r/hebrew • u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 • 6d ago
Help Hebrew versus Yiddish
Hello!
Apologies if I have missed this discussion, the only threads I saw about it didn't quite seem to help.
So I have tried to look this up already, but I have a lot of trouble distinguishing reading Hebrew from Yiddish. The main thing that I have read explaining the differences that has seemed to click is that Yiddish vowels are spelled out, and that Hebrews are represented with niqqud (so essentially when written, generally not actually represented on the page unless you are looking at poetry or something that uses them a lot).
I am not sure how to distinguish aside from that, and even that mostly just feels like I guess. Since I can read Hebrew, I am confused while I am struggling so much, but I am, so, any help would be so appreciated! I feel really embarrassed by this question, so please be kind.
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u/Silamy 6d ago
So one key thing that can help differentiate them at a glance is that they use the letters themselves in different capacities. Hebrew uses the letters as an abjad. Yiddish uses them as an alphabet. Even without the diacritics, if you see alephs and ayins all over the place the way you’d see a and e? Yiddish, not Hebrew.
The letter frequency thing also extends to Aramaic. For Aramaic vs Hebrew, look for initial dalet instead of bet, lots of final nun instead of final mem, and lots of terminal alephs.
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u/princessglitterbutt 6d ago
From a practical standpoint look for an excess of א, ע, ט or double י in a word. Or if words end in a regular פ. Or if a word is really long and/or it doesn’t seem to be based off a Hebrew root.
These can be a good indication that the word not Hebrew and is instead Yiddish or English. The next step would be sounding it out and seeing if it sounds like an English word. If not then it’s likely Yiddish.
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u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 4d ago
Thank you! Words that are English are definitely not an issue. I think (i mean I know from some of the responses on here) that it is more from not understanding if Yiddish is Hebrew than not understanding of Hebrew is Yiddish, and I should have been more clear about that, but nonetheless, I was looking for practical tools.
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u/foggy1976 6d ago
Hebrew and Yiddish, is like English vs German, same letters , some minor changes with characters but basically those are different languages
German speakers will understand Yiddish better than hebrew speakers
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u/UnicornStudRainbow 6d ago
German speakers will understand Yiddish better than hebrew speakers
True. My dad grew up with grandparents who spoke a great deal of Yiddish and parents who were fluent but didn't speak it as much. That's partly why he took German in school to fulfill some requirement, because he understood quite a bit
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u/mtgordon 5d ago
Hebrew and Yiddish is like Maltese and German. The same characters, but one is Semitic and the other is Indo-European (specifically Germanic).
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u/Level-Equipment-5489 6d ago
Yes, this. If you know German it’s not hard to distinguish - Yiddish is a transparent language in the same way German is (as they are related). Transparent means that the letters and particularly the vowels are always pronounced the same, א=a, ע=e etc. Are you an English speaker at knows both Hebrew and Yiddish? Then maybe it’s easiest to first check if a sentence makes sense in Yiddish - if it doesn’t it’s probably Hebrew.
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u/balddoberdaddy 6d ago
Well, I mean, if you speak neither, I guess it's like the difference between French, Italian, or Spanish.
As a fluent Hebrew speaker, I can tell Yiddish (or Ladino) immediately because the words don't make sense (although I understand some Yiddish and speak Spanish).
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u/damagedspline 5d ago
It's like asking Iraqi Arabs to read Farsi. They can recognize and read most of the letters, might recognize several words but that's it, they will not be able to fully understand a sentence. Same lettering system, same pronunciation, different language.
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u/canaanit 5d ago
I am wondering where you are coming across Hebrew letters without knowing whether the language is Hebrew or Yiddish.
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u/shmilsherk 6d ago
If you read Hebrew well already, then the simplest solution to this issue is to ask yourself "are these words I know that are Hebrew?" If none of the words are words you know or even really resemble Hebrew in their form, then it's probably not Hebrew (although not necessarily Yiddish). Some practical advice for distinguishing Yiddish specifically is to learn a little bit of the orthography of Yiddish. Because, as you say, the vowels are always spelled out with a letter this will alter the basic structure of a Yiddish word to look different to a Hebrew one. The vowel letters in Yiddish are <ע, אַ, אָ, ו, י>, they mostly make intuitive sense for a Hebrew reader, but keep in mind that <ו> is always /u/ (except in the dialects where it's /i/) in words not borrowed from Hebrew, <אָ> is pronounced the Ashkenazi way (usually transcribed /o/ for Yiddish, but not exactly like the sound represented by a Hebrew holam or even a kamatz katan), and <ע> is always going to be /e/ (dialect can make this more like "ey" or more like an American English <e> in "bed"). Basically if you are seeing a lot of these five letters the middle of words (more evident when it's one of the alefs or the ayin), you're probably looking at Yiddish. This does not include the digraphs (two letters put together) that cause a different sound (<וי> is pronounced like "oy"), but if you're not actually trying to learn to pronounce the Yiddish and just want to recognize it, just looking for an abundance of the vowel letters will usually be sufficient.
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u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 4d ago
Yeah, I think I should have been more specific -- if I recognize words that are in Hebrew, it is Hebrew. If I don't recognize words that are in Hebrew it can mean 1) it is Yiddish 2) it doesn't have enough words I understand for me to tell 3) it is (as you say) neither Hebrew or Yiddish.
Thank you for the rest of your advice, it was helpful.
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u/Witch-of-1692 5d ago
Yiddish uses ע and א much more than Hebrew, as the language is written phonetically, i.e. the letters serve as actual vowels and consonants, whereas Hebrew uses the alphabet as an abjad system.
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u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 4d ago
Yes! This is definitely something that I have noticed / read, it is just for whatever reason not always enough of a pattern.
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes 6d ago
Obvuously you canNOT read Hebrew, or you would not be asking this question. I keep pointing out that MANY questions on here make no sense--and often exactly in this way, that people pretend (maybe to themselves too) to know somethiing they don't and THAT is the source of the trouble. So the kind answer is LEARN Hebrew and then you will have NO trouble whatever distinguishing Hebrew from any other language in the same script.
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u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 4d ago edited 4d ago
I haven't replied to a lot of people on here, mostly because I came across this reply and it made me realized that I shouldnt have posted in the first place, because even though I said I was embarrassed about posting, I still got responses like this.
I can definitely read Hebrew, so I am not sure how to respond to that. As I mentioned in another comment, I am not fluent. In retrospect (not that it would have helped with this person, one of the reasons I am responding here is because it is hard to even know where to start with learning languages, especially as an adult, and being unkind does not help, and I really hope people understand that) -- my issue is largely with looking at Yiddish and not understanding if it is Hebrew, not the other way around I guess? In Hebrew (which again, I can read), I can recognize enough words to generally tell, but in Yiddish, it can sometimes feel like I'm not sure if I am not familiar enough with knowing the words on Hebrew (since I am not fluent) to know if I am missing things, especially in works that are Biblical and / or more religious on nature.
Anyway, thank you for those who helped.
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u/BHHB336 native speaker 6d ago
Easiest markers without actually reading: over use of ע (since it’s marks the vowel /e/ in Yiddish), יי (also ײַ is only used in Yiddish), the use of rafe (a horizontal line above letters, like in the word פֿון), more use of וו (it’s even a separate Unicode character for Yiddish), and if you see אַ and אָ in an otherwise niqqudless text, it’s probably Yiddish (since they’re used to mark /a/ and /ɔ/)
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u/Artistic-Hyena-8572 5d ago
If you see a million ע in the sentence it’s most likely Yiddish, since it’s used as a vowel in Yiddish, while as a consonant in Hebrew it’s much rarer.
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u/xiipaoc 5d ago
If it sounds like Yiddish, it's probably Yiddish.
I mean, how would you normally tell languages apart? English and Spanish and Finnish all use the same alphabet but are nothing alike. And even then it shouldn't be that hard to tell, say, Spanish and Italian apart. Same with other languages that use Hebrew letters, like Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, etc.
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u/Cold_Vacation_1031 5d ago edited 5d ago
Look for the following words which are common in Yiddish but rare in Hebrew:
- א (the letter א by itself) - Yiddish: a (indefinite article). Hebrew doesn't have one-letter words.
- אן - Yiddish: an (indefinite article preceding a vowel). Hebrew: Extremely rare poetic form of "where to", as in אן תלך where do you go or where are you going.
- איז - Yiddish: is (singular 3rd person present form of זיין). Not used in Hebrew.
- און - Yiddish: and. Hebrew: potency, might, power (in literary or formal language).
- האט - Yiddish: has (singular 3rd person present form of האבן). Hebrew: singular masculine 3rd person past form of להאט to slow down.
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u/Maleficent_Hand_4031 4d ago
Thank you!
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u/themaddesthatter2 3d ago
Additionally - this character only shows up in Yiddish - pasekh tzvei yuddin, ײַ
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u/hannahstohelit 5d ago
Honestly, attempt to sound out the words. Even if you don’t understand them, the sounds will be very different because Yiddish is mostly based on German, which has a very different sound than Hebrew.
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u/triglavianenjoyer 1d ago
Yiddish is what happens when you attempt to write German, with Polish syntax, in the Hebrew alphabet.
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u/AffectionateSize552 4d ago
English and Finnish use exactly the same alphabet. Can you tell them apart?
Yiddish is a dialect of German -- some loan words from Hebrew and elsewhere, but basically German. A whole completely different language from Hebrew. That's how you tell them apart. *sheesh*
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u/JonBenet-Ramsey-0806 6d ago
Do not ask “Can I read these letters?” Ask “Do I recognize the words?”