Yiddish for Dummies - Part 1 of 10

[@Wuei108]

My father was a butcher and cattle merchant in Paderborn, Germany. When he and his employees where talking to each other they used special words which come from Yiddish or Hebrew. Rosch and Zabber, two words for head - Boser for meat -. schomm for fat - Seeger for a guy - kotenen Seeger was a small man, masematte for eating - mazzel for good luck. In my memories the words are powerful and they where proud to use them when they where in private space.

[@Wuei108]

In this minutes i finish the Novel "Das Landgut" from Bashevis Singer. It would be hard to read it in Yiddish, hard and interesting. My grandpa was arrested by the police in 1944. Not for using hebräic words but he said: "It seems we will loose this war." in public.

[@Wuei108]

Yiddisch is not high german but middle german because many jews came to germany in the middle ages from italy and spain. - Thats what the guy says. I must have some jewis anchestors. Hearinig yiddish makes me cry and brings shivers to my back.

[@Wuei108]

thnx for the upload.

[@Wuei108]

I left the christian katholic religion 25 years ago. Now i live in an Ashram and we say prayers and holy verses in hindi. I am still interested in Yewish culture as it is a part of german culture and part of MY culture. In our ashram two women whre singing "Shma Israel" on Saturday. It relly sounded very good.

[@michaelserebreny454]

Maha Lingam if you're going to turn the J back into a Y, the "e" & "w" have to go too. Yidin is the transliterated form of the original; "Yiddish" being the Demonym that becomes "Jewish" in English. "Yewish" is just word soup.

[@Wuei108]

@@michaelserebreny454 Thank you for the hints.

[@Wuei108]

If you search for "Yoga Vidya Satsang vom 10. August 2013 "at youtube at 1.15 you can hear women sing "shma Israel" in our Ashram in Bad Meinberg.

[@Wuei108]

Thanks for the explaination. For someone from the northern germany the austrian, swiss or bavarian dialekt can be as difficult to understand as Yiddish.

[@Lagolop]

Neyn, Yiddish is a Middle HIGH (Medieval High) German language. The term "High" is not related to time frame nor "proper". It is a geographic designation and refer to alpine or high country German. It is based on Medieval High German but contains Aramaic, Hebrew and Polish terms. Yiddish is similar to Austrian, Swiss and Bavarian versions of German as they are also all high German.

[@kmdreamingmirror]

THANK YOU!! -km

[@earlstump1265]

Thank you!

[@Wuei108]

Speak? A bit. I can understand everything. I was working as a woodcutter when i was 25. In our brakes i was sitting with the farmers and listenting to what they where talking ot each other. After a while i could understand what they whrere speaking. Some sentences: "Hei smoiked all were. - Dai Fürster kümmet. - Mak de dör tau. Set you henne. It is interesting thyt my father used words in häbräic for things that have german words in Yiddish.

[@Lagolop]

Hebrew, as was pointed out, was considered the holy language (loshyn koydesh) and reserved for prayer. Yiddish was der mutter sphraph. Di shprakh fun der heym.

[@michaelserebreny454]

Lagolop mame loshen is enough

[@Wuei108]

"S'vet zayn a groyser fargenign!" Es wird ein großes Vergnügen sein.

[@Lagolop]

I have heard about the Yiddish used by Jewish cattle dealers. That was western Yiddish I think, and the most original. That was very interesting that you mentioned that. And those words you mentioned, are they not just used in the cattle trade. Not used in normal conversation. Yiddish words today would be; shmaltz for fat, kop for head, klein for small, fliesh for meat. Boser sounds derived from Latin ie bos for cattle. You are form N Germany; can you speak Platdeutch? It sounds like Dutch.

[@marioriospinot]

Nice.

[@mysql50]

I was hoping to learn the language and not the history, perhaps more descriptive titles would help eliminate confusion.

[@spleenstv5938]

is Yiddish a legitimate language all of its own or is it still have Tides with Hebrew???? Exclamation point

[@markschleider2421]

Hi

[@MartinJames389]

Romania is not a Slavic country. Its language and culture are Latin, and Romanian is a Romance language in common with its relatives, French, Italian, Spanish and some minor ones. Some Jews in Romania (as well as Bosnia) spoke Ladino rather than Yiddish. Likewise Latvian and Lithuanian are Baltic languages, not Slavic, though the latter has been influenced by Polish, which is Slavic.

[@Lagolop]

Nishto far vos :)

[@erikgrunberg8775]

יידיש איז די שפראך פון יידן, וואס רעדן אנדערע לשונות. איך בין אי זייער צופרידן, אז אסך יידן האבן אזעלכע ציקאווע מיט יידישע לימודים.

[@zenpiper]

Oy !

[@renedupont1953]

Not everything that Mr. Geffner says about Yiddish is true. Yiddish is much less Germanic than he thinks. Yiddish is not merely a mixture of words of different origins. Yiddish has its own phraseology, which is light years away from any form of German. The pronunciation heard here is not authentic; it has a foreign accent, and the intonation is influenced by American English. Mr. Geffner is well-meaning and talented, but he is too apologetic and simplistic in his description of Yiddish. "Main eydim iz nebakh given a proster balmelokhe, vos hot kam mit tsores tsuneyfgishtukevet di bidne kheyune." There's practically nothing Germanic in this authentic sentence and no German-speaker can understand it! Yiddish is a majestic independent language and should be presented as such. The title "Yiddish for dummies" is disrespectful and should be scrapped.

[@erikgrunberg8775]

The same can be said about Ukrainian and Russian.