'''Yiddish''' is spoken as a daily language in some parts of America, mostly in New York City, and in some parts of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, and South America, as well as in Israel. It is slightly higher than standard German, with a large admixture of words of Hebrew, Slavic, or other origin. As Yiddish is roughly 75% Germanic in origin, German speakers can understand a large part of it.

Yiddish is written with the same alphabet as Hebrew, with a few additional letters, and is written from right to left. <!-- The following characters are used to make the question mark go at the end of the question: 8234 0x202a left-to-right embedding 8235 0x202b right-to-left embedding 8236 0x202c pop directional override I am inserting them as HTML entities because they are invisible, are probably not found on keyboards, and would confuse the dickens out of anyone arrowing through them, which is already confusing enough with the cursor jumping around and going backward. -phma -->

Pronunciation guide

Yiddish pronounciation is different from German or Israeli Hebrew. Words of European origin are spelled out, similar to most European languages, and can be said as they are spelled. On the other hand, words of Semitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) origin are written just as in the original Hebrew or Aramaic, without vowels. In many cases '''you must learn how to pronounce these words in Yiddish'''; you cannot necessarily work it out from their spelling, and they are mostly pronounced differently from Israeli Hebrew.

Take note that most native speakers do not use most of the diacritical marks. For example, both "??" and "??" are usually written as "?". While "??" is almost always written as "?". In the latter case, this makes sense, as words represented here as "ey" or "ay" are often pronounced slightly differently from dialect to dialect.

Furthermore, "??" is almost always written as "?", because there is a dot in "??" to distinguish it.

The dots used to distinguish "???" from "?" are often replaced with an "?" as in "???" rather than "???" which is somewhat clumsy visually.

All these differences represent standardised YIVO orthography versus the more widely employed "Modern Standard", other variations exist.

; ? shtumer alef : silent; used before ? ''vov'' and ? ''yud'' when they are vowels; e.g. '''?'''?? (ir) ''you'' subj. ; ?? pasekh alef : f'''a'''ther ; ?? komets aleph : '''o'''range ; ? beys : like '''b'''ear ; ?? veys : like '''v'''olume; only used in words of Hebrew or Aramaic origin ; ? giml : like '''g'''one ; ? daled : like '''d'''og ; ? hey : like '''h'''arp ; ? vov : like '''o'''r or t'''u'''ne ; ?? melupm vov : used in place of ? ''vov'' when it appears beside ? ''tsvey vovn'' ; ? tsvey vovn : like '''v'''iolin ; ? vov yud : like b'''oy''' ; ? zayin : like '''z'''ebra ; ? khes : like the Scottish Gaelic lo'''ch''', German a'''ch''', or as in '''?'''????? ('''kh'''anuke); used only in words of Hebraic or Aramaic origin ; ? tes : like '''t'''uck ; ? yud : like '''y'''et (as a consonant) or '''i'''nternet (as a vowel) ; ?? khirek yud : used beside another vowel instead of ? ''yud'', to show that it is to be pronounced separately; e.g. ?'''??'''??? (yidish) ''Yiddish'' ; ? tsvey yudn : like b'''ay''' ; ?? pasekh tsvey yudn : like p'''ie''' ; ?? kof : like '''k'''eep; used only in words of Hebraic or Aramaic origin ; ? ? khof : like lo'''ch''' ; ? lamed : like '''l'''eave ; ? ? mem : like '''m'''other ; ? ? nun : like '''n'''ever ; ? samekh : like '''s'''ome ; ? ayin : like s'''e'''t ; ?? pey : like u'''p'''on ; ?? ? fey : like '''f'''ree ; ? ? tsadek : like boo'''ts''' ; ? kuf : like '''c'''oo, but further back in the throat ; ? reysh : voiced gargle as in French, can be pronounced as '''r'''oot ; ? shin : '''sh''oe ; ?? sin : like '''s'''eem; only used in words of Hebrew or Aramaic origin ; ?? tof : like '''t'''eeth; only used in words of Hebrew or Aramaic origin ; ? sof : like '''s'''mooth; only used in words of hebrew or aramaic origin

Phrase list

Basics

; Hello. : ?????????? (sholem-aleykhem) ; Hello (in response to a "Hello") : ?????????? (aleykhem-sholem) ; How are you? : ???? ???????? (Vos makhstu?) (informal) / ???? ????? ???? (Vos makht ir?) (formal) ; Fine, thank you. : ???, ?? ????? (Gut, a dank) ???? ?? ?????? (Got tsu danken) ???? ??? (Borukh Hashem) ; What is your name? : ?? ?????? (Vi heystu? [informal])/ ?? ???? ????(Vi heyst ir? [formal]) ; My name is ______ . : ??? ??? (Ikh heys ______.) ; Nice to meet you. : ?? ?????? ??? ??? ?? ????? ???? (Es frayt mir zikh tsu kenen aykh [formal]) ?? ?????? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ??? (Es frayt mir zikh tsu trefen dikh.) ; Please. : ???? ???? ??? (Zayt azoy gut.) ; Thank you. : ?? ????? (A dank.) ; You're welcome : ?????? ????????? (nishto farvos) ; Yes. : ??? (yo) ; No. : ??? (neyn) ; Excuse me. (''getting attention'') : ????????? (Entshuldik!) ; Excuse me. (''begging pardon'') : ???? ??? ???? (Zayt zhe moykhl! ) ; I'm sorry. : Zayt mir moykhl (formal) ??? ??? ???? (Zay mir moykhl [informal].) ; Goodbye : ??? ?????? (Zay gezunt) ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? (A grus in der heym.) ; Goodbye (''informal'') : ?? ???? (A gutn.) ; I can't speak Yiddish [well]. : (??? ??? ???? ??? ????? (??? (Ikh red nisht keyn Yidish (gut).) ; Do you speak English? : ?????? ?????? Redstu English? (informal)/ ???? ??? ?????? Redt ir English? (formal) ; Is there someone here who speaks English? : ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? Iz es do emetz vos redt english? ; Help! : ???? Hilf! ?????? Gvald! ; Good morning. : ???? ?????? Gutn morgn. ; Good evening. : ????? ?????? Gutn ovent. ; Good night : ?? ???? ????? A gute nakht. ; I don't understand. : ??? ???????? ???? (ikh farshtey nisht) ; Where is the toilet? : ??? ??? ??? ?????????/??? ?????????? Vu iz der bodtsimer?/ der vanetsimer?