Yiddish dialects

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'.

Varieties

The major regional branches of Yiddish are Western Yiddish and Eastern Yiddish.^[1][2] 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.^[3] 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."^[4] 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.^[3] 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.^[3] 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.^{[3][nb 1]} Ukrainian Yiddish was the basis for standard theater Yiddish, while Lithuanian Yiddish was the basis of standard literary and academic Yiddish.^{[3][nb 2]} About three-quarters of contemporary Yiddish speakers speak Southern Yiddish varieties, the majority speaking Polish Yiddish.^[3] Most Hasidic communities use southern dialects, with the exception of Chabad; many Chareidim in Jerusalem also preserve Litvish Yiddish.^[3]

The primary differences between the contemporary dialects are in the quality of stressed vowels, though there are also differences in morphology, lexicon, and grammar.^[3][5] Northern dialects are more conservative in vowel quality, while southern dialects have preserved vowel quantity distinctions.^[3]

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.^[6] 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/.^[6] 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).^[6] 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 German; Katz (1978) argues that these should be collapsed with the -2 series, leaving only 13 in the -3 series.^[7]

Genetic sources of Yiddish dialect vowels^[8]

Netherlandic Front Back Close i31 iː32 u52 Close-mid eː25 o51 oː12 Open-mid ɛ21 ɛj22/34 ɔ41 ɔu42/54 Open a11/13 aː24/44

Polish Front Back Close i31/51 iː32/52 u12/13 Close-mid eː~ej25 oː~ou54 Open-mid ɛ21 ɔ41 ɔj42/44 Open a11 aː34 aj22/24

Lithuanian Front Back Close i31/32 u51/52 Close-mid ej22/24/42/44 Open-mid ɛ21/25 ɔ12/13/41 ɔj54 Open a11 aj34

Examples^[9]

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 = 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)

^[10]

Some dialects have final consonant devoicing.

Merger of /ʃ/ into /s/ was common in Litvish Yiddish in previous generations.^[3] 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 phonology, 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 on 16th Street in Manhattan, New York City

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,^[11] 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):

There is no standard pronunciation in Yiddish. However, the members and friends of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, New York, have strong views on the subject. They are convinced that Y should not differ in this respect from the great Western languages, and so they are willing to introduce a standard one. In their publications they speak as if it were already in existence, but this is wishful thinking – acceptance of their system being restricted to their circle. The original proponents of this 'standard' were speakers of the Northern dialect and so, without further ado and without discussing the matter or giving any reasons, they decided that their own pronunciation was the 'standard'. However, the man in the street knows nothing about it. If he happens to be a Southerner he does not exchange his rich phonemic system for the meagre one of the Northern dialect. He does not even know that this is 'supposed to be' the 'standard'. And if he is a Northerner, he goes on speaking as before, without realizing that he would need to change only one of his vowels in order to qualify as a speaker of the 'standard'. It is ironic that the partisans of the 'standard' – all convinced democrats – should ask the majority of Yiddish-speakers to switch over from their own pronunciation to that of a minority, comprising only a quarter of all Yiddish speakers.

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 YIVO 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.

Notes

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ 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 Katz, Dovid (1087). Grammar of the Yiddish Language. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.. p. 38. ISBN 0-7156-2161-0. 

References

1. ^ See Western Yiddish
2. ^ See Eastern Yiddish.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Yiddish Dialects
4. ^ Western Yiddish
5. ^ Katz, Dovid (1087). Grammar of the Yiddish Language. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.. p. 38. ISBN 0-7156-2161-0. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Jacobs (2005:28)
7. ^ Katz (1978:17)
8. ^ Katz (1978:25)
9. ^ Katz (1978:18–23)
10. ^ Harkavy, Alexander. "Dialects". Treatise on Yiddish Reading, Orthography, and Dialectal Variations. http://www.cs.engr.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/harkavy/0015.png. Retrieved 11 May 2011. 
11. ^ http://www.yivo.org/

References

• Birnbaum, Solomon A., Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1979, ISBN 0-8020-5382-3.
• Estraikh, Gennady, Soviet Yiddish: Language Planning and Linguistic Development, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999, ISBN 0-19-818479-4.
• Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.), Never Say Die: A Thousand Years of Yiddish in Jewish Life and Letters, Mouton Publishers, The Hague, 1981, ISBN 90-279-7978-2.
• Harkavy, Alexander, Harkavy's English-Jewish and Jewish-English Dictionary, Hebrew Publishing Company, New York, 1898. Expanded 6th ed., 1910, scanned facsimile.
• Herzog, Marvin, et al. ed., YIVO, The Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, 3 vols., Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 1992–2000, ISBN 3-484-73013-7.
• Jacobs, Neil G. (2005). Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77215-X. 
• Katz, Dovid, Grammar of the Yiddish Language, Duckworth, London, 1987, ISBN 0-7156-2161-0.
• Katz, Dovid (1978). Genetic Notes on Netherlandic Yiddish Vocalism. http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/1978a.pdf. 
• Weinreich, Uriel, College Yiddish: an Introduction to the Yiddish language and to Jewish Life and Culture, 6th revised ed., YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-914512-26-9.
• Wex, Michael, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-312-30741-1.

External links

• Jewish Language Research Website
• LCAAJ Columbia University
• LCAAJ EYDES
• Map of Lithuanian Yiddish territory