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

Yiddish consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Dorsal	Postalveolar		Glottal
			soft	hard		soft	hard
Nasal		m	nʲ	n	(ŋ)
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	k			(ʔ)
	voiced	b		d	ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		tsʲ	ts		tʃʲ	tʃ
	voiced		dzʲ	dz		dʒʲ	dʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	sʲ	s	χ		ʃ	h
	voiced	v	zʲ	z	ɣ		ʒ
Rhotic				r
Approximant	central				j
	lateral			l	ʎ

• /m, p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
• The /l–ʎ/ contrast has collapsed in some speakers.
• The palatalized coronals /nʲ, tsʲ, dzʲ, tʃʲ, dʒʲ, sʲ, zʲ/ appear only in Slavic loanwords. The phonemic status of these palatalised consonants, as well as any other affricates, is unclear.
• /k, ɡ, ɣ/ and [ŋ] are velar, whereas /j, ʎ/ are palatal.
  • [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ after /k, ɡ/, and it can only be syllabic [ŋ̍].
• The phonetic realization of /χ/ and /nʲ/ is unclear:
  • In case if /χ/, Kleine (2003) puts it in the "velar" column, but consistently uses a symbol denoting a voiceless uvular fricative ⟨χ⟩ to transcribe it. It is thus safe to assume that /χ/ is phonetically uvular [χ].
  • In case of /nʲ/, Kleine (2003) puts it in the "palatalized" column. This can mean that it is either palatalized alveolar [nʲ] or alveolo-palatal [ɲ̟]. /ʎ/ may actually also be alveolo-palatal [ʎ̟], rather than just palatal.
• The rhotic /r/ can be either alveolar or uvular, either a trill [r ~ ʀ] or, more commonly, a flap/tap [ɾ ~ ʀ̆].
• The glottal stop [ʔ] appears only as an intervocalic separator.

As in the Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact (Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian), but unlike German, voiceless stops have little to no aspiration; unlike many such languages, voiced stops are not devoiced in final position. Moreover, Yiddish has regressive voicing assimilation, so that, for example, זאָגט /zɔɡt/ ('says') is pronounced [zɔkt] and הקדמה /hakˈdɔmɜ/ ('foreword') is pronounced [haɡˈdɔmɜ].

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Standard Yiddish are:

Yiddish monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
	unrounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	ɪ		ʊ
Open-mid	ɛ	ɜ	ɔ
Open	a

• /ɪ, ʊ/ are near-close [ɪ, ʊ], but /ɪ/ may sometimes be realized as close [i]. These allophones are more or less in free variation, but they could have been separate phonemes in the past.
• /ɜ/ appears only in unstressed syllables.

Diphthongs

Front nucleus	Central nucleus	Back nucleus
ɛɪ	aɪ	ɔɪ

• The last two diphthongs may be realized as [aɛ] and [ɔɜ], respectively.

In addition, the sonorant consonants /l/ and /n/ can function as syllable nuclei:

• אײזל /ˈɛɪzl̩/ 'donkey'
• אָװנט /ˈɔvn̩t/ 'evening'

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

The syllabic sonorants are always unstressed.

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 /aː/ as in Vater ('father'), which corresponds to /ɔ/ in Yiddish פֿאָטער /ˈfɔtɛr/, and the German long /eː/ and long /oː/, which correspond to diphthongs in Yiddish (/ɛɪ/ and /ɔɪ/). As in many Germanic languages, Yiddish lacks the German front rounded umlaut vowels /œ, øː/ and /ʏ, yː/. They are replaced in Yiddish by /ɛ/ (in case of the short /œ/), /ɛɪ/ (in case of the long /øː/) and /ɪ/ (in case of /ʏ, yː/) 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 ī to ei (pronounced /aɪ/), Standard Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them as /ɛɪ/ and /aɪ/, respectively. The German /aʊ/ (as in kaufen, 'buy') corresponds to the Yiddish /ɔɪ/ (in קױפֿן /kɔɪfn/); lastly, the German /ɔʏ/, as in Deutsch 'German') corresponds to /aɪ/ in Yiddish (in דײַטש /daɪtʃ/). Another difference is that the vowel length distinctions of German do not exist in Standard Yiddish. Consonantal differences between German and Yiddish include the deaffrication of the German affricate /pf/ to /f/ initially (as in פֿונט funt; also found in non-standard Western German) and /p/ medially or finally (as in עפּל /ɛpl/ and קאָפּ /kɔp/) in Yiddish, and the presence of final voiced obstruents in Standard Yiddish (but not Northern Standard German).

German	Standard Yiddish (and Central Yiddish)	Example (German = Yiddish)
short a /a/	/a/	machen, glatt = מאַכן, גלאַט /maχn, ɡlat/
long a /aː/	/ɔ/	Vater, sagen = פֿאָטער, זאָגן /ˈfɔtɜr, zɔɡn/
short ä /ɛ/	/ɛ/	Bäcker = בעקער /ˈbɛkɜr/
long ä /ɛː/	/ɛ/	ähnlich = ענלעך /ˈɛnlɜχ/
short e /ɛ/	/ɛ/	Mensch = מענטש /mɛntʃ/
long e /eː/	/ɛɪ/	Esel = אייזל /ɛɪzl/
short o /ɔ/	/ɔ/	Kopf, sollen = קאָפּ, זאָלן /kɔp, zɔln/
long o /oː/	/ɔɪ/	hoch, schon = הויך, שוין /hɔɪχ, ʃɔɪn/
short ö /œ/	/ɛ/	können, Köpfe = קענען, קעפּ /ˈkɛnɜn, kɛp/
long ö /øː/	/ɛɪ/	schön = שיין /ʃɛɪn/
short ü /ʏ/	/ɪ/	Brücke, fünf = בריק, פֿינף /brɪk, fɪnf/
long ü /yː/	/ɪ/	grün = גרין /ɡrɪn/
ei /aɪ/	/ɛɪ/ (MHG ei )	Fleisch = פֿלייש /flɛɪʃ/
	/aɪ/ (MHG ī )	mein = מײַן /maɪn/
au /aʊ/	/ɔɪ/	auch, Haus = אויך, הויז /ɔɪχ, hɔɪz/
eu /ɔʏ/	/aɪ/	Deutsch = דײַטש /daɪtʃ/

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, Tübingen, 1992–2000, ISBN 3-484-73013-7.

External links

• Jewish Language Research Website