why i want to learn yiddish:

• it's cool
• it's very close to German (my native language)
  • Middle High German evolved into modern German and Yiddish !
  • i'm a linguism nerd and the connections fascinate me
• it sounds awesome
• this video (one of my favorite youtubers/singers is jewish)
• this song (one of my favorite songs)

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basics

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ orthography:

• written right-to-left
• grammar is similar to German, partly similar to Hebrew and Slavic
• uses Hebrew alphabet, with different orthography (Yiddish uses letters to represent all vowels.)
  • usually, words borrowed from Hebrew are written with Hebrew orthography, not Yiddish
• some letters are written differently when they occur at the end of words ( ende/lange khof, nun, etc. )

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ phonology:

• א alef is a vowel without a specific pronunciation, it becomes אַ (a) and אָ (o)
• "ch" is a velar fricative /x/ (like in German), not /k/
• ר "r" is a rolled r

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ grammar:

• 3 grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter)
• 3 grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, dative)
  • genetive indicated by the preposition fun (of) or suffixes
• two plural suffixes
  • ending in unstressed vowel: -s (e.g. grupe-grupes)
  • ending in a consonant: -n (e.g. tish-tishn)
  • some irregular forms (-es, umlaut change, no change, -ekh)
  • words of Hebrew origin use Hebrew plural suffixes (-im, -es)

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ punctuation:

• , . : ; ! ? ( ) [ ] { } “ ” as in English
  • period (as well as dots from ! and ?) are often a diamond ◊
  • question mark is not inverted, unlike in Arabic
• hyphen ( maqaf ): ־ (not -)
• apostrophe ( geresh ): ׳ (not י or ´ or ')
• quotation mark ( gershayim ) for abbreviation: ״ (not " or ”)
  • e.g. דאָקטאָר (doktor, 'doctor') is abbreviated ד״ר (Dr.)
• end of verse ( sof passuk ): ׃ (not :)

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alphabet (keyboard)

• a אַ pasekh alef
• b ב beys
• c
• ch כ khof
  • ך lange/ende khof
• d ד daled
• e ע ayin
• f פֿ fey
  • ף lange/ende fey
• g ג giml
• h ה hey
• i/j י yud
• k כּ kof *
• l ל lamed
• m מ mem
  • ם shlos/ende mem
• n נ nun
  • ן lange/ende nun
• o אָ komets alef
• p פּ pey
• q
• r ר reysh
• s ת sof
• sh ש shin
• t ט tes
• u ו vov
• v/w װ
• x
• y
• z צ tsadek
  • ץ lange/ende tsadik

Lüshn-koydesh: (only used in Hebrew/Aramaic words)

• v בֿ veys
• ch ח khes
• k כּ kof
• s שׂ sin
• s ת sof
• t תּ tof
• e (?)

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numbers (holy shit this is basically german)

• 0 nul
• 1 eyns
• 2 tsvey
• 3 dray
• 4 fir
• 5 finf
• 6 zeks
• 7 zibn
• 8 akht
• 9 nayn
• 10 tsen

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common words/phrases

• לחיים = L’chaim = Cheers!
• אױ װײ = Oy vey = Woe is me. (Oh weh)
• מזל טוב = Mazel tov = Congratulations / Good luck has occurred