Yiddish dialects
Encyclopedia
Yiddish dialects are varieties of the Yiddish language
. These dialects are divided by originating region in Europe. Northeastern "Litvish" Yiddish was dominant in twentieth-century Yiddish culture and academia, while Southern dialects of Yiddish are now the most commonly spoken, preserved by many Hasidic communities. The principal differences between the dialects are found in the quality of stressed vowels, for instance Litvish zogn, Polish zugn 'to say'.
Western Yiddish is no longer spoken natively. According to C. J. Hutterer (1969), "In western and central Europe the WY dialects must have died out within a short time during the period of reforms following the Enlightenment." Western Yiddish included three dialects: Northwestern (spoken in Northern Germany and the Netherlands), Midwestern (spoken in central Germany), and Southwestern (spoken in southern Germany, France, and neighboring regions extending into Northern Italy). These have a number of clearly distinguished regional varieties, such as Judeo-Alsatian, plus many local subvarieties.
Eastern Yiddish is split into Northern and Southern dialects. Northeastern Yiddish, also known as Litvish
or Lithuanian Yiddish, was spoken in the modern-day Baltic region
as well as adjacent regions of Poland
, Ukraine
, and Russia
. The Southern dialects are again subdivided: Mideastern or Polish Yiddish was spoken in Poland
, western Galicia and much of Hungary
, while Southeastern or Ukrainian Yiddish was spoken elsewhere in Eastern Europe.Some authors use the term "Southeastern Yiddish" as a collective designation for both Poylish and Ukrainish while still applying the term Northeastern Yiddish to Litvish. Ukrainian Yiddish was the basis for standard theater Yiddish, while Lithuanian Yiddish was the basis of standard literary and academic Yiddish.The latter differs slightly from Lithuanian Yiddish in that many words with /oj/ in the standard have /ej/ in Lithuanian Yiddish, e.g. וואוין = Standard /vojn/, Lithuanian /vejn/. See About three-quarters of contemporary Yiddish speakers speak Southern Yiddish varieties, the majority speaking Polish Yiddish. Most Hasidic communities use southern dialects, with the exception of Chabad
; many Chareidim in Jerusalem also preserve Litvish Yiddish.
The primary differences between the contemporary dialects are in the quality of stressed vowels, though there are also differences in morphology, lexicon, and grammar. Northern dialects are more conservative in vowel quality, while southern dialects have preserved vowel quantity distinctions.
; Katz (1978) argues that these should be collapsed with the -2 series, leaving only 13 in the -3 series.
Litvish Yiddish has /ej/ for standard academic and literary /ɔj/ everywhere except for vowel 54.
Some dialects have final consonant devoicing.
Merger of /ʃ/ into /s/ was common in Litvish Yiddish in previous generations. This trait, known as Sabosdiker losn, was stigmatized and deliberately avoided by recent generations of Litvaks.
, without detailing the phonetic variation among the three contributing dialects or the further distinctions among the myriad local varieties that they subsume.
A useful early review of the differences between the three main Eastern dialects is provided by the Yiddish lexicographer Alexander Harkavy in a Treatise on Yiddish Reading, Orthography, and Dialectal Variations first published in 1898 together with his Yiddish-English Dictionary (Harkavy 1898). A scanned facsimile is available online. The relevant material is presented there under the heading Dialects.
Harkavy, as other of the early standardizers, regards Litvish as the "leading branch". That assertion has, however, been questioned by many authors and remains the subject of keen controversy to the present day. YIVO
, the Jewish Scientific Institute, is often seen as the initiating agent in giving phonetic preference to Litvish, but Harkavy's work predates YIVO's and he was not exclusively describing personal preference. A broad-based study provided in the Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (discussed in detail below under the heading Documentation) provides a clearer picture of the more recent YIVO perspective.
The heart of the debate is the priority given to the dialect with the smallest number of speakers. One of the alternative proposals put forward in the early discussion of standardizing spoken Yiddish was to base it on the pronunciation of the Southeastern dialect, which was the most widely used form in the Yiddish theater (c.f. Bühnendeutsch, the stage pronunciation, as a common designation for Standard German
.)
There is nothing unusual about heated debate over language planning
and reform. Such normative initiatives are, however, frequently based on legislative authority – something which, with the exception of regulation in the Soviet Union
, has never applied to Yiddish. It might therefore be expected that the controversy about the development of Standard Yiddish would be particularly intense.
The acrimony surrounding the extensive role played by YIVO is vividly illustrated by in remarks made by Solomon Birnbaum (Birnbaum 1979):
Recent criticism of modern Standard Yiddish is expressed by Michael Wex in several passages in Wex 2005. Regardless of any nuance that can be applied to the consideration of these arguments, it may be noted that modern Standard Yiddish is used by very few mother-tongue speakers and is not evoked by the vast bulk of Yiddish literature. It has, however, become a norm in present-day instruction of Yiddish as a foreign language and is therefore firmly established in any discourse about the development of that language.
Institute for Jewish Research published a three-volume Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, commonly referred to as the LCAAJ. This provides a detailed description of the phonetic elements of what is presented as an Eastern-Western dialect continuum
, and mapping their geographic distribution. A more recent extensive phonetic description, also of both Eastern and Western Yiddish, is given by Neil G. Jacobs in Jacobs 2005.
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
. These dialects are divided by originating region in Europe. Northeastern "Litvish" Yiddish was dominant in twentieth-century Yiddish culture and academia, while Southern dialects of Yiddish are now the most commonly spoken, preserved by many Hasidic communities. The principal differences between the dialects are found in the quality of stressed vowels, for instance Litvish zogn, Polish zugn 'to say'.
Varieties
The major regional branches of Yiddish are Western Yiddish and Eastern Yiddish. Western Yiddish was spoken in Western Europe, and Eastern Yiddish in Eastern Europe. General references to the "Yiddish language" without qualification are normally taken to apply to Eastern Yiddish, unless the subject under consideration is Yiddish literature prior to the 19th century, in which case the focus is more likely to be on Western Yiddish.Western Yiddish is no longer spoken natively. According to C. J. Hutterer (1969), "In western and central Europe the WY dialects must have died out within a short time during the period of reforms following the Enlightenment." Western Yiddish included three dialects: Northwestern (spoken in Northern Germany and the Netherlands), Midwestern (spoken in central Germany), and Southwestern (spoken in southern Germany, France, and neighboring regions extending into Northern Italy). These have a number of clearly distinguished regional varieties, such as Judeo-Alsatian, plus many local subvarieties.
Eastern Yiddish is split into Northern and Southern dialects. Northeastern Yiddish, also known as Litvish
Litvak
Litvak may refer to:* Lithuanian Jews* Lithuanian Yiddish dialectPeople:* Anatole Litvak* Lydia Litvak...
or Lithuanian Yiddish, was spoken in the modern-day Baltic region
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
as well as adjacent regions of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The Southern dialects are again subdivided: Mideastern or Polish Yiddish was spoken in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, western Galicia and much of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, while Southeastern or Ukrainian Yiddish was spoken elsewhere in Eastern Europe.Some authors use the term "Southeastern Yiddish" as a collective designation for both Poylish and Ukrainish while still applying the term Northeastern Yiddish to Litvish. Ukrainian Yiddish was the basis for standard theater Yiddish, while Lithuanian Yiddish was the basis of standard literary and academic Yiddish.The latter differs slightly from Lithuanian Yiddish in that many words with /oj/ in the standard have /ej/ in Lithuanian Yiddish, e.g. וואוין = Standard /vojn/, Lithuanian /vejn/. See About three-quarters of contemporary Yiddish speakers speak Southern Yiddish varieties, the majority speaking Polish Yiddish. Most Hasidic communities use southern dialects, with the exception of Chabad
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
; many Chareidim in Jerusalem also preserve Litvish Yiddish.
The primary differences between the contemporary dialects are in the quality of stressed vowels, though there are also differences in morphology, lexicon, and grammar. Northern dialects are more conservative in vowel quality, while southern dialects have preserved vowel quantity distinctions.
Comparison
Stressed vowels in the Yiddish dialects may be understood by considering their common origins in the Proto-Yiddish sound system. Yiddish linguistic scholarship uses a system developed by M. Weinreich (1960) to indicate the descendent diaphonemes of Proto-Yiddish (PY) stressed vowels. Each PY vowel is given a unique two-digit identifier, and its reflexes use this as a subscript, for example Southeastern o11 is the vowel /o/, descended from PY */a/. The first digit indicates PY quality (1-=*[a], 2-=*[e], 3-=*[i], 4-=*[o], 5-=*[u]) and the second refers to quantity or diphthongization (-1=short, -2=long, -3=short but lengthened early in the history of Yiddish, -4=diphthong, -5=special length only occurring in PY vowel 25). Vowels 23, 33, 43 and 53 have the same reflexes as 22, 32, 42 and 52 in all Yiddish dialects, though they developed distinct values in Middle High GermanMiddle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
; Katz (1978) argues that these should be collapsed with the -2 series, leaving only 13 in the -3 series.
|
|
|
| PY | Netherlandic | Polish | Lithuanian |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 (A1) | alt | alt | alt |
| 42 (O2) | brɔut | brɔjt | brejt |
| 13 (A3) | vas | vus | vɔs |
| 24 (E4) | ān | ajn | ejn |
| 54 (U4) | hɔuz | hōz~ houz |
hɔjz |
Litvish Yiddish has /ej/ for standard academic and literary /ɔj/ everywhere except for vowel 54.
| Vowel (Hebrew script) | Northern Yiddish (Litvish) | Southern Yiddish (Poylish, Galitzish) | Comparison (Heb. script = NY = SY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| אָ | o [ɔ] | u [u] | דאָס, זאָגן = dos, zogn = dus, zugn |
| אֻ, וּ | u [ʊ] | i [i] | קוגעל = kugel Kugel Kugel is a baked Ashkenazi Jewish pudding or casserole, similar to a pie, most commonly made from egg noodles or potatoes, though at times made of zucchini, apples, spinach, broccoli, cranberry, or sweet potato... = kigel |
| ײֵ | ai [aj] | ah [aː] | זײֵן = zayn = zahn |
| אֵ, ײ | ey [ɛɪ] | ay [aj] | קלײן, צװײ = kleyn, tzvey = klayn, tzvay |
| ױ, וֹ | ey [ɛɪ] | oy [oj] | אױך = eykh = oykh |
| ע | e [ɛ] | ey [ej] | שטעטל = shtetl = shteytl (Note: Unstressed /e/ [ə] does not change) |
Some dialects have final consonant devoicing.
Merger of /ʃ/ into /s/ was common in Litvish Yiddish in previous generations. This trait, known as Sabosdiker losn, was stigmatized and deliberately avoided by recent generations of Litvaks.
Development of "neutral" form
As with many other languages with strong literary traditions, there was a more or less constant tendency toward the development of a neutral written form acceptable to the speakers of all dialects. In the early twentieth century, for both cultural and political reasons, particular energy was focused on developing a modern Standard Yiddish. This contained elements from all three Eastern dialects but its phonetic attributes were predominantly based on Northeastern pronunciation. A separate article describes the resulting modern Standard Yiddish phonologyYiddish phonology
There is significant phonological variation among the various dialects of the Yiddish language. The description that follows is of a modern Standard Yiddish that was devised during the early 20th century and is frequently encountered in pedagogical contexts...
, without detailing the phonetic variation among the three contributing dialects or the further distinctions among the myriad local varieties that they subsume.
A useful early review of the differences between the three main Eastern dialects is provided by the Yiddish lexicographer Alexander Harkavy in a Treatise on Yiddish Reading, Orthography, and Dialectal Variations first published in 1898 together with his Yiddish-English Dictionary (Harkavy 1898). A scanned facsimile is available online. The relevant material is presented there under the heading Dialects.
Standardization controversy
YIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
, the Jewish Scientific Institute, is often seen as the initiating agent in giving phonetic preference to Litvish, but Harkavy's work predates YIVO's and he was not exclusively describing personal preference. A broad-based study provided in the Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (discussed in detail below under the heading Documentation) provides a clearer picture of the more recent YIVO perspective.
The heart of the debate is the priority given to the dialect with the smallest number of speakers. One of the alternative proposals put forward in the early discussion of standardizing spoken Yiddish was to base it on the pronunciation of the Southeastern dialect, which was the most widely used form in the Yiddish theater (c.f. Bühnendeutsch, the stage pronunciation, as a common designation for Standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.)
There is nothing unusual about heated debate over language planning
Language planning
Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...
and reform. Such normative initiatives are, however, frequently based on legislative authority – something which, with the exception of regulation in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, has never applied to Yiddish. It might therefore be expected that the controversy about the development of Standard Yiddish would be particularly intense.
The acrimony surrounding the extensive role played by YIVO is vividly illustrated by in remarks made by Solomon Birnbaum (Birnbaum 1979):
Recent criticism of modern Standard Yiddish is expressed by Michael Wex in several passages in Wex 2005. Regardless of any nuance that can be applied to the consideration of these arguments, it may be noted that modern Standard Yiddish is used by very few mother-tongue speakers and is not evoked by the vast bulk of Yiddish literature. It has, however, become a norm in present-day instruction of Yiddish as a foreign language and is therefore firmly established in any discourse about the development of that language.
Documentation
Between 1992 and 2000, the YIVOYIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
Institute for Jewish Research published a three-volume Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, commonly referred to as the LCAAJ. This provides a detailed description of the phonetic elements of what is presented as an Eastern-Western dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
, and mapping their geographic distribution. A more recent extensive phonetic description, also of both Eastern and Western Yiddish, is given by Neil G. Jacobs in Jacobs 2005.
External links
- Jewish Language Research Website
- LCAAJ Columbia University
- LCAAJ EYDES
- Map of Lithuanian Yiddish territory