in the book “Ashkenazi Jews: A Slavic-Turkic People in Search of Jewish Identity,” Wexler proposed revising the entire theory of the origins of Ashkenazi Jews—Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jewry. He views them not as descendants of people from the Middle East, but as an indigenous European people descended from the descendants Western Slavs- Lusatian Sorbs, Polabs, etc. Later, Wexler included among the supposed ancestors of Eastern European Jews also part of the Khazars and some Eastern Slavs who lived in Kievan Rus in the 9th-12th centuries.

Wexler's theory did not gain support in the scientific community. In academic circles (including at Tel Aviv University, where P. Wexler works) it is viewed as a curiosity generated by its own political views author. At the same time, some researchers believe that the role of the Slavic component in Yiddish is perhaps somewhat more significant than previously thought.

Linguogeography

Range and numbers

Beginning of the 21st century

Define modern number Yiddish speakers are very difficult. During the 20th century, most Ashkenazi Jews switched to the language of the countries where they live. However, from the censuses of some countries it is possible to obtain the number of Yiddish speakers.

• According to the census results Hungary Of the 701 Jews, 276 (40%) speak Hebrew at home. It is possible that this is an error in the interpretation of the concept of “language of one’s nationality” and either they all meant Yiddish, or some of them meant Yiddish, and some of them meant Hebrew (as in the Russian census).

Based on the above data, the total number of Yiddish speakers in the world can be estimated at 500 thousand people. Similar data are given in some other sources: 550-600 thousand. At the same time, there are much more high marks: 1,762,320 (Ethnologue, 16th edition) and even 2 million (KEE), but it is not explained on the basis of what methodology they were obtained.

Sociolinguistic information

Although among the majority of Jews Yiddish has given way to the languages ​​of the surrounding population, deeply religious Jews (Haredi and especially Hasidim) communicate among themselves primarily in Yiddish.

Dialects

Yiddish dialects

Isoglosses of Yiddish dialects

Yiddish consists of large number dialects, which are usually divided into Western and Eastern dialects.

Western Yiddish, which some researchers (for example P. Veksler) consider as a separate language that Jews spoke in western regions Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, today almost dead.

The Eastern dialect is divided into three main dialects:

• northern(so-called Belarusian-Lithuanian dialect: Baltic states, Belarus, northeastern regions of Poland, west Smolensk region Russia and part of the Chernigov region of Ukraine),
• southeastern(so-called Ukrainian dialect: Ukraine, Moldova, eastern regions of Romania, primarily Moldova and Bukovina, southern part Brest region Belarus and Lublin Voivodeship of Poland)
• central(or southwestern, so-called Polish dialect: central and western Poland, Transylvania, Carpathian regions of Ukraine).

There are also transitional dialects.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a single put the sprach- a common language that has become widespread mainly in universities.

In the USSR grammatical basis served as a literary standard Ukrainian dialect, while phonetics was based on northern dialect.

Theatrical Yiddish, in accordance with the tradition that originates from A. Goldfaden, corresponds to the average Ukrainian dialect(sometimes referred to in this context as Volynian).

Regional varieties of Yiddish show great variation in the vowel system, ranging from the opposition between short open i and long closed i to patterns with complete parallel rows of short and long vowels. Dialects also contain ü and diphthongs ending in -w. However, literary Yiddish exhibits the greatest diversity in the consonant system. Some dialects lack the h phoneme, some differentiate fewer palatals, and Western Yiddish lacks a voicing distinction. Articulation varies in different regions from apical to (predominantly) uvular.

Writing

Spelling

Yiddish uses "square" writing. There are several variants of Yiddish spelling.

The writing is based on the Hebrew alphabet with some standard diacritics: אַ, אָ, בֿ, וּ, יִ, ײַ, כּ, פּ, פֿ, שֹ, תּ Most words borrowed from Hebrew and Aramaic have retained their traditional spelling. Rest vocabulary is a system of one-to-one correspondence between sounds, on the one hand, and letters or their combinations, on the other. At the same time, established traditions are preserved, concerning, for example, the graphics of certain final letters, or the rules about the initial unpronounceable א.

In the process of evolution in Yiddish, there has been a growing tendency to systematically use the letter א to represent the sound /a/, אָ to represent /o/; כ is used to convey /x/, וו - to convey /v/. Over time, the use of the letter ע as a symbol of the vowel sound /e/ became established. This innovation, characteristic of the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew, which lost the consonant sound indicated by the letter ע, dates back to the 14th century. The methods of rendering diphthongs and unstressed vowels, as well as the rules of word division, varied significantly in different periods history. Nowadays the diphthong /oi/ is indicated by the combination וי, the diphthong /ei/ by the combination יי, the diphthong /ai/ by the same combination with an additional diacritic sign - ײַ (the diacritic sign is not used in all publications). /ž/ and /č/ are represented by the digraphs זש and טש, respectively.

Some publishers still do not comply with all the rules. The IVO spelling is considered standard, but religious publishing houses prefer the old system. At many newspapers, older proofreaders refuse to change skills that predate World War II.

Since the 1920s, in the Soviet Union (and then in communist and pro-Soviet publishing houses in a number of other countries), the principle of historical and etymological spelling of words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin was rejected and was accepted phonetic principle, which denies the traditional adherence to Hebrew and Aramaic orthography when writing words from these languages. In 1961, the USSR returned to writing final letters, maintaining phonetic spelling until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and even later, until 1994, in the magazine “Di Yiddishe Gas”.

From the history of language

In the 1920s, Yiddish was one of the official languages ​​of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. For some time the slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!” was inscribed on the coat of arms of the BSSR in Yiddish, along with Belarusian, Polish and Russian.

It was also one of the state languages ​​of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonetics and phonology

Yiddish has expiratory stress, and although the location of stress in a word is not always completely predictable, there are several characteristic distributions word stress. A triangular vowel system with three degrees of opening and two positions of articulation:

The most characteristic diphthongs are the combinations еі, аі and оі. In Yiddish, as in the southern dialects of German, the reflection of the Middle German diphthong ei and the long vowel î differs:

There is a reduction in many German diphthongs.

Consonant system:

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 denotes palatal consonants.

Unlike the German language, the series of plosives and fricatives differ not in tension, but in voicing - obviously under Slavic influence, which also affected the appearance of palatal consonants. Unlike German, the occurrence of voiced consonants in the outcome of words is also observed. Due to the influx of Hebrew-Aramaic and Slavic origin Numerous initial combinations of consonants, unusual for the German language (for example, bd-, px-), penetrated into Yiddish.

Morphology

The grammatical system of Yiddish largely follows the model of the German language, but with a significant number of changes. New patterns of word order have emerged in syntax. Word order in main and subordinate clauses became the same. The distance between nouns and their modifiers, as well as between parts of verb phrases, has been reduced.

Nouns are characterized by four cases and three genders. However genitive turned into possessive, losing most of its other functions. The accusative case indicator is omitted after prepositions. The Germanic distinction between weak and strong declension of adjectives has disappeared, but a new distinction has emerged between modifiable predicative adjectives. Many nouns were distributed between different models plural. Under the influence of Slavic languages, diminutive forms of nouns and adjectives developed. The verb has all tenses and moods except the present tense indicative mood, began to form analytically. A consistent distinction between perfect and imperfect forms, alien to the structure of Germanic languages, develops; A number of new verbal forms have appeared, expressing aspectual and voicing shades.

The present participle also acquired new functions. Conjugation forms have in many cases undergone innovation, and new classes of periphrastic conjugation have emerged.

Syntax

Influence 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 of slang

Hebrew words ( ksiva, joke etc.) entered the Russian language through Yiddish - this is evidenced, in particular, by their Ashkenazi pronunciation ( "xiva"(Ashkenazi Hebrew, Yiddish) - "ktiva"(modern Hebrew)).

See also

Notes

Literature

Dictionaries and monographs

• Russian-Jewish (Yiddish) dictionary: Ok. 40,000 words. Compiled by R. Ya. Lerner, E. B. Loitsker, M. N. Maidansky, M. A. Shapiro. - 2nd ed., stereotype. - M.: Rus. lang., 1989. - 720 with ISBN 5-200-00427-6 - Contains an overview of Yiddish grammar

• Max Weinreich “Here you go” ( geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh- story Hebrew language), in 4 vols. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: New York, 1973.

Translated into English:

• Max Weinreich. History of the Yiddish Language, in 2 vols. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1980. ISBN 0-226-88604-2
• Max Weinreich. History of the Yiddish Language, in 2 vols. (first full translation). Yale University Press: New Haven, 2007. ISBN 978-0-300-10887-3 and ISBN 0-300-10887-7

• Neil G. Jacobs. Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2005, ISBN 0-521-77215-X

Literature in Yiddish

• Category:Yiddish writers
• Category:Yiddish poets

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Marina Agranovskaya Yiddish, brother of German
• Marina Agranovskaya This sweet tongue is lost to mom

Online resources

• Concise Yiddish-Russian dictionary by Alexander Soldatov on the Jewniwerse website
• Yiddish lessons by Arie London and Yoil Matveev on the Jewniwerse website

Other links

• Derbaremdiker M. L. What do proverbs say in Yiddish?
• Journal of the University of Haifa “Di velt fun Yiddish” (The World of Yiddish)
• Collections of Jewish short stories ed. Irving Howe, Eliezer Greenberg and Frieda Forman
• Too left, too right, too dead Yiddish by Michael Dorfman
• The first international festival of Yiddish music and culture.
• Yiddish-speaking Israel, April 2010 Jewish Observer
• Funeral Yiddish. Song by Alexander Gorodnitsky

For the untrained Russian ear, Hebrew and Yiddish are interchangeable concepts, one might say, even synonyms. But is this true, and what is the difference? Hebrew and Yiddish are two languages ​​spoken by Jews, but they differ from each other in age, origin, areas of use, and much more. This article focuses on the main differences between the two linguistic systems. But first you have to give general characteristics both languages.

Hebrew: origin

Differences

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

• Hebrew is several thousand years older than Yiddish.
• Hebrew refers exclusively to Semitic languages, and Yiddish, in addition to Semitic, also has Germanic and Slavic roots.
• The text in Yiddish is written without vowels.
• Hebrew is much more common.

Native speakers who know both languages ​​can explain the difference even better. Hebrew and Yiddish have much in common, but the main difference most likely lies not in vocabulary or grammar, but in the purpose of use. Here is a proverb that existed among European Jews 100 years ago about this: “God speaks Yiddish on weekdays, and Hebrew on Saturday.” At that time, Hebrew was only a language for religious purposes, and everyone spoke Yiddish. Well, now the situation has changed exactly the opposite.

YIDDISH LANGUAGE(ייִדישע שפּראַך), the language spoken (and partially still spoken) by Ashkenazi Jews (see Ashkenazi) for the last millennium. Formed as a fusion of components of different languages ​​based on High German dialects, it gradually began to perform a wide range of communicative functions. Since the society that used it achieved one of the highest degrees of cultural activity in its spoken language, Yiddish represents an unusually vivid evidence of the characteristics of Jewish culture.

Since its inception in the 10th century. and until the end of the 18th century. Yiddish was the predominant medium oral communication Jews from Holland to Ukraine, as well as in Ashkenazi settlements in Italy, the Balkans and Eretz Israel. Along with Hebrew, it was also an important means of literary and written communication (see Yiddish literature). During the era of emancipation there arose strong desire to the transition from Yiddish to non-Jewish local languages. Waves of emigration from Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. led to the widespread spread of Yiddish in North America and a number of countries Latin America, to the emergence of Yiddish centers in England, France, South Africa (followed by a gradual transition of Jews, descendants of Eastern European emigrants, to the languages ​​of the surrounding population). Development of the press, theater, secular education system, research institutes led to the varied use of the Yiddish language.

The total number of Yiddish speakers by the end of the 70s. 20th century can be estimated at no more than two million people (mostly older people). Among Ashkenazi Jews different countries knowledge of Yiddish as a second language is widespread throughout the world. There is a revival of interest in Yiddish among young people. Yiddish departments exist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Columbia University in New York. In addition, Yiddish is studied and taught in many universities in the USA, France, Germany and other countries. The main center for the study of Yiddish is the Institute of Higher Education (New York), which carries out normative activities to standardize Yiddish spelling and terminology.

Modern literary Yiddish. Over the centuries, Yiddish has spread over vast territories, and although its regional varieties differ from each other, certain norms have always been observed in written communication. Such normativity characterizes as old literary language, which dominated until the beginning of the 19th century, and modern literary Yiddish, which developed as an interregional language from the middle of the last century. The relative homogeneity of literary Yiddish is a remarkable phenomenon, because it developed without the help of those unifying factors that provide nation state(especially through a single school system). The following sections describe mainly the structure of literary Yiddish.

Phonological system. The Yiddish phoneme system is determined mainly by those German dialects from which it borrowed its basic lexical composition.

Yiddish has expiratory stress, and although the location of word stress is not always completely predictable, there are several basic characteristic word stress distributions. A triangular vowel system with three degrees of opening and two positions of articulation.

The most characteristic diphthongs are the combination of [e], [a], [o] with [i]. The consonant system is highly symmetrical.

Unlike the German language, the series of plosives and fricatives differ not in tension, but in voicing - obviously under Slavic influence, which also affected the appearance of palatal consonants. Unlike German, the occurrence of voiced consonants in the outcome of words is also observed. Due to the influx of words of Hebrew-Aramaic and Slavic origin, numerous initial consonant combinations unusual for the German language penetrated into Yiddish (for example, bd-, px-).

Regional varieties of Yiddish show great differences in the vowel system, ranging from the opposition between short open i and long closed i, and ending with models with complete parallel rows of short and long vowels. Also found in dialects ü and diphthongs ending in - w. However, literary Yiddish exhibits the greatest diversity in the consonant system. Some dialects lack a phoneme h, some differ in fewer palatals, and Western Yiddish does not differentiate in voicing. Articulation r varies in different areas from r apical to (mostly) r uvular.

Writing system. The writing is based on the Hebrew alphabet with some standard diacritics: אַ, אָ, בֿ, וּ, יִ, יַי, כּ, פּ, פֿ, שֹ, תּ (For details of the writing of Yiddish in the Soviet Union and a number of other countries, see below.) Most words borrowed from Hebrew and Aramaic have retained their traditional spelling. The rest of the vocabulary is general system unambiguous correspondence between sounds, on the one hand, and letters or their combinations, on the other. At the same time, of course, established Jewish traditions are preserved, concerning, for example, the graphics of certain final letters, or the rule about the initial unpronounceable א. In the process of evolution in Yiddish, the tendency to systematically use the letter א to indicate the sound [a], אָ to convey [o] has increased; כ is used to convey [χ], וו - to convey [v]. Over time, the use of the letter ע as a symbol of the vowel sound [e] became established. This innovation, characteristic of the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew, which lost the consonant sound indicated by the letter ע, dates back to the 14th century. The methods of rendering diphthongs and unstressed vowels, as well as the rules of word division, varied significantly in different periods of history. Nowadays, a diphthong is indicated by the combination וי, a diphthong by the combination יי, a diphthong by the same combination with an additional diacritic sign - ײַ (the diacritic sign is not used in all publications). [ž] and [č] are represented by the digraphs זש and טש, respectively.

Although some publishers still do not comply with all the rules, deviations from them are minor. Since the 1920s in the Soviet Union (and then in some communist and pro-Soviet publishing houses in a number of other countries) the principle of historical-etymological spelling of words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin was rejected and the phonetic principle of spelling was adopted (either because of anti-traditionalist ideology or because of linguistic rationalism) . In the Soviet Union, in 1961, they returned to writing final letters.

Morphology and syntax. The basic "cut" of the Yiddish grammatical system follows the model of the German language, but with a significant number of innovations. New patterns of word order have emerged in syntax. The word order in the main and subordinate clauses became the same. The distance between nouns and their modifiers, as well as between parts of verb phrases, has been reduced.

The name system continues to be characterized by four cases and three genders. However, the genitive case became possessive, losing most of its other functions. The accusative case is omitted after prepositions. The Germanic distinction between weak and strong declension of adjectives has disappeared, but a new distinction has emerged between modifiable predicative adjectives. Many nouns were distributed among different plural models. Under the influence of Slavic languages, diminutive forms of nouns and adjectives developed. In the verb, all tenses and moods, except for the present tense of the indicative mood, began to be formed analytically. A consistent distinction between the perfect and imperfect forms, alien to the structure of the Germanic languages, developed, and a number of new forms appeared, expressing specific and voicing shades.

The present participle also acquired new functions. Conjugation forms have in many cases undergone innovation, and new classes of periphrastic conjugation have emerged.

Regional differences in the grammar of spoken Yiddish most affected the system of case and gender. In central and northeastern Yiddish the distinction between dative and accusative cases. Disappeared in the northeast neuter and a new system of quasi-genera with a high degree of semantic motivation developed. Largest quantity innovations are found in eastern dialects. The most common use here is modifiable adjectives as part of predicates, as well as new aspect shades of verbs.

Vocabulary composition. The Yiddish dictionary is characterized by the presence of words of various origins: Hebrew-Aramaic, Romance, Slavic and “international”. However, the mechanical attribution of words in this language to their primary etymological sources is an extremely unrealistic approach to the characteristics of Yiddish. Yes, word mench(`person`) is formally related to the German word Mensch, but in Yiddish it acquired a number of important additional meanings (`employee`, `reliable, mature person`), which are lost if we proceed from the German original “external form” of this word. Similar remarks are true regarding words of other origins. Yes, in a word unterzogn(`whisper in the ear') both the prefix and the root resemble the German unter and sagen, but the German word untersagen has no corresponding meaning. The meaning of this word in Yiddish can be much better explained as a translation from a Slavic verb with a prefix (cf. Ukrainian pid-kazati). The meaning of many common words in Yiddish (for example, oiszong- “to reveal a secret, a mystery,” etc.) cannot be explained either through German or through Slavic languages. It is also necessary to keep in mind that Yiddish uses only a small part vocabulary languages ​​from which the vocabulary of Yiddish was borrowed; on the other hand, some elements have been preserved in Yiddish source languages, which have already ceased to be used in them. An example from the German language is the words shver(`father-in-law`, `father-in-law`) and let's go(`son-in-law`).

Contrary to widespread belief among non-specialists, there is no strict correspondence between the functions of elements of the Yiddish vocabulary and their origins. So, various words from Hebrew and Aramaic can have solemn, neutral and even colloquial connotations depending on the individual word. The nature of the process of mixing heterogeneous elements in Yiddish does not allow us to accurately determine the percentage of words from different sources in this language. The task is further complicated by the existence of such “adhesions” as mefunice(`fastidious woman`), which combine origins from two sources - mefunac(`spoiled') from Hebrew and -ice from Slavic languages. Few words of Romance origin survive in modern Yiddish; however, they figure prominently in his vocabulary (e.g. Leyenen- `read`, benchn- `bless`). They represent traces of the lexical heritage of early times, when emigrants from Romance countries who arrived in Germany contributed to a new language. From Slavic languages, Yiddish borrowed not only thousands lexical units, but also numerous productive models for the formation of new words. Among the Slavic languages, the most prominent place in terms of the degree of influence on Yiddish is occupied by Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian language. The past connections between Yiddish and Czech and its relatively recent contacts with the Russian language left a much smaller trace. In some cases, competing words have entered Yiddish same value from various Slavic languages. So, for example, the word pieschen(`to pamper`) of Polish origin exists alongside the word pesten, borrowed from Ukrainian. In other cases, one word becomes widespread in Yiddish (for example, blond- `wander` from Polish).

Dialect differences. European Yiddish is divided on a territorial basis into two main categories - Western and Eastern. In the western regions, roughly covering Holland, Alsace and Lorraine, Switzerland and most of Germany, there are also peculiarities in the pronunciation of Hebrew in synagogue services. Phonologically, Western Yiddish is generally distinguished by its use of long sound[ā] in words like Kafn Flas(koifn fleisch - `buy meat`). The Yiddish language of the countries located south of the Carpathian Mountains occupies an intermediate position between the West and the East. In the western part of this region - in Bohemia, Moravia, western Slovakia, western Hungary - Jews speak a dialect lexically close to Eastern European and phonologically close to Western European. In the east of this region - in the valleys of Hungary, in Transylvania and Transcarpathia - Yiddish is the result of a mixture of the western Transcarpathian dialect with the dialects of the Hasidim who moved here from Galicia.

The eastern area of ​​distribution of Yiddish can be divided into three clearly defined regions: northeastern (Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia), central (Poland, western Galicia) and southeastern (Ukraine with part of eastern Galicia, Romania), occupying an intermediate position between the first two . Using the same example phrase coifn flash, we get in the northeast Caifn Fleisch, in the central region Koifn Fleisch and as if a compromise option coifn flash in the southeast.

The literary norm as such is fixed in written Yiddish ( buhsprakh) and usually coincides with the northeastern dialect. However, when reading texts, both book and various dialect pronunciation options are equally valid.

Historical development. It can be established with complete confidence that the most important event in the history of the development of Yiddish was its penetration into the Slavic environment and moving away from the German sphere of influence. Due to the influence of Slavic languages, the grammatical structure Yiddish and weakened it genetic link with German language. The main milestones in the history of the development of Yiddish are considered to be 1250, 1500 and 1700.

The most ancient period In the history of the development of Yiddish, the time is considered when Jews did not yet have stable contact with the sphere of influence of the Slavic languages. The end point of this period is considered to be 1250. During this era, Jews from northern France and northern Italy, whose spoken language was a dialect they called " la'az" (see Hebrew-French), first penetrated into Lorraine, where they apparently encountered several dialect variants German language. A method of enriching the vocabulary of a language, which was resorted to by Jews who spoke la'az- borrowing words from sources sacred language Jewish people - was also used at this stage of the development of Yiddish. In exactly the same way they followed what was accepted in la'az a method of expressing spoken language in writing using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

In the coming next ancient period development of Yiddish (1250–1500) Jews whose spoken language was Yiddish came into contact with Slavs and Jews who spoke Slavic languages- first in southeastern Germany and Bohemia, then in Poland, and later in more eastern regions. Both in the numerous communities founded in the new lands, and in the Jewish settlements that already existed there, whose inhabitants had previously spoken Slavic languages, Yiddish became the generally accepted language. During this period, even before the invention of printing, a relatively homogeneous literary Yiddish also emerged.

The middle period of the development of Yiddish (1500–1700) is characterized by a significant expansion of the territory in which Ashkenazim lived and, consequently, an increase in the percentage of Jews speaking Yiddish outside Germany and areas adjacent to the German-speaking cities of the Slavic lands. Monuments of literary Yiddish of this period are prose and poetic works (see Yiddish literature). Private correspondence, recordings of witness testimony, satirical couplets, etc. serve as valuable material for the study of spoken Yiddish of that time.

Modern Yiddish period. After 1700, Yiddish began a slow but almost steady decline in the West. Around 1820, new norms based on Eastern Yiddish began to take shape. Yiddish becomes the language of organized social movements of the Jewish masses and a rapidly developing literary activity. The linguistic self-awareness of its speakers is increasing, which reaches its peak at the Chernivtsi Conference on the Yiddish Language (1908). The subsequent introduction of teaching in Yiddish in schools, research work and organizational activities contributed to the expansion of vocabulary and stabilization of the language. During the period between the two world wars, a network of educational and cultural institutions in Yiddish existed in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and the Soviet Union. In a number of areas Soviet Union with a significant Jewish population, Yiddish also enjoyed the status official language in court and lower bodies of local administration (for more details, see the relevant sections in the articles about these countries). Modernist poetry turned out to be especially inventive in developing the internal possibilities of Yiddish (see Di yunge, In zikh).

Yiddish and Hebrew. The main sources of borrowings from Hebrew for Yiddish were the texts of the Pentateuch, prayers and technical terms of Talmudic and rabbinic literature (from the Talmudic and rabbinic texts a certain number of Aramaisms entered Yiddish). IN lately Yiddish is, of course, significantly influenced by Israeli Hebrew, and this influence is noticeable both in Israel itself and beyond its borders. As a result, words such as traditional coexist in Yiddish aliyah(challenge in the synagogue to read a passage from the Torah) and modern Aliya(immigration to Israel).

Modern Hebrew has been significantly influenced by Yiddish, especially since the late 19th century. until the 50s 20th century, when the majority of the Yishuv were Ashkenazi Jews. Under the influence of Yiddish, the phonological structure of the revived Hebrew changed, new phraseological units and calques from Yiddish arose: lakahat el x a-lev(from Yiddish nemen tsum x artsn- `take to heart`), lekashkesh bakumkum (x acn a kettle- `chat`), etc., as well as direct borrowings: schnorer- `beggar`, Blintzes- `pancakes`, alte zahn- `rags`, etc.

Studying Yiddish. Although the first attempts to study Yiddish date back to the 16th century, up to the 1920s. This was done only by individuals with various scientific backgrounds. In the 1920s in some countries, scientific institutions were created wholly or partially dedicated to the study of Yiddish (at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR, Jewish scientific institute IVO in Vilnius). These institutions became centers for the systematic collection of linguistic materials and the preparation of fundamental works, including dictionaries and dialectological atlases. The publications of these institutions were scientific forum for Yiddish researchers; For the first time, it became possible to train scientific personnel specializing in the study of Yiddish. Some of these institutions played the role of authorities, establishing spelling standards and uniform terminology.

The suppression of Jewish culture in the Soviet Union and the Catastrophe of European Jewry led to the destruction of a significant part of the scientific personnel involved in the study of Yiddish. After World War II, the United States became the center of Yiddish studies. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the study of Yiddish is carried out in close coordination with the study of other Jewish disciplines.

AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE ARTICLE IS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION

KEE, volume: 2.
Col.: 664–671.
Published: 1982.