Yiddish phonology

Yiddish 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. Its genesis is described in the article on Yiddish dialects.

Consonants

In addition, the sonorant consonants IPA|/l/ and IPA|/n/ can function as syllable nuclei:
*אײזל IPA|/ˈɛɪzl̩/ 'donkey'
*אָװנט IPA|/ˈɔvn̩t/ 'evening'

IPA| [m] and IPA| [ŋ] appear as syllable nuclei as well, but only as allophones of IPA|/n/, after bilabial consonants and dorsal consonants, respectively.

The syllabic sonorants and IPA| [ə] are always unstressed. IPA| [ə] can be analyzed as the unstressed allophone of IPA|/ɛ/.Fact|date=April 2008

Comparison with German

In vocabulary of Germanic origin, the differences between Standard German and Standard Yiddish pronunciation are mainly in the vowels and diphthongs. Examples are the German long "a" as in "Vater" 'father', which corresponds to "o" in the Yiddish פֿאָטער "foter", and the German long "e" and long "o" which are diphthongized in Yiddish to "ey" and "oy". As in many Germanic languages, and even in many dialects of German itself, Yiddish lacks the German front rounded umlaut vowels "ö" and "ü". They are replaced in Yiddish by "e" and "i" respectively. Diphthongs have also undergone divergent developments in German and Yiddish. Where Standard German has merged the Middle High German diphthong "ei" and long vowel "î" to "ei" (pronounced [ai] ), Standard Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them as "ey" and "ay" respectively. The German "au" (as in "kaufen" 'buy') corresponds to the Yiddish "oy" (in קױפֿן "koyfn"); lastly, the German "eu" (pronounced [oi] , as in "Deutsch" 'German') corresponds to "ay" in Yiddish (in דײַטש "daytsh"). Consonantal differences between German and Yiddish include the smoothing of the German affricate "pf" to plain "f" (as in פֿונט "funt") or "p" (as in קאָפ "kop") in Yiddish, and the fact that Standard Yiddish (but not Standard German) allows word-final voiced obstruents.

References

Bibliography

*

Birnbaum, Solomon A., "Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar", University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1979, ISBN 0-8020-5382-3.

*
Herzog, Marvin, et.al. ed., YIVO, "The Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry", 3 vols., Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tubingen, 1992-2000, ISBN 3-484-73013-7.

* cite book
last=Jacobs
first=Neil G.
title=Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction
publisher=Cambridge University Press
place=Cambridge
year=2005
ISBN=0-521-77215-X
*citation
last=Kleine
first=Ane
year=2003
title=Standard Yiddish
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=33
issue=2
pages=261-265

Further reading

*cite book
last=Jacobs
first=Neil G.
year=2005
title=Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction
publisher=Cambridge University Press
ISBN=0-521-77215-X

External links

* [http://www.jewish-languages.org/yiddish.html Jewish Language Research Website]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 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… …   Wikipedia

  • Yiddish language — Not to be confused with Hebrew language. Yiddish ייִדיש yidish Pronunciation [ˈjɪdɪʃ] Spoken in United States, Israel, Argentina …   Wikipedia

  • Yiddish orthography — The Yiddish language is written using Hebrew script as the basis of a full vocalic alphabet. This adaptation uses letters that are silent or glottal stops in Hebrew, as vowels in Yiddish. Other letters that can serve as both vowels and consonants …   Wikipedia

  • YIDDISH LANGUAGE — YIDDISH LANGUAGE, language used by Ashkenazi Jews for the past 1,000 years. Developed as an intricate fusion of several unpredictably modified stocks, the language was gradually molded to serve a wide range of communicative needs. As the society… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • English phonology — See also: Phonological history of English English phonology is the study of the sound system (phonology) of the English language. Like many languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In… …   Wikipedia

  • Modern Hebrew phonology — Main article: Hebrew language For assistance with IPA transcriptions of Hebrew for Wikipedia articles, see WP:IPA for Hebrew. This article is about the phonology of the Hebrew language based on the Israeli dialect. It deals with current phonology …   Wikipedia

  • German phonology — describes the phonology of Standard German.Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different pronunciations of standard German which however agree in most respects.Vowels* In the northern varieties, IPA| [ʔ] occurs before… …   Wikipedia

  • Navajo phonology — is the study of how speech sounds pattern and interact with each other in that language. The phonology of Navajo is intimately connected to its morphology. For example, the entire range of contrastive consonants is found only at the beginning of… …   Wikipedia

  • Standard Chinese phonology — The phonology of Standard Chinese is reproduced below. Actual production varies widely among speakers, as people inadvertently introduce elements of their native dialects. By contrast, television and radio announcers are chosen for their… …   Wikipedia

  • Old Chinese phonology — The phonology of Old Chinese describes the language reflected by the rhymes of the Shijing and the phonetic components of Chinese characters, corresponding to the earlier half of the 1st millennium BC. Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”