Vitaly
Both languages are associated with the Jewish people, but they have different origins, sounds and histories. This article explains how to distinguish Yiddish from Hebrew, what they have in common and why they are often confused.
Have you ever wondered how Yiddish differs from Hebrew and why these two languages are often confused? Both are languages of the Jewish people, but they originated at different times and under different circumstances.
In this article, we will share expert knowledge about the differences between Hebrew and Yiddish, examine their similarities, and dispel common misconceptions.
Let's start with the story of its origins.
The answer to the question “Which language is older: Yiddish or Hebrew?” is really obvious – Hebrew is the older one. This language belongs to the Semitic family and has more than 3 000 years of history. It existed even in biblical times: it was spoken by the ancient Israelites, and written monuments (such as the texts of the Tanakh) date back centuries. By the 13th century BC, Hebrew had already established itself as an independent language, and was then used for many centuries in sacred books and prayers.
Yiddish appeared much later. It developed in the Middle Ages, approximately between the 10th and 14th centuries AD. It belongs to a completely different language family: it is a Germanic language, closely related to German. It is based on the Middle High German dialects spoken by Ashkenazi Jews in Europe. Gradually, words from other languages were added to this base: about 70% of the Yiddish vocabulary is of German origin, about 20% came from ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, and a significant part consists of Slavic borrowings (from Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, etc.).
Thus, in terms of their origins, these languages are not “twins” at all: one grew up on the Semitic soil of the Middle East, the other on Germanic soil in Europe.
The history of these languages has influenced who speaks them today.
Hebrew survived a period of oblivion and was revived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the efforts of enthusiasts such as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. After the founding of the State of Israel (1948), it once again became a living spoken language.
Today, it is the official language of Israel, spoken by approximately 9 million people every day. Hebrew can be heard spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Modern Israelis use Hebrew as their native language. It is spoken not only by Jews – even many Arab citizens of Israel, visitors and students learn Hebrew for study and work.
And what about Yiddish? Until the mid-20th century, it was the native language of millions of Ashkenazi Jews, especially in Eastern Europe, the United States and other countries of the diaspora. However, the tragedy of the Holocaust and assimilation greatly reduced the number of speakers.
Today, there are significantly fewer speakers of Yiddish. The language can still be heard in ultra-religious communities, such as in areas of New York (Brooklyn) or Jerusalem (Mea Shearim), where Hasidic Jews preserve the Jewish languages of Hebrew and Yiddish, each in its own role. In such communities, Yiddish remains the spoken language of the family and everyday life (it is called “mame-loshn”), while Hebrew is used in prayer and the study of sacred texts. Outside these circles, Yiddish is rather rare: the younger generation of Israelis and descendants of immigrants to the United States rarely speak it fluently.
Nevertheless, Yiddish has not disappeared – according to various estimates, several hundred thousand people around the world continue to speak it, and enthusiasts are making efforts to preserve it.
Hebrew and Yiddish differ in almost everything except their alphabets. Below we list the key differences between them.
Hebrew is a Semitic language of Middle Eastern origin, descended from ancient Canaanite (close to Phoenician). For comparison, Yiddish is an Indo-European language of the West Germanic group, which developed from medieval German. Simply put, Arabic is more closely related to Hebrew, and German is more closely related to Yiddish than these two languages are to each other.
The basic vocabulary of Hebrew is formed from ancient Hebrew roots and is thousands of years old. Modern Hebrew has borrowings from English, Arabic and other languages, but the base remains Semitic (for example, shulchan – table, sefer – book).
Yiddish consists mainly of German words: terms of German origin are used for many concepts. For example, “book” in Yiddish is bukh (from German Buch), and “table” is tish (German Tisch).
At the same time, Yiddish absorbed thousands of words from Hebrew, especially those related to religion and everyday life. Words such as shalom (peace), shabbos (Saturday) and maher (craftsman, from the Hebrew “maase” – work) came into Yiddish from the sacred language of the ancestors. However, in general, everyday speech in Yiddish and Hebrew sounds completely different due to differences in vocabulary.
The grammatical structure of Hebrew differs significantly from that of European languages. Words are formed from three-letter roots by alternating vowels and adding templates (known as binyanim and word paradigms). For example, the root -k-t-b- gives the words katav (wrote), mihtav (letter), katavti (I wrote), etc.
Yiddish is structured differently, following the German model. It has categories familiar to speakers of European languages: articles (der, di, dos – analogous to “the”), several cases (nominative, accusative, etc.), and three genders of nouns (masculine, feminine, neuter). The word order and methods of forming new forms in Yiddish are closer to German and somewhat to Slavic languages.
Simply put, Yiddish grammar is more familiar to Europeans, whereas Hebrew requires getting used to a different logic of word formation.
Hebrew phonetics has absorbed Semitic features. It has the sounds ayin and het – deep guttural consonants that do not exist in Russian (roughly like in Arabic or like the French r in the throat). The letter reish in Israeli Hebrew is usually pronounced as a guttural [r] (similar to the French r), while the Yiddish r sounds more like a rolling [р], closer to the Slavic.
The sound system of Yiddish is generally similar to that of German: there is a characteristic hissing ch ([x] as in the word nacht), combinations of sch, oy, ay and other diphthongs characteristic of German.
Interestingly, many letters of the Hebrew alphabet are pronounced differently in Yiddish and Hebrew. For example, the letter ת (tav) in modern Hebrew is always [t], while in Yiddish it represents the sound [s] (as in sov, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation). The letter ו (vav) is pronounced [v] in Hebrew, while in Yiddish the same letter more often gives the vowel sound [u] or [o] (in combinations). It turns out that even common letters “sound” differently in these languages.
Both languages are written from right to left using the same letters, but the writing rules are different.
In Hebrew, it is customary not to write vowels: most of the 22 letters represent consonant sounds, and texts are written without vowels. The reader must reconstruct the vowels from the context. Textbooks and religious books use special vowel symbols (nikud) under the letters to indicate how they should be read.
The vowel system in Hebrew is conveyed by vocalisation marks
In Yiddish, on the contrary, vowel sounds are usually represented by letters of the alphabet. Where Hebrew leaves a blank space, Yiddish writes its own letter for the vowel. For example, the sound [u] is represented by the combination וו (double vav), and the sound [oy] by the combination וי. Thanks to this, Yiddish text can be read unambiguously and doesn’t require vowelisation.
In addition, there are historical differences in spelling: in printed publications, Yiddish is often typeset in Vaybiteich (an old “feminine script”), while Hebrew is typeset in the familiar square letters. These differences have now been smoothed out, but the spelling is still different – a word written in Yiddish does not always coincide with the spelling of the same word in Hebrew.
Comparison of the phrase “Today is nice weather” in Hebrew and Yiddish
The role of Hebrew and Yiddish in society today is opposite.
Modern Hebrew is the official language of Israel, a means of interethnic communication and a symbol of national revival. It is actively developing, with books and newspapers being published in it, television programmes being broadcast in it and scientific works being written in it.
Yiddish, on the other hand, has mainly been preserved as a language of tradition. After the catastrophe of European Jewry, its speakers became much fewer, and the language lost its status as the everyday language for most Jews. Hebrew replaced it in the official sphere: for example, in Israel, in the first decades, there were even restrictions on the use of Yiddish in order to encourage all repatriates to switch to Hebrew.
Today, Yiddish is considered a language of cultural heritage. It is spoken within certain communities, and a small amount of literature and periodicals are published for a narrow circle of readers. Simply put, Hebrew today is a living, modern language, while Yiddish is mainly a historical language that has been preserved among Orthodox believers and in textbooks on culture.
Despite all their differences, there are also common features that bring these two languages closer together. Let's list the main similarities between them.
Hebrew and Yiddish use the same Hebrew alphabet. Both languages are written from right to left, using the same characters – from alef (א) to tav (ת). This is a legacy of the common Jewish writing tradition. Any native speaker of Yiddish can easily read a sign in Hebrew (although they will not understand the meaning) and vice versa. For example, the name of the capital of Israel, ירושלים, is written in letters familiar to both Yiddish and Hebrew speakers (in English, this is “Jerusalem”). The common alphabet is one of the few things that really unites these languages technically.
Yiddish and Hebrew share the same alphabet
Both Yiddish and Hebrew are inextricably linked to the Jewish people and their destiny. Both languages arose as a solution to the language question in different circumstances: Hebrew was the language of prayer and scripture, while Yiddish became the language of everyday life for European Jewry.
Yiddish reflects the folk culture of Ashkenazi Jews – songs, proverbs, folklore (it is not for nothing that it is called the language of the Jewish shtetl). Hebrew, on the other hand, preserved the connection between generations through religion – it was called “lashon kodesh” (holy language) and was used in synagogues and in the study of the Torah.
Both languages are important elements of Jewish identity, each in its own way. Knowledge of Yiddish helps to understand the everyday life and humour of the Jewish diaspora, while knowledge of Hebrew opens the door to spiritual heritage and contemporary Israeli culture.
Yiddish has absorbed many expressions from Hebrew, which is why some words are common to both languages. For example, the greeting “shalom aleichem” (peace be upon you) is well known to both Yiddish and Hebrew speakers, although they pronounce it with different accents. Jewish names, holiday names, religious terms — all of these sound almost the same in both languages (Moshe — Moise, Shabbat — Shabbos, Kosher — Kosher).
It can be said that Yiddish has preserved the “genetic code” of Hebrew – approximately one-fifth of the Yiddish vocabulary is of Semitic origin.
The reverse influence can also be traced: some colloquial words from Yiddish have found their way into modern Hebrew, adding colour to it. Thus, there is a layer of common concepts between the two languages that are understandable to speakers of both.
Unexpectedly for many, Yiddish and Hebrew have similar features in the formation of new words. Both languages are capable of creating meaningful compound words. In Hebrew, words are combined into phrases such as “beit sefer” (literally “house of books”, i.e. school) or new concepts are formed using prefixes and suffixes.
Under the influence of German, Yiddish also has long compound words, such as “fersteiner-kop”, literally “stone head”, meaning a stubborn person. Both languages favour figurative expressions and idiomatic phrases that are difficult to translate literally. This creative freedom of language is also part of the common cultural heritage.
Hebrew and Yiddish experienced periods of decline in the 20th century, followed by attempts at revival.
Hebrew has transformed from a “dead” language of prayer into a dynamic national language – an unprecedented case of successful revival of an ancient language.
Although Yiddish has lost many speakers, it is currently experiencing renewed interest: courses are available, books and films are being published, and young people in Jewish communities are once again learning the language of their grandparents.
Both languages have proven their vitality. For students, this means that by learning Hebrew or Yiddish, you become a continuation of this unique history of language preservation through the centuries.
The differences between Yiddish and Hebrew are enormous.
Hebrew is an ancient Semitic language that has been revived in modern Israel, while Yiddish is a “younger” language that originated in medieval Europe on the basis of German. They have different sounds, grammar and areas of application. Today, Hebrew is spoken on the streets and on the internet, while Yiddish is mainly spoken in Orthodox Jewish families and in cultural heritage. However, there are also similarities: both languages are written with the same letters and preserve the spirit of Jewish tradition. Knowing these differences, you will no longer confuse the language spoken by the hero of an old Jewish joke with the language sung by Israeli singers.
Each of these languages is beautiful and valuable in its own way: studying Hebrew provides a key to modern life in Israel, while learning Yiddish opens a window into the history and wisdom of Ashkenazi Jews. Although different, both remain part of the rich linguistic heritage of the Jewish people.
