Yiddish vs Dutch vs Austrian German (Can They Understand Each Other?)

Can Dutch, Austrian German and Yiddish speakers understand each other? In this episode we showcase some of the similarities and test the degree of mutual intelligibility between Dutch, the Austrian variety of German and Yiddish. Instead of a list of words and sentences, Samuel (Yiddish speaker), Miriam (German speaker from Austria) and Wijbrand (Dutch speaker) will each read short sentences and paragraphs in their respective languages to see how well they can understand one another.
Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: / bahadoralast
As mentioned in the video, check out Wijbrand's band on Instagram: / lchaimtheband
Yiddish (ייִדיש / יידיש /אידיש) is a language that originated in the 9th century in Central Europe, as a Hebrew-High German language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It is an Indo-European language with many elements taken from Hebrew and to a lesser extent from Aramaic, with some forms eventually taking part of Slavic languages, and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish writing uses the Hebrew alphabet and is mostly spoken by Hasidic and Haredi Jews. Colloquially, the term מאַמע־לשון‎ (meaning 'mother tongue') is sometimes used in order to distinguish it from "holy tongue", referring to Hebrew and Aramaic. Today, the majority of Yiddish speakers are are Hasidim and other Haredim (Orthodox Jews), with the majority of them living in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. In the U.S, there are several major Hasidic communities where Yiddish remains the majority language, most notably in Brooklyn, New York, in the Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Williamsburg neighborhoods, as well as in Kiryas Joel in Orange County, New York.
Starting in the Middle Ages and for centuries after, an immense amount of Yiddish literature arose in Europe. As the community began to spread out, many more Yiddish writers, in different regions of the world, began to produce works of literature. In addition to I. L. Peretz (יצחק־לייבוש פרץ‎), who we mentioned in the video, for those who are interested, some of the more recent Yiddish literature produced, in the last two centuries, are by Sholem Aleichem (שלום עליכם), Mendele Mocher Sforim (מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים), Isaac Bashevis Singer (יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער), awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, Sholem Asch (שלום אַש), Jacob Glatstein (יעקב גלאטשטיין), Abraham Sutzkever (אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער), David Bergelson (דוד בערגעלסאָן), Israel Joshua Singer (ישראל יהושע זינגער), Moyshe Kulbak (משה קולבאַק), Chaim Grade (חיים גראַדע‎), Peretz Markish (פּרץ מאַרקיש‎), Kadia Molodowsky (קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי), Joseph Opatoshu (יוסף אָפּאַטאָשו‎), Anna Margolin (אַננאַ מאַרגאָלין‎), and numerous others.
The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language with official status in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. In Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of Poland, German is a co-official language, and one of several national languages of Namibia. German has many similarities with West Germanic languages such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, and Yiddish. The German-speaking countries are ranked among the top in the world in terms of annual publication of new books, and a great amount of German literature, from medieval works to modern times, has been produced. Among many others, there are the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a literary genius who is considered to be like the German Shakespeare. Goethe is best known for his novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), which was published when he was only 25. Other classics include Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin, The Devil’s Elixirs by ETA Hoffman, Debt and Credit by Gustav Freytag, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, and many others.
Austrian German (Österreichisches Deutsch) is the variety of German spoken in Austria.
Dutch (Nederlands) is a West Germanic language spoken primarily in the Netherlands and Belgium. It's the third-most-widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is also the official language in Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. In addition, the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa evolved into Afrikaans, which is mutually intelligible with Dutch and is spoken mainly in South Africa, Namibia, and to some extent Botswana and Zimbabwe.

[@BahadorAlast]

As mentioned in the video, check out Wijbrand's band on Instagram: instagram.com/lchaimtheband/ And be sure to check out the previous video he took part in comparing Dutch and Persian: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3fLkoRqmtaLg9k Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: instagram.com/BahadorAlast

[@user-zh7yr1up8g]

What can be interesting is to find a person who speaks the Mandaic language, and then compare this to Assyrian Aramaic. Arabic could be a good comparison too but since Mandaic speakers would most likely know Arabic then it would defeat the purpose.

[@meroqero1476]

The German speaker was so bad. Schirm and Schirem is basically the same, it wqs so painful to see the dissapointment od the Jiddish speaking guy...

[@Rider-ed2mr]

@@meroqero1476 Not really as easy as you think when you are not reading the transliteration of it. Words are close, yet, but pronunciations are different at times.

[@meroqero1476]

@@Rider-ed2mr I speak German and did not read them. Gewirbel and Wirbel are too close to not get it. Letting other people assert Gewirbel is polish is reall hard to cope with. Also not understanding si loufen und kumwn wenn in German it ia sie laufen und kommen and not understanding Gass when in German it is Gasse is fatal.

[@terraborealis8724]

@@meroqero1476 especially because she is Austrian and those words are in austrian even more similar than in Standard German like "Gass" is in austrian "Gåss" or "Gåssn" an example sentence "Sej kumman aus da Gåss" ("They are coming out of the street" could also mean that they are of poor origin)

[@helgaioannidis9365]

The Austrian girl surprised me about how difficult she found this. I'm from Munich and I found it much easier to understand the Yiddish and definitely got more out of the Yiddish that the Dutch. But maybe that's also because my grandmother had neighbors from Poland and their pronunciation in German was similar to the pronunciation of Yiddish.

[@lisal5718]

I am from northern Germany and had the same experience that I understood much more than she does. Maybe the reason for her struggling is that Austrian German is to different from high German and Jiddish is just closer to high German. You can also see it from Samuels reaction to the high German version which was much easier for him to understand

[@franciscafarfallina]

@@lisal5718 just to add another perspective : Yiddish is definitely very similar to Viennese as well, so it is quite puzzling why she, although coming from another region of Austria, didn't understand more.. Even the last sentence sei gsund.. but Samuel and the Dutch guy were all the more interesting and captivating to listen to

[@franciscafarfallina]

@@lisal5718 just to add another perspective : Yiddish is definitely very similar to Viennese as well, so it is quite puzzling why she, although coming from another region of Austria, didn't understand more.. Even the last sentence sei gsund.. but Samuel and the Dutch guy were all the more interesting and captivating to listen to

[@helgaioannidis9365]

@@franciscafarfallina I think we have to consider, that different parts of Australia have very different dialects. Viennese is very different from what they speak in Tirol e.g.

[@keptins]

they do not see the subtitles --like we do. also she appears to be a bit shy :)

[@danieledelstein9129]

My father is an Orthodox Jew who is actually from Vienna so speaks German and Yiddish as co-first languages, also fluent in English & Hebrew and speaks Hungarian conversationally. Have always wanted him on this channel but he's not the type to go onto a public channel haha. Anyways great video as usual.

[@Ron-mq6wh]

Did you learn Yiddish? Were you raised as part of the Hassidim?

[@veloboy]

You should BEG him to! Maybe he can appear as a blank screen or as a cartoon. ;-)

[@purplemashine9122]

Ronnie the pharmacist? He shld be on tv 😆 . If it's your dad, he has a unique sense of humor.

[@danieledelstein9129]

@@purplemashine9122 Yeah haha 😅 who are you (don't have to say full name I'm sure my father would know)? I'll mention you. Someone knowing my father from my KZbin comment was kind of that last thing I was expecting.

[@purplemashine9122]

@@danieledelstein9129 Please send regrards from yossi The delivery guy, he'll know, wish o him well!

[@LauraGarcia-tk1zj]

Samuel seems like a very knowledgeable and nice guy. I find with basic German it's possible to pick up some Yiddish.

[@SchmulKrieger]

Actually, wenn you read it, it sounds really German. Aber gesprochen ist es schwieriger.

[@sanderorav9043]

Actually Yiddish is grammatically even a bit easier than German.

[@kprutkov]

@@sanderorav9043 much easier.

[@boriskapchits7727]

my grandfather is Yidish speaker, and he always talked about how easy for him was to learn German at school.

[@iwertzberger3198]

He is pretty good, me as a yiddish speaker picked up less

[@Glassandcandy]

“Like an umbrella after the rain” This phrase needs to be used in all languages, it’s perfect lol

[@thenamen935]

I've certainly added it to my vocabulary. "Wien e Baareblý nochem Räge" (Swiss German) "Wie ein Regenschirm nach dem Regen" (German)

[@galimir]

we have it in Bulgarian actually."След дъжд качулка"(A hood after the rain) 😉

[@NickolaySheitanov]

@@galimir yes it probably is from Slavic background

[@estoy1001]

A common Southern English version would be "closing the barn door after the cow gets out".

[@ivailopetrov2827]

@@galimir and чайник haha

[@ElizavyetaZone]

I am a Native Austrian German speaker and I found Yiddish Samuel is speaking, so easy to understand when I read it too. It's not the girl's fault because living in Austria you are barely ever exposed to any Yiddish. Only in Vienna or from old people, you'd hear the odd expression. I emigrated to Canada so here I got a bit of an idea about Yiddish! If the girl had more time, and read the sentences aloud, she would have understood a lot more!

[@Sir_TophamHatt]

Yeah she would have understood much more if she saw it written

[@Lagolop]

I agree, the Austrian girl would have been able to understand Yiddish better than it appeared.

[@jaimereynolds3914]

I feel like the dutch guy understands every language

[@bramilan]

Dutch people are great with languages. Germans, Austrians, Italians and Frenchs not so much...

[@HanefiSUNNI]

For me, as a German speaker from Berlin, the Yiddish in its transliteration was much easier to understand than the spoken one

[@elizaa.367]

What an amazing combination, Dutch, Yiddish and Austrian German 😊 I had so much fun guessing Yiddish sentences !!

[@nlx78]

Shirem sounds/looks like Scherm (Shield) in Dutch, which could be a coincidence or somewhat related, since an umbrella is of course a shield against rain or 'regen'

[@msmkp01]

i don't speak any of these languages, but i learnt that the 'Tsheynik' which is slavic/russian also exists in urdu, baluchi, pashto etc as chaynak/chaynik for teapot. the world is so interconnected.

[@zigababnik8780]

Also in my native Slovenian - čajnik.

[@Samplesurfer]

Funny: Regenscherm is an archaic Dutch word for an umbrella. But the Dutch speaking guy didn't got that, because paraplu (from French parapluie, against rain) is far more used today.

[@gertvanderstraaten6352]

Yeah, I got way more than him. Helps to read too, but still.

[@Samplesurfer]

@@gertvanderstraaten6352 I've learned way to many languages. In general, this is far closer to a German dialect, than I expected before I clicked on the video.

[@gertvanderstraaten6352]

​ @Surfalong I expected to understand more but then the Yiddish I heard was from Klezmer bands like the Klezmatics. And from reading it. But most of that was closer to German and with more Hebrew words that entered the Dutch language or at least Amsterdam dialect. They call Amsterdam Mokum which is a Yiddish word.

[@baronmeduse]

Indeed, you still encounter it in Belgium.

[@GreeneyesSalma]

Yiddish word for umbrella looks like the dutch Scherm which means something like a shield

[@mb-the-enby]

Great video! I learned Yiddish in college, and when I got to Poland I was so happy to see czajnik is a slavic word. :)

[@BrigitteNolte-ln1ob]

I think it comes originally from "cay"

[@collectivelove2275]

Amazing! I love the way you bring people together from different backgrounds. Because on the outside we think they are so different, with nothing in common, and yet you manage to form this wholesome unity and showcase how they actually have a lot in common. Thank you.

[@makpazon11]

2:05 the Dutch has an ear for German. He's really good in figuring out the context, in addition to just being amazing.

[@thenamen935]

He understands the German parts better then her. I think that is because she is just used to hearing certain German words at a certain spot within the sentence while he is much more used to words being able to be in a completely different spot.

[@tylersmith3139]

@@thenamen935 It may also be due to the fact that Yiddish was first spoken by Jews living in the Rhineland and the dialects of German spoken there share many similarities to Dutch while the Austrian German speaker way of speaking is geographically much further away.

[@saritshull3909]

I was today years old when I learnt that 'Hak a tjijnik (Tsheynik)' is Yiddish! I thought it was a South African phrase. This happens to me often bc of how similar Afrikaans and Yiddish are, especially because we mostly have Litvish Yiddish here. In my defense calling a friend "my China/Tjina" really is an English slang term here and we (South African Jews) use Hak as slang for a chat, so you can say "I had a lekker hak with my china the other day" And now you're mixing English, Yiddish and Afrikaans/Dutch into one line.

[@guywhousesapseudonymonyout4272]

Aussies also call their friends "china" and once upon a time, I guess Cockneys from the East End of London. It comes originally comes from Cockney rhyming slang --"China" is short for "old China plate", which rhymes with "mate",

[@paullombard00]

Afrikaans is geensins eenders as Yiddish nie.

[@tylersmith3139]

@@paullombard00 No, she's just saying there are similarities since many Afrikaners are of partly Jewish/Yiddish speaking Jewish descent. Not to mention Afrikaans and Yiddish are similar for the most. They're both West Germanic languages( like English, German, Dutch, Frisian), they both came to be languages when a distinct non-native group learned and then influenced the language of the larger/more dominant native speaking group. In Afrikaans case, it developed when Malay, Khoisan and Xhosa slaves learned and influenced South African Dutch until it became distinct enough that it could be classified as its own language and in Yiddish's case, when Aramaic and Judeo-French speaking Jews started to learn and speak Middle High German after moving into the Rhineland and intermingling with the local Rhineland German population.

[@Zee-iv9oe]

this is fascinating thank you for sharing

[@kaderathebeekeeper22m3]

This is very interesting. By learning one language, you can basically understand a little bit of another and thus making it easier to learn more languages. E.g I’m a Kenyan 🇰🇪 native who learned German and now I can easily start to learn Yiddish. I also speak Swahili (an East African language) which has some similarities with Arabic and contains some Portuguese and German vocabulary.

[@tylersmith3139]

Is Swahili your native tongue or another language?

[@ekesandras1481]

Yiddish has some strong similarities with older rural Austrian dialects, but the Hebrew and Slavic words confuse the Austrians, especially since the knowledge of Slavic languages has drastically decreased during the time of the Iron Curtain, when we had no contact anymore with our Czech, Slovak or Polish neighbours. Before WW2 Austrians would have known those Slavic words. Also Austrian German is constantly getting more "Germanized", which means that Alpine rural expressions as well as Eastern European ones are more and more replaced with forms from Northern Germany, like the word "quatschen" the girl used - it is not originally Austrian. So Yiddish and Austrian German moved away from each other significantly, but only in very recent times. My personal impression is, that the Bessarabian Yiddish is the most closest to Austrian, but that's a form you seldom hear.

[@prodbyqaoz]

Miriam shouldve definitely known the first one, you could literally say "wie a/wira (Southern Viennese Dialect) Schirm nochm Regn" in Austrian German.

[@bernhardschmalhofer855]

But there is still quite a difference between Schirem and Schiam. One the other the the nochm is pretty much the same as in Bavarian.

[@Andalusian_]

Yeah even I got regen and wie a schirm quickly as a a high German speaker.

[@maayanhaza6178]

Wow! It's so nice to see and the positivity that comes with it is just lovely!

[@rdubstrebol]

This was very fun to watch and participate with. Three very similar languages with lots of overlap between them all.

[@tomd.9390]

Great video! It's always surprising to hear how close Yiddish is to my native tongue Luxembourgish. I could understand quite a bit. Yiddish has words, phrasing & pronounciations you wouldn't find in German or Dutch but they are similar in Lux.

[@tylersmith3139]

Yiddish developed from the dialect of Old German spoken by Jews in the Rhineland and Pfalz and the German dialects in those areas is pretty close to Luxembourgish so it makes sense why there's a similarity.

[@yl9991]

I just found this channel - these are amazing experiments I look forward to watching more of these videos! Thanks!

[@Mokun413]

An interesting video! Really liked the people too, very knowledgeable.

[@jono8884]

I would like to see the German and Dutch speakers interact with a Scandinavian to see how much the various Germanic branches still share.

[@johanbjorkstrom4957]

German with Swedish would be nice

[@Br020XX]

german and dutch is like nearly the same except germans use older words which dutch occasionaly use , but also understand

[@jono8884]

@@Br020XX Similar to Norwegian and Danish....essentially the same but pronunciation can be difficult due to the famous Danish "potato" in mouth to Norwegian and Swedish hearers.

[@rodholseth6354]

I'd take that challenge. Speak Norwegian and Icelandic.

[@hovawartfreunde4599]

I think lower German is understood better in the Netherlands and scandinavic countries. I think I understand Norwegian and Swedish somewhat better than Danish for some strange reason although I live not too far from the Danish border. Dutch is very similar to Lower German so I pick up most there. I remember by father spoke lower German as a first language and only later on learnt Standard high German. He could communicate without any problems with people from the Netherlands when we were on vacation.

[@NP1066]

The dutch guy seems kind and nice. Salute from israel 👍

[@thmhe321]

The Austrian girl also is very nice and cute.salute, also from Israel.

[@meniweizmann644]

חרמנים

[@fuferito]

_An umbrella after the rain_ is a great saying with the same gist as "closing the barn door after the horses have gone."

[@venice9438]

Wonderful video bringing people together, and very interesting. Thank you!

[@326Alan]

12:40 In case anyone is confused, she translated it into High German, as she was asked to say it in ‘German’ (clearly a bit of miscommunication with the host, but it was really interesting to hear anyway ! :D)

[@danielvanr.8681]

3:30 Tsheynik, from "čaj" (tea) and agent suffix "-nik" (cf. e.g. "sputnik" (traveller). Polish has "czajnik" as well, but here it just means water kettle. A teapot is "dzbanek do herbaty" -- and a "herbatnik" is a (tea) biscuit. 😁😄

[@TonySlug]

What would be really interesting, is to see if the orthodox gentleman and the Austrian girl would understand some Amsterdam slang. These are words we use every day, and they are firmly rooted in Yiddish and Jewish culture that existed in Amsterdam up until the nazi occupation. There are hundreds and hundreds of these words, including : - Jat - Mesjogge - Sjoege - goochem - Sores - Achenebbisj - Gabber - Tof - Jofel - Togus - Stiekum - Schlemiel - Porum (also "Ponum") - Lef - Joet - Ramsj etc.

[@brikent985]

terrific! I always wanted to know!

[@roymor1766]

As a Swiss German I can understand all of them…no problem at all

[@chariotofthesun]

Same, Hochdeutsch speaker here

[@NathanLGrossman]

That's why you guys are always neutral. :)

[@BenHeHe2]

Thank you so much!!

[@Tamar-sz8ox]

This is very enjoyable ❤️❤️❤️

[@christinakara278]

So fun to listen, subscribed

[@erhardpostinger1326]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipeaeploZrB0bsk - more fun

[@TheGalWithTheBlueCat]

As a lower Austrian who learned dutch because of the love for the language and has an israeli boyfriend, this is just amazing. 😃👍

[@ericschaap]

Much fun and so interesting this language game. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@amjan]

Wijbrand had the huge advantage of knowing both Dutch and German. The phonetics of Yiddish seem to be much more like Dutch. "Tscheynik" is indeed a word from Polish ("czajnik"), Russian and other Slavic languages. The Hebrew word "mshuge" was also used in Polish ("meszuge") a very long time ago. "Gewirbel" is not a Polish word, but a German one.

[@dutchdykefinger]

in dutch we have many phonetic translations from old amsterdam "bargoens", mostly spoken by travelers/homeless, check out some "bargoens" word lists to see the dutchified versions of old mostly yiddish words. many words in there are yiddish, crazy would be spelled "mesjokke" there. "gabber" ="friend", "gein" ="having fun", "penoze" = "mafia/underwold" also "schlemiel" for loser was used a lot, and "mazzel" is used for "being lucky" to this day pretty much everywhere in the arguably small dutch-speaking world we also use "de mazzel" (good luck/fortune) to say goodbye to people sometimes, it's quite region-specific though. they are more commonly used in the amsterdam and greater haarlemmermeer region. "koosjer" = "kosher" to say whether something's trustworthy (or cleanly) or not at times too, i'm neither semitic nor religious, and i've used the term many a time in my life regardless, as do many others :D

[@HaSSTron]

No, phonetics of Yiddish have to do with the West Slavic language like Polish for example. It sounds like old East Prussian accent mixed with the German way a polish person speaks. I understand 95 percent of it.

[@alo5301]

Meschugge is known in German

[@meroqero1476]

The girl was just low in knowledge

[@SchmulKrieger]

@@HaSSTron Yiddish come in existence on the Rhineland in the Middle Ages, there is no way that this is from Slavonic background.

[@longleglaurin6937]

as an austrian german speaker i found it easy to understand yiddish even when i hadn't learned the language, its interesting to see different people having a harder time to understand it, a perfect example of differences in language intelligebility

[@teknul89]

Maybe it’s because you got the German part from yiddish original it’s not a German language

[@longleglaurin6937]

@@teknul89 it certainly is the closest to a language relative tho

[@teknul89]

@@longleglaurin6937 you do know Yiddish means Jewish right and those who participate did not get much of the words from Yiddish because it has many mix words from Hebrew, German, polish, Russian etc The closest to German language would be Dutch

[@longleglaurin6937]

@@teknul89 as far as i have been interpreting the papers and our teachers lessons on it, it appears that yiddish as a language did in fact come from german speaking jews who had to flee from their native lands into eastern europe(this would have been way back somewhere around the tenth eleventh century i think), there the yiddish language assimilated regional languages to some extend, whilst developing independently from the language we now call german.

[@teknul89]

@@longleglaurin6937 yes that’s true that Yiddish came from German speaking Jews which are the Ashkenazi Jews you are talking about but their native homeland was not in Germany historians says their origin was from Israel and then one of the tribe moved to Germany and settle their among the locals and as you explained mixed with them so that they got German words in their language if you listen closely on the video how the Jewish man talk and how the Austrian girl talk you can hear that the German does not have that sound the jew is using is mostly from Hebrew

[@i1mmxii]

amazing content! very beautiful

[@hovawartfreunde4599]

Gevirbl probably has not slavic roots. I would translate it to Gewirbel in German. It's not a prober word but related to "aufgewühlt, aufgewirbelt, wimmeln". So its like a circulating mass of people

[@bernhardschmalhofer855]

Yes, that was already recognized in the video.

[@cakeitawaybyb]

Speaking all 3 languages this was sooo interesting!!!

[@patzan48]

The main difference between Yiddishes is between Litvak (Lithuanian, Belarusian, northern Ukrainian) and Poylish (Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, southern Ukrainian and Romanian). It has to do with the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, being comprised of these two large kingdoms, where most of Europe’s Jews lived.

[@gazthejaz8910]

Is Yiddish a mixture of Hebrew and European languages?

[@greenmachine5600]

@@gazthejaz8910 it's German written in Hebrew primarily. It does have Hebrew influence, as well as other some other influences.

[@gazthejaz8910]

@@greenmachine5600 I’m guessing when the Jews migrated north they adopted the local languages and combined it with Hebrew, afterall the Ashkenazi are a mixture of near eastern and European

[@kprutkov]

@@greenmachine5600 it's not german, it is germanic however.

[@Lagolop]

@@gazthejaz8910 The Ashkenazi Jews did not immigrate from the Near East. True that the Jewish people first came to Europe around 600BC but originated in the Near East ie Israel. The Ashkenazi culture arose during the Medieval period in the Rhineland of West Germany and North France. In the beginning the Jewish people would have spoken the exact same language as their non Jewish neighbors. But as Jews became more isolated, Yiddish remained very old German while the rest of the population's German progressed. And now Yiddish is it's own language but in the same linguistic family as English and Dutch (West Germanic). Western Yiddish does not have the same accent at all as the way this guy was speaking. He kind of explained that. For example I would say GEZUNT where he said GEZINT; I say un where he says in (the word and). The word IN for me would be literally mean "in" as opposed to OUT. Also the way he is speaking the words are all slurred together where I would pronounce words seperately. Not the I am fluent by any means. Eventually some Jewish people migrated eastward out of the Rhineland and into Slavic areas and incorporated some Slavic borrow words. But mainly Yiddish is based on Medieval High German with some Hebrew and Aramaic loan words. I'm surprised the Austrian woman had so much difficulty as Yiddish is pretty close to the High German as spoken in the Alps. OF course the Jewish guy's accent really made it hard to understand.

[@kalanredstone9658]

First time watching your channel. I really appreciate what you're doing and I think it is great bringing people together from all over the world. You got one more subscriber! Do you do only languages or also about cultures?

[@BahadorAlast]

Thank you. I really appreciate it. For the most part, it's about languages, though I've made a few cultural videos prior to the pandemic when we were still doing them all in-person.

[@maarava]

Would have loved to be part of this one.... as I speak german and yiddish and also have some knowledge in dutch

[@vivalibertasergovivitelibe4111]

I don´t know if you do this in the editing afterwards but I found as a german speaker that going by purely audio some of these are relatively hard to understand especially over zoom and with the microphones and all but when you read them some of that really clears up so bringing up the written text for the participants would perhaps be really helpful

[@DendyJungle]

Plus the Yiddish man was using Hungarian pronunciation. I'm sure there is a more German version of Yiddish that the German girl would understand

[@johnguslen9315]

The Scandinavian languages are also quite close to especially Dutch. I´m a native Swedish speaker and haven´t studied the language, but German for a few years, but I still can basically understand Dutch. And to a lesser extent also Yiddish. Shabbos shulem!

[@gymnast8865]

Lovely thank you

[@jehan_navard]

Brilliant video. I did get some words when they were translated in English. Do you think that sound can be worked upon. It lacks clarity at places.

[@hershmendlowitz3824]

Great job Shmual!, As a yidish speaker myself I was trying to understand as well, I didn't do as well as you though.

[@shhiknopfler3912]

וואקסאנירן?...

[@pyotralferov4602]

You are right that Dutch is using some Yiddish words, German also has Yiddish words. Some even are Russian or Slavic words that transferred to German through Yiddish

[@Kaila999]

When I was in university German class, the teacher once used the word “ganove” (or “ganowe”?) to describe a thief. The other Jewish kid in the class and I quickly looked at each other because “goniff” is thief in Yiddish, and it comes from the Hebrew word for thief, “ganav” (stress on 2nd syllable).

[@matanadragonlin]

But I have to say (or I learnt) most of the German words with Hebrew origin are used negatively. Also many neutral ones were changed into negative meanings. eg maloche work - work hard in an exhausting job (German). Or changed on purpose to harm Jewish people: the lucky blessings "hatsloche un broche" (success and blessings) was changed into the similar sounding blessing "Hals- und Beinbruch" neck and leg break (I never understood this phrase as a child. Who is wishing such a nonsense for luck? 🤦🏼‍♀️)

[@katharinahuth4242]

Thanks for an such amazing video can You make smiliarities between Spanish and Ladino. By the way Ladino is Judeo-Spanish.

[@coe3408]

Ladino and Spanish are much more similar than Yiddish and German, at least that is my experience

[@broodjeal-cohol5033]

As someone with a Masters in Dutch linguistics and literature, I would like to correct the Dutch person. Our standard language is officially called standaardnederlands not 'ABN' which literally means common civilized Dutch. A term that is very derogatory towards speakers of dialects as it implies they are uncivilized.

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

It would be interesting to have a video comparing Yiddish and Pennsylfanisch Deutsch and German. I suspect they would be quite different, since Pennsylfanisch lost contact with Europe at least 200 years ago...

[@Seanonyoutube]

Might be hard to find an Amish who’d be willing to use zoom…😅

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

@@Seanonyoutube that is true.

[@morehn]

@@Seanonyoutube there are non Amish Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, too.

[@davidtrak2679]

I shouldn't think so. 200 years isn't a lot, British and American English have been apart for a lot, there's virtually no difference Yiddish as well, it's very much like dialectal German of some regions But it would be interesting for sure

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

@@davidtrak2679 I am not a specialist but I believe the Jewish immigrants stayed in contact with their overseas cousins after immigrating and started immigrated much later than the Amish. I think at the time the Amish immigrated, they remained pretty much isolated for a long time from the communities they left. As for the US and the UK, citizens from those countries travelled back and forth. The unification of languages too place mostly during the XIXth century in Europe, during which a lot of dialects basically disappeared, including the one that is spoken by Amish communities.

[@JosephOccenoBFH]

Damn that beard !! 😄 Like from some vintage portrait

[@isaweesaw]

Hassidic Jews have some incredible beards!

[@saritshull3909]

@@isaweesaw and most of the time you don't get to have the full experience because they roll them up into little buns

[@liesbethdevries4986]

Dutch native, living in Germany here. I was able to understand most of the Yiddish story by listening, not reading.

[@patzan48]

That’s a good point. The problem is that the Yiddish is transcribed using the English phonetic romanisation system. If it was written using the German (or Dutch) system it would be easier for either of the two other speakers (or viewers) to follow.

[@virummundi2119]

Commenting some of the earlier comments. Yiddish is a Germanic language descending from Oberdeutsch (the high German family group), just like Bavarian, by the way, which integrated Hebrew words. During the immigration waves to the east, the eastern dialect of Yiddish absorbed many Slavic words (and pronunciation), not necessarily Slovakian (but they are actually similar to each other). The Western dialect remain very close to German, with very few loan words outside Hebrew. First Jews to immigrate to the USA directly from Germany spoke the Western dialect, which had the characteristic of using German accent with few to none Slavic influences. The differences between the Western and Eastern dialects grew wider, until they were pretty distinct. The Western dialect got like 95% eliminated during WWII, few in the USA still speak it, but they have been of course influenced by the majority of American Yiddish speakers over the years. Back in East Europe, also there have been some growing differences between Yiddish variants, for instance the Romanian variant from the Polish one. But the most important development in the last decades has to do with the speakers of Yiddish. The original speakers were eastern and central European Jews, many of them were murdered, but those who survived WWII grew older, still speaking their original Yiddish (which they did for decades, together with their national language and, many times, Hebrew), very few still do today since most of them are not alive anymore. There has been an effort by associations and family members (descendens of these people) to keep the language alive. But these efforts are futile, and are the reason why the total number of Yiddish speakers is still today diminishing, with every year thousands of the old Eastern European Jews dying. On the other hand you have the group of Ashkenazi Ultraorthodox Jews (not all of them, by the way, depends on the nomination, and excluding - of course - all Sephardi Jews and others), who at some point in history decided to adopt Yiddish as the day-to-day language, preserving Hebrew as a religious language. Now this group, with its high natality rate, is getting bigger and bigger, which at some point, not far, will reverse the tendency of total Yiddish speakers. That means that the majority - and in the future almost the totality - of modern Yiddish speakers are/will be Ultraorthodox. Since they have been doing it as a conscience decision, it's not the same as a language which develops on a geographic-ethnic basis. The big difference is that almost all of them speak the same dialect (with some subdialects, even in the same city, and the pronunciation may vary a bit, but still - far away from being the differences between Eastern and Western Yiddish, not even between Romanian and Polish Yiddish). This Yiddish is based on Lithuanian, Hungarian and similar dialects, with more and more English words being introduced to the language. An Ultraorthodox from Brooklyn will have no problem speaking with an Ultraorthodox from Brussels (one of their European capitals) or Jerusalem. But he may have many problems speaking with and old Romanian lady, unless he himself is and elderly. Personally, I think today's Yiddish should be called Modern Yiddish or Ultraorthodox Yiddish.

[@multiverse-UFO]

Thank you Bahador for having an Austrian and Dutch here. The Yiddish speaker is so much wise and knowledgeable, not only speaking perfect English, but also knows so many neighboring languages Including Slavic words. A real language professor! Yiddish is really amazing, with tons of idioms and saying that adds salt to life!

[@gerald8573]

Sadly The audio quality was extremely bad which made it hard to understand and took some more time to process. (especially with Austrian Lady) But it was really nice to see those people come together and to open up more and more during the video.

[@r.v.b.4153]

4:55 In Dutch, it's actually an old loanword from Yiddish/Hebrew when Jews were still a reasonably large community in the western part of the Netherlands (before WW2). We call it Bargoens. It's a like a dialect that uses a lot of words that are not well-known and used for trade or criminal activities, so others wouldn't understand what they were talking about. There are more of these Yiddish/Hebrew words that were widely adopted across the Netherlands. This is especially true for the west of the Netherlands (Randstad), nowadays also for other parts of the Netherlands and not so much for Belgium. Many Dutch people will not realize the word is a loanword from Yiddish/Hebrew.

[@hunchbackaudio]

The Jiddisch words we know and use in Dutch are considered typically Amsterdam slang.

[@HMCHR]

There is a similar word in Kazakh for teapot (tsheynik). It is шәйнек (shәynek).

[@hajenso]

That one made it into Albanian too (çajnik), via Ottoman Turkish.

[@timurermolenko2013]

Most of languages use either Čaj or Tea derivatives. Latter comes from Hokkien language.

[@jcortese3300]

I'm even getting cognates with English, but not where we usually find them. Typically, the English cognates with other languages are the complicated words, which we have in common with the Latinate languages. Here, I'm seeing things like "strand," "bloom," "sit," the "yester-" prefix, "pain," and even "wisdom." Unsurprisingly since it's a Germanic language that descends from Friesian, but it's charming to see cognates in the short, simple words we use every day instead of the complex ones we use for science or technology.

[@shhiknopfler3912]

Gevaldig

[@HaSSTron]

Great, 06:30 is very clear to understand in German. Great.

[@hebreophone]

Levune (le-VU-ne) s still used for Moon in Modern Hebrew (and it's pronounced le-va-NA) - but just not in spoken Hebrew. It's a literary word which we might come across in poetry and perhaps even in songs. Our regular word for "moon" is - Yareakh (ya-RE-akh)

[@aranyaraj4843]

make a video on what are the similarities between Gujarati,Bengali,Marathi,Punjabi, Kashmiri,Sindhi and hindi.

[@matanadragonlin]

Thank you for that video. As a German, I learned a lot more of Jewish culture and Yiddish of course. I enjoyed most, seeing it written and hearing it at the same time. Be healthy. Bleib gesund. (Be& stay healthy) 😊

[@markmager1339]

Yiddish sounds like German with some Hebrew words

[@Ron-mq6wh]

And Slavic

[@Zee-iv9oe]

i love the yiddish speaker’s heavy brooklyn accent when he switches to english!

[@Seanonyoutube]

The Yiddish speaker has a thick New York Yiddish accent which included rolling of the R’s. I think this made it more difficult for them to understand.

[@longleglaurin6937]

i wouldn't necessarily say that, there are many austrian regional dialects who also have this feature, but in fairness, they are also hard to understand for untrained austrians

[@avidavidzada4721]

Not really. His accent is fine. Ps. NYC is THE Yiddish center of the world

[@Seanonyoutube]

@@avidavidzada4721 “fine” is a rather meaningless term in this context. I’m just saying that i’m guessing it might be easier for them to understand an Israeli Yiddish speaker because the accent is more similar to German.

[@saeidezatolahi3482]

@@Seanonyoutube why does an Israeli Yiddish speaker retain more German? Are they not influenced more by Hebrew?

[@Seanonyoutube]

@@saeidezatolahi3482 they are, but their accent is just more similar to German imo. Especially the R sound is more similar. Would be interesting to have both on the show and see if the German speaker understands one better than the other.

[@sns4748]

As a german i understood most of it. Guess yiddish is way less like Austrian but way more like they speak in west central Germany (rhineland palatinate), which is only like 10 km from where i live.

[@rochellengel3444]

As a Yiddish speaker it's funny to see our sarcastic saying being translated into literal terms 🤣 I am so curious to know which Yiddish words are part of the Dutch language as he mentioned ?

[@noamto]

Mazzel, tof, mokum, majem, jajem, bolleboos, gozer, temeier, mesjokke, misjpoke, heitje, joet, meier For example

[@geppiegep]

kapsones, schlemiel, bajes, sjacheraar, (bij)goochem, gotspe, geinponem, sjofel, sores. Theres more, but this gives an impression. Most of the words are a bit like 'streettalk'. Not posh Dutch. But I really like the ring of them =)

[@pyruvicac.id_]

Schorem, gabber.. there are so much more I think, I cannot think of.. but a lot of Yiddish is similar to Dutch like the verb trachten and so many others..

[@helilebon614]

Der erste yiddische Satz mit dem Regenschirm nach dem Regen war gut verständlich. Das sympathische österreichische Mädel stand "auf dem Schlauch". Kann mal vorkommen, wenn die Kamera läuft. Sie war wahrscheinlich zu angespannt. Der yiddische Text des alten Hits: "Bay mir bistu scheen" hätte sich auch gut für den Test geeignet. Der sympathische Niederländer spricht wahrscheinlich gut Deutsch, denn er lag oft richtig. Interessant wäre ein Vergleichstest zwischen Wienerisch, Zürcherdeutsch und Luxemburgisch. Wie weit verstehen sich die Drei sprachlich.

[@thephidias]

With basic knowledge of German, Zürcherdeutsch is intelligible. It is NOT a language of its own (sorry, Swiss people) but a dialect, if a thick one. It can become unitelligible when spoken fast but the same is true for a lot of regional accents (in German, English, French... I guess it's the same everywhere). Luxembourgish just sounds hilarious! Whenever you think you just totally understood what they are about , they throw in something really ridiculous and you are back to square one....; Luxembourgish is said to be closest to the kind of Germanic (not "German") that Charlemagne spoke.....

[@helilebon614]

@@thephidias Luxembourgish is mixed with some French words. Chamber (pronounced shumber) for example means the parliament and comes from the french "chambre".

[@thephidias]

@@helilebon614i am aware. So is Viennese. Although now less often heard than a few decades ago, "trottoir", "paraplü" , Plafond, Garconniere, Pompfüneberer......; blümerant (bleu mourant), and many more examples. I think it has to do with the old monarchy and French spoken widely by the aristocracy - which, of course, now is officially disestablished there. The French words in Luxembourgish are not the problem, at least for me, I speak French. A lot of languages borrow from others. German borrowed many Hebrew words via Yiddish, e.g.; that does not make it in any way even partially a Hebrew language, does it?

[@aramisfernandez9378]

@@thephidias trattoir Is also used in yiddish

[@thedubinlanguagemethod2183]

How can we get copies of Samuel's magazines: דער שפאקטיוו and דער שטערן? They look interesting.

[@BahadorAlast]

ZMAN Magazine: www.zmanmagazine.com This is the website of the publisher of both magazines. They do not say anything about the Yiddish magazines they publish, but I'm sure if you contact them, you can buy it from them.

[@apollon6870]

i miss the episodes were all people were in one room, via skype its not the same

[@c.vonsohn9566]

good video as always but dear god are the mics potato quality

[@Elendrria]

To be honest. Yiddish sounds for me like low german. My grand grandma was able to speak it. Even if it was a very regional type of low german many word are sound very similar. If you are able to understand low german (at least in the westphelia part of germany) you can understand yiddish much better than with standard german. Thanks also to Bahador Alast for that very interesting videos. I just learned after the video arabic versus urdu that a characters name (qadim) in a game I play just mean ancient ^^. I rly like your videos very much!

[@oa7211]

Yiddish , it's an old and very orthodox, meaning, they preserve old culture and idiomatic words like old German. Ladino is the same. Some words keep their meaning and some adapt to environmental surroundings. Without any further ado. Thanks it has been very delight and informative!

[@dymytryruban4324]

In Swedish rain is also "regn" with silent g. "Shirem" sounds like schirm in German.

[@TheFirstBathroomHero]

I am German and I understand almost 80% ... She probably didn't understood it just not that quick. It so funny, how close that language is.

[@letXeqX]

גדול!!

[@mathiaslist6705]

2:00 well, I'm Austrian and when I saw it written and heard it again it sounded like "wia a schiam nochn rejng"

[@Kaila999]

Too bad the source of Samuel’s literary selection wasn’t mentioned. If I am not mistaken, they are the first lines from a story by Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. I don’t recall the story’s title, but I read it in English translation many years ago.

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

Very interesting video. It would be great if the subtitles were written properly though. I think some words are transliterated as they are perceived but not as they should be written and it is sometimes confusing, although maybe it's intentional?

[@Seanonyoutube]

Well, Yiddish technically is written in Hebrew, so the English subtitles are phonetic…or are you talking about the German and Dutch subtitles?

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

@@Seanonyoutube yes. I know Dutch a little bit and I noticed some words word badly written. I figured it might be the same for the other two.

[@Rider-ed2mr]

@@WolfgangSourdeau The Dutch portion has no issues. Not sure what word you're referring to, and if it's the Dutch part, why did you call it "transliteration"? In any case, it's got no issues.

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

@@Rider-ed2mr "toen ik wegging" should be spelled "weg ging", no? Otherwise, yes, it looks fine.

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

Oops. I was wrong, my bad!

[@TonySlug]

Very interesting. Also native Dutch speaker here. What the orthodox gentleman says is impossible to comprehend in spoken form, but with some highschool knowledge of German, and interpreting German words spelled phonetically I still understood quite a few things in written form. I get the gest of it. Phrases like "a bintl sheyne blunen" or "es tut zey keyn sakh nicht helfn" are very clear. When the meaning is being further explained the whole story starts making sense in a "aha" kind of way. I found the Austrian girl much easier to understand and understood everything she said 100 % in written form.

[@TonySlug]

"Shirem" would be "scherm" in Dutch, which means "screen" and certainly could be used in this particular context. Any Dutch speaker would certainly understand "Regenscherm" immediately as "umbrella", although we use a different word for it ("paraplu", from the French occupation). "zonnescherm" (sun screen) is however widely used. A personal favorite Yiddish word is "kneidel" (different spellings apply). In Dutch, the verb "kneden", means to make dough or squeeze putty into a doughy mass. Hence, a "knoedel", a shapeless lump, such as indeed, a soup dumpling like a matzoh ball : A kneydel. All this language stuff is highly interesting.

[@noamto]

At 24:20 that word actually exists in Dutch as "bolleboos" but it means something different now (from "master of the house" it became to mean a clever person)

[@dovydeutsch9114]

it's Hebrew בעל הבית (ba'al habayit) mushed

[@noamto]

@@dovydeutsch9114 it's not mushed it's based on Dutch Yiddish pronunciation.

[@morehn]

@@noamto of course it's mushed. Same like shaleshudes and misleis - מעת לעת.

[@user-jf8nu8sw8e]

Since Yiddish has been developing naturally for the last 2000 years and modern Hebrew was artificially created less then 200, it is Hebrew pronunciation that is mushed in a way. Yiddish is based on historical Ashkenazi pronunciation, and Hebrew is a simplified Sefardi variant. It desregards dagesh in tav, sees almost no difference between patah and kometz, and so on.

[@justinstewart4889]

@@user-jf8nu8sw8e Modern Hebrew isn't "mushed." That's not how it works. Modern Hebrew grammatically is much like Mishnaic Hebrew, and most of its grammatical forms can be found just fine in earlier layers of the language.

[@rsp5378]

Hello Bahador Alast, This is an unfulfilled request from long time. Try to do a video by comparing "Telugu" with "Sanskrit" which could explain the phenomenon of influence of different languages on each other by starting in same geography.

[@fo6748]

I am sure he has 1000s of unfulfilled requests

[@thmhe321]

We do use the word "levana" (which means white), to say moon, in Hebrew.especialy in poems.

[@Lagolop]

It's leVONa.

[@thmhe321]

@@Lagolop no. Levona is a name of a , tree which was used to make a perfume.www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%25D7%259C%25D7%2591%25D7%2595%25D7%25A0%25D7%2594&ved=2ahUKEwiWq7yj_bnyAhW4FlkFHdY3BxsQFnoECD4QAQ&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw108jNKBTlbvVRAD29E5yU4 Levana is another word for moon.

[@Lagolop]

@@thmhe321 The is a song with a line in it "Sheyn vi di Levona". Beautiful like the moon :)

[@thmhe321]

@@Lagolop it's just a matter of pronunciation.in Hebrew you say levana with a for moon. Levona is a plant.often Ashkenazi Jews speaking Yiddish pronounce Hebrew words different. For example the word brit Hebrew is pronounced briss.

[@uliwehner]

i think my grandmother from Bruchsal in Baden Wuerttemberg would be able to talk to Samuel without much trouble. i understand much of it, especially if i also see the transcript. but my unterfraenkisch dialekt is not that similar.

[@philipp0209]

they would have almost understood anything if the dutch guy and the austrian girl also had these subtitles haha

[@frencebrand9905]

In the Netherlands we have Bargoens what is the language of the criminals and whe use a lot in like ' jatten' what means hands or stealing or 'porem' what means face we use many Jiddisch words

[@johnleake5657]

Surprised with _balabustes_ ('housewives', at 24:00) that Samuel wrote באֵלאֵבוסטעס phonetically, not בעל הביתטעס with _'loshn koydesh'_ (Hebrew) spelling. I recognized the word from the Duolingo Yiddish course, but only when he explained it. My comprehension of all three was poor, despite speaking some German and _een beetje_ Dutch.

[@jono8884]

Can the participants see the text? I wonder if reading the text would make it a bit easier (it usually is) rather than relying on the ear.

[@BahadorAlast]

No, they can't see the text. It would definitely make it easier!

[@dennishendrikx3228]

Reading it makes much more sence then hearing the words. Not much, but some what more sence. I recognize some Dutch for sure, German isn't my strength but I see some, and added with a question mark. It does sound weirdly nice.

[@jasbelial3943]

I actually come from the deepest of Odenwald with a very old parent that has been living in that region isolated since generations and understand Yiddish quite well without Jewish background besides my real surname being Hebrew. I live now in another country and feel sad my dialect has been dying and I am one of the few “youngsters” left that can communicate in my dialect with the “elders”. Languages are funny.

[@Tamar-sz8ox]

I hear you ❤️

[@michaelchen8643]

Still, the fluency that all three of these Germanic language speakers are using and speaking, English , just astound me I live here in the East Coast in the DMV and have ties in New York City and I run into a lot of Yiddish speakers still like this gentleman here in the video

[@patzan48]

The biggest difference between Yiddish and German (especially Plattdeutsch and Dutch, to which it is the closest) are the peculiar phrases or sayings that are influenced entirely by the Jewish culture or religion. It’s almost the VERY thing that makes Yiddish Yiddish rather than just a dialect of German (it used to be called Jüdische Deutsch).

[@JadeDAngelo]

From a linguistic point of view, Yiddish is built on Medieval South German, but from a cultural point of view (expressions, music, food, dance), it is strongly influenced by Eastern Europe. Some of the traditions within modern Yiddish speaking communities known in the Western hemisphere as typically Jewish actually happen to have a Slavic background. So, that's one additional layer Yiddish has :)

[@patzan48]

@@JadeDAngelo You're absolutely right about the Slavic inflection being quite strong. For example sentence structure, not to speak of many loan words and culturally-specific expressions that we think of in the West as typically 'Jewish' actually being regional (Southern or Northern areas of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as may be). My sense of the German side of it as being close to Plattdeutsch is purely on the basis of audible similarities. Maybe because Plattdeutsch and Dutch are (to my ear and thinking) are closer to the Low Frankish language than Modern High German (hochdeutsch), which together with Yiddish itself evolved from the Middle High German. And we know that the most populous area of the Frankish world, and its heart, was also the heart of Ashkenaz - Speyer, Mainz and Worms, in the Upper Rhein Reichskreis.

[@JadeDAngelo]

@@patzan48 To me written Yiddish is like a slightly older version of Bavarian. But I absolutely agree that the way it's spoken by some of the communities sounds very much like a version of Dutch. I am not sure what causes that, maybe it's the influence of US English? It's adorable either way.

[@itsmecp]

This also made me curious to think about if someone who was trilingual in e.g. Geman, English and a Slavic Language would have an easier time understanding Yiddish.

[@cmckenzie3035]

If you were to write Yiddish as if it were just another german dialect (which would be not a great thing to do) it would look closer to some German dialects (Fränkisch, Bairisch) than they do to Standard German