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As a speaker of Viennese German and English, I have no problem understanding spoken Yiddish.
by malermeister 2y ago
As a speaker of Viennese German and English, I have no problem understanding spoken Yiddish.
- tosh 2y agoI also would say Viennese sounds especially close to Yiddish.
- woodson 2y agoA lot of words and expressions in the old Viennese dialect are Yiddish, though that dialect has all but disappeared from day to day interactions (you can find it in old movies and recordings).
- emmelaich 2y agoI'm guessing the reason why is that the Jews migrated northwards from the Levantine / Africa / Spain upwards through Italy, Austria and then Germany, Poland, the Baltics. Are there any Italian or Piedmontese / Venetian traces in Yiddish? Relevant? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Italian_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Italian_languages
- snowpid 2y agoI know Jews used some Latins phrases in their languages. But it's too late for look up some sources...
- malermeister 2y agoI would agree, which is why I specified :)
- ManuelKiessling 2y agoI‘m a run-of-the-mill West German dude with no particular talent for languages, and second this. It’s somewhere between “normal” German and Dutch in terms of understandibility for me.
- kjellsbells 2y agoRun of the mill, he says, he says, in his second tongue, using correct grammar, idiomatic phrases, and perfect spelling. This n=1 sample shows even run of the mill can be good at languages. Oy veh!
- fuzztester 2y agoHe said run-of-the-mill West German, not just run-of-the-mill.
- fuzztester 2y ago>and perfect spelling >>understandibility for me https://www.google.com/search?q=understandibility https://www.google.com/search?q=understandibility
- ManuelKiessling 2y agoI made that one up intentionally, but didn’t want to put it in quotes because I already had one word in quotes.
- fuzztester 2y agoOK. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-hilarious-history-of-ok-okay https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-hilarious-histo... ;)
- ManuelKiessling 2y agoPretty sure it has to “oy vey”. It’s also a good example: it’s easy to understand for me because in German, “oh weh!” is a very common phrase.
- woodruffw 2y ago“Veh” is an attested but less common spelling, so it doesn’t have to be “vey.” (The “official” YIVO transliterations are not widely used, in practice.)
- rvense 2y agoI saw the film A Serious Man[0] at a cinema in Amsterdam when it came out. There's an opening scene with Yiddisch dialogue and it had no subtitles but judging from the laughs everyone understood it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serious_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serious_Man