Yiddish grammar is the system of principles which govern the structure of the
Yiddish language
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
. This article describes the
standard form laid out by
YIVO
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...
while noting differences in significant dialects such as that of many contemporary
Hasidim
Ḥasīd ( he, חסיד, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observ ...
. As a
Germanic language
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...
descended from
Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...
, Yiddish grammar is very similar to that of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, though it also has numerous
linguistic innovations as well as grammatical features influenced by or borrowed from
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
, and various
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
.
Nouns
Gender
Yiddish nouns are classified into one of three
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
s: masculine (זכר ), feminine (נקבֿה ) and neuter (נײטראַל ). To a large extent, the gender of a noun is unpredictable, though there are some regular patterns:
* nouns denoting specifically male humans and animals are usually masculine, and nouns denoting specifically female humans and animals are usually feminine
* nouns ending in an
unstressed schwa are usually feminine
* nouns built on most of the common
abstract noun suffixes, such as ונג- ''-ung'' and הײט- ''-hayt'', are feminine
*
diminutive nouns with the suffix ''-l'' are neuter in the standard language
*
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
s are generally assigned masculine gender by default unless they end in a schwa, in which case they are usually feminine.
Gender assignment for new words and sporadic realignments of older ones are examples of the dynamic tendency observable for nouns that do not reflect an inherent sex. It designates nouns with vowel endings as feminine and those with consonant endings as masculine.
Case
There are three
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
s in Yiddish:
nominative,
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
and
dative. The nominative case generally is used for the
subject, the accusative for the
direct object
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
and the dative for an indirect object or object of a
preposition. Nouns are normally not
inflected
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...
for case, and case is indicated by the inflection of a related
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
or
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...
. However, a handful of nouns do have inflectional endings to indicate the accusative and/or dative cases, which may be optional or obligatory, depending on the specific lexical item and dialect; examples of nouns that take obligatory case endings include certain kinship terms (טאַטע ''tate'' 'father', מאַמע ''mame'' 'mother') and the words ייִד ''yid'' 'Jew' and האַרץ ''harts'' 'heart'. In those cases, masculine nouns take the ending ן- ''-n'' in the accusative and dative
singular, i.e. טאַטן ''tatn'' 'father', רבין ''rebn'' 'rabbi' or 'teacher'; feminine and neuter nouns take ן- ''-n'' only in the dative singular, where, for example, מאַמע ''mame'' becomes מאַמען ''mamen''.
Yiddish does not have a
genitive case. However, when the possessor is a human or occasionally other living beings, possession may be indicated with a suffixed ס- ''-s'' (like
English possessive ''-'s''). Otherwise, possession is normally indicated by the
preposition פֿון ''fun'' 'of'.
Another genitive-like construction, the quantitative, is used to describe quantities of objects: (a full cup of hot tea); (a group of young people). The noun phrase representing the quantity is simply followed by noun representing the object described. This construction may not be used if the object has a definite article: (a full cup of the hot tea).
Plural
There are two
regular plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
suffixes. For nouns ending in an unstressed vowel, the plural is regularly formed with the suffix ''-s''; e.g., the plural of גרופּע ''grupe'' 'group' is גרופּעס ''grupes''. For nouns ending in a consonant, the plural is regularly formed with ''-n''; the plural of טיש ''tish'' 'table' is טישן ''tishn''.
A very large number of nouns use
irregular plural
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...
forms, including ''-es'' (these are usually nouns of Slavic origin), and ''-er'' with
umlaut (e.g., מאַן ''man'' 'man' → מענער ''mener'' 'men'; קינד ''kind'' 'child' → קינדער ''kinder'' 'children'), or umlaut alone (e.g., האַנט ''hant'' 'hand' → הענט ''hent'' 'hands'). Some words do not change in the plural (e.g., פֿיש ''fish'' 'fish'). Nouns built on the diminutive suffixes ''-l'' and ''-ele'' form the plural in ''-ekh'' (e.g., מײדל ''meydl'' 'girl' → מײדלעך ''meydlekh'' 'girls').
Most words of Hebrew origin use the Hebrew plural suffixes, either ''-im'' (e.g., ספֿר ''seyfer'' 'holy book' → ספֿרים ''sforim'' 'holy books') or ''-es'' (e.g., סוד ''sod'' 'secret' → סודות ''soydes'' 'secrets'). As these examples show, many plurals of Hebrew origin involve stem mutation in addition to the suffix, as in the original Hebrew. Not all words of Hebrew origin form their plurals in the same way they do in Hebrew: in particular, Hebrew feminine nouns ending in tend to become masculine in Yiddish, and take the ''-im'' plural suffix, avoiding the uneuphonic ending ''*-ses'': e.g. שבת ''shabes'' '
sabbath' → Hebrew שבתות ''shaboses'', Yiddish שבתים ''shabosim''.
This tendency extends also to cases when the Hebrew plural ends in ''-yes'' rather than ''-ses'': e.g. תּכלית ''takhles'' 'purpose' → Hebrew תּכליות ''takhliyes'', Yiddish תּכליתים ''takhleysim''. Other words of Hebrew origin form a Germanic plural, e.g., קול ''kol'' 'voice' has the plural קולער ''keler'', formed with the Germanic ''-er'' suffix and umlaut. Finally, there are a few words of non-Hebrew origin that take Hebrew plural suffixes, such as דאָקטער ''dokter'' 'doctor' → דאָקטוירים ''doktoyrim'', פּויער ''poyer'' 'farmer' → פּויערים ''poyerim''.
Articles
The
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
agrees in gender, number and case with the noun it is used with.
The
indefinite article is אַ ''a'', which becomes אַן ''an'' before a word beginning with a vowel sound. Yiddish, like English, does not have a plural indefinite article.
Adjectives
Attributive adjectives—that is, those that directly modify a noun—are inflected to agree with the gender, number and case of the noun they modify, while
predicate adjectives remain uninflected. For example, one says דער גוטער מאַן ''der guter man'' 'the good man', but דער מאַן איז גוט ''Der man iz gut'' 'The man is good'. When an adjective is used absolutively—that is, to stand as the head of a noun phrase as if it were itself a noun—it is inflected as if it were followed by a noun: דער מאַן איז אַ גוטער ''Der man iz a guter'' 'The man is a good
ne. Neuter singular adjectives are in some respects exceptional; in attributive position, they have no case ending unless their noun phrase is introduced by the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
; in absolutive position, they use the distinctive suffix ''-s'' in the nominative and accusative cases.
The ending ''-n'' becomes ''-en'' after an ''m'', or a stressed vowel or diphthong; it becomes ''-em'' after ''n'' and, as an exception, in the adjective ''nay'' (new).
[Katz, Dovid (1987). ]
Grammar of the Yiddish Language
'. London: Duckworth. p. 84, section 5.5.4. Katz notes that the ending remains ''-n'' after ''ng'' or ''nk''. Yiddish is slightly simpler than German in that German ''-m'' and ''-n'' are both ''-n'' in Yiddish (or, in the case of the definite article, ''dem''), and Yiddish does not have a genitive case. The "definite" and "absolutive" versions of the neuter gender are a relic of the strong vs. weak adjective endings of German (''das gute Bier'' vs. ''gutes Bier'').
A class of pronominal adjectives, including אײן ''eyn'' 'one', קײן ''keyn'' 'none', and possessive pronouns such as מײַן ''mayn'' 'my, mine' and זײַן ''zayn'' 'his', display behavior opposite to that of ordinary adjectives: they are inflected for gender, number and case when used predicatively but not when used attributively. (Absolutively, they behave as normal adjectives).
Adjectives normally precede the nouns, but they may follow the nouns as an absolutive construction for stylistic purposes: אַ שיינע פֿרוי ''a sheyne froy'' or אַ פֿרוי אַ שיינע ''a froy a sheyne'' ('a beautiful woman').
Pronouns
Third person pronouns agree in gender with the noun they refer to. Thus even inanimate objects are sometimes referred to as ''er'' or ''zi'' if they are masculine or feminine respectively. Neuter nouns receive ''es''.
Younger people typically use the second person singular pronoun forms.
The dative forms of the single personal pronouns are used by a minority of speakers of the Northeastern dialect of Yiddish.
Verbs
Verb inflection
Yiddish
verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
s are conjugated for
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
(first, second, and third) and
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
(singular and plural) in the
present tense
The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
. In the
imperative, they conjugate only for number.
Nonfinite verb
A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs in ...
forms are the
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
and the
past participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
.
The infinitive of a verb is formed with the suffix ן- ''-n'' (which takes the form ען- ''-en'' in certain phonological contexts).
The imperative uses the base form of the verb with no affixes in the singular, and takes the suffix ט- ''-t'' in the plural. In the present tense, the first-person singular takes the base form of the verb; the other person/number combinations are regularly inflected according to the following table:
A present participle, functioning as a derived adjective or adverb, is regularly constructed by adding the suffix דיק- ''-dik'' to the infinitive.
Past participle
The
past participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
is used extensively in Yiddish. The majority of verbs (
weak verbs) form the past participle by adding the prefix -גע ''ge-'' and the suffix ט- ''-t'' to the stem, e.g. געקויפֿט 'bought'. However,
strong verbs form the past participle with -גע ''ge-'' and ן- ''-n'', usually accompanied by a vowel change, e. g. געהאָלפֿן 'helped' from the stem -העלפֿ ''helf-'' 'help'. The vowel change is unpredictable, and there is no way to tell from the infinitive whether a verb is weak or strong.
The prefix -גע ''ge-'' is omitted in past participles of verbs whose first syllable does not bear primary
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
. There are two classes of verbs for which this happens: verbs with one of several unstressed stem prefixes, such as -פֿאַר ''far-'' or -באַ ''ba-''; and verbs built on the stressed suffix יר- ''-ir'', usually used for loanwords. Thus the past participles of פֿאַרקויפֿן ''farkoyfn'' 'to sell' and אַבאָנירן 'to subscribe' are, respectively, merely פֿאַרקויפֿט and אַבאָנירט .
Some participles vary between dialects and registers; for example, געווען is the usual past participle of זיַין 'be', but געוועזן (normally an adjective meaning 'former') may be used as the past participle in a "Daytshmerish" (Standard German–imitating) register.
Examples of conjugation
The table below shows the inflection of various Yiddish verbs. Most verbs are generally regular, with irregularities occurring predominantly in the past participle.
The following table shows some additional irregular past participles:
Separable verbs
Like German, Yiddish has a family of
separable verb
A separable verb is a verb that is composed of a lexical core and a separable particle. In some sentence positions, the core verb and the particle appear in one word, whilst in others the core verb and the particle are separated. The particle canno ...
s. These are verb stems co-occurring with a
particle
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...
that sometimes occurs as a prefix attached to the verb stem and sometimes as a separate word. The particle appears separate from the verb in the present tense, but is attached as a prefix in the infinitive and participle. For example, in אויסזאָגן ' 'to reveal', the particle אויס ''oys'' is attached to the verb; but in the present tense זאָגט אויס ' 'reveals', the particle appears as a separate word. In the past participle, the particle appears before the prefix ''ge-'', as in אויסגעזאָגט ' 'revealed'.
The same grammatical structure of separable verbs is used for a class called "periphrastic verbs". In these, the uninflected particle, often a loanword from Hebrew, carries the main meaning, and it is accompanied by an inflected
light verb
In linguistics, a light verb is a verb that has little semantic content of its own and forms a predicate with some additional expression, which is usually a noun. Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have ...
. For example, in תּשובֿה טאָן ' 'repent', the word תּשובֿה ''tshuve'' is a Hebrew loanword meaning 'repentance', acting grammatically as a particle accompanying the verb טאָן ''ton'' 'do'.
The periphrastic-verb construction mechanism allows Yiddish to borrow many Hebrew verbs and verbal constructions. Present-participle forms of active Hebrew verbs are used as particles accompanying the light verb זײַן (''zayn'' 'be'), while present participles of
passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
Hebrew verbs accompany the light verb ווערן (''vern'' 'become'):
*מסכּים זײַן (' 'to agree')
*קונה־שם זײַן (' 'to gain popularity')
*נעלם ווערן (' 'to disappear')
*זיך נתגלגל ווערן (' 'to reincarnate')
The Hebrew verb paradigm (standard Hebrew ), marginalized in Modern Hebrew due to its overlap with , is much more common in Yiddish. Hence the word for "to be impressed" is נתפּעל ווערן ''nispoel vern'', as opposed to מתפּעל ווערן as a Modern Hebrew speaker might expect.
Auxilary-verb constructions
Like other
varieties
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
and unlike literary German, Yiddish does not have the inflected past tense (
preterite). Instead, the auxiliary verbs האָבן ''hobn'' 'to have' or זײַן ''zayn'' 'to be' are used with the
past participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
of the verb to construct the past tense. Most verbs take האָבן ''hobn''; for example, the past tense of איך קויף ' 'I buy' is איך האָב געקויפֿט ' 'I bought'. About 30 intransitive verbs of motion or status and some of their derivatives take זײַן ''zayn''; e.g., the past tense of איך קום ''ikh kum'' 'I come' is איך בין געקומען ' 'I came'. Transitive derivatives of these exceptional verbs usually take האָבן ''hobn'': e.g., זײַן ''zayn'' is used with the intransitive גײן ''geyn'' 'go', but האָבן ''hobn'' is used with the derived transitive separable verb איבערגײן ' 'go across'.
The future tense in Yiddish is formed with a special auxiliary verb וועלן followed by the infinitive. As shown in the table above, its inflection is irregular.
The
pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
is formed by adding the modifier געהאַט ' (the past participle of האָבן ''hobn'' 'have') to the past tense: איך האָב געהאַט געזאָגט ('I had said'); איר זענט געהאַט געגאַנגען ' (you had gone). The
Future perfect
The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future, such as ''will have finished'' in the English sentence "I will have finished by tomorrow." ...
tense is formed with the future tense auxiliary followed by the auxiliary verb האָבן and the participle of the verb: איך וועל האָבן געזאָגט ' (I will have said). These tenses are both very infrequent, especially in the spoken language. When the context makes the previousness of action clear, the ordinary past or future is used instead, and usually with an adverb such as שוין ' (already) or פֿריִער ' (earlier).
The auxiliary verb פֿלעגן ('), in combination with the infinitive (or participle, in some dialects), is used to form a
habitual past aspect: for example, איך פֿלעג קומען ''ikh fleg kumen'' (I used to come).
The auxiliary וואָלט ('), accompanying the past participle, is used to form a
conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
: איך וואָלט געגאַנגען ' 'I would have gone'.
Other aspectual constructions
A "momental"
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, expressing a one-time action, may be formed by the light verbs טאָן (''ton'', 'do') or געבן (', 'give') followed by an indefinite article and a verbal noun, similar to such English expressions as 'have a look'. The verbal noun may be modified by adjectives, as in 'have a good look' in English. The form with געבן is more emphatic and requires the dative for the verbal noun. If the verb is separable, the particle usually stands between the auxiliary and the noun.
Unlike English, such forms in Yiddish are highly systematic and may be used with virtually any verb. The nouns used sometimes appear only in the context of the verbal aspect. For example, אַ שרײַב געבן , meaning 'hurriedly or suddenly write', contains a noun שרײַב ' which would not normally be used independently, and which may be translated as 'an act of writing'.
Examples: זי האָט אים געטאָן אַ כאַפּ אָן ' ('she gave him a grab on'); מיר גיבן אַ שרײַ אויס ' ('we give a scream out').
The
perfective aspect—indicating a completed action in the past or one whose completion is contemplated in the future—can be formed by adding a prefix or separable particle to many verbs. For example, the verb לייענען ' 'read' may be made perfective with the separable particle איבער ' or דורך '. Thus איך האָב געלייענט ' means 'I read', 'I was reading'; while איך האָב איבערגעלייענט or איך האָב דורכגעלייענט ' means 'I read entirely', 'I read through'. Further examples:
* ער וועט שרײַבן ' 'he will write', 'he will do some writing'
ער וועט אָנשרײַבן ' 'he will write completely', 'he will write up', 'he will get (something) written'
* מיר לערנען זיך פֿראַנצייזיש ' 'we are studying French', 'we are taking French'
מיר ווילן זיך אויסלערנען פֿראַנצייזיש ' 'we want to learn French thoroughly'
The most common perfectivizing elements are the particles דורך ,איבער ,אָן ,אָפּ ,אויס (''oys'', ''op'', ''on'', ', ') and the prefixes דער־ and צו־ (''der-'', ''tsu-''), but there are no definitive rules for determining which of these are used with which verbs.
Various other aspects, generally paralleling the complex aspect system of the
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, are formed by auxiliary verbs or prefixes, sometimes combined with the reflexive particle זיך ('). Different aspects may be combined, if the logic of the sentence allows for it. Examples: איך פֿלעג געבן אַ שרײַב אָן ' (I used to suddenly start and complete writing); זיי נעמען זיך צעלאַכן ' (they start bursting into laughter).
Negation
The negators are ניט ''nit'' and נישט ''nisht'', which are only stressed when the emphasis is required.
Under the scope of negation, indefinite noun phrases, singular or plural, use the negative article קײן ' instead of the indefinite article אַ ''a'' or אַן ''an''. Definite noun phrases under negation use the definite article as usual.
Yiddish allows and often requires
double negation
In propositional logic, double negation is the theorem that states that "If a statement is true, then it is not the case that the statement is not true." This is expressed by saying that a proposition ''A'' is logically equivalent to ''not (not ...
: קיינער איז דאָרטן נישט געווען ' (literally: 'No one was not there') or איך האָב קיינעם נישט געזען ' (literally: 'I didn't see no one'). In colloquial speech even triple and multiple negations may occasionally be used: איך האָב נישט געוווּסט קיין גאָרנישט נישט ' (literally: 'I did not know no nothing not').
Diminutive and emphatic forms
Yiddish is rich in various emphatic and emotional forms, including several general diminutive, affectionate and emphatic suffixes may be added to Yiddish nouns and adjectives. Many other emotional suffixes are mainly used for personal names and for particular classes of nouns. Emphatic expression are also formed by reduplication of verbs, composite adjectives, various 'mood' particles and interjections.
Yiddish has two diminutive degrees.
The first degree is the regular diminutive. The second degree is a stronger, more affectionate diminutive. The second degree is also known as the iminutive.
In order to form any diminutive, there sometimes needs to be a vowel shift (
i-mutation/ i-umlaut).
There are certain instances where only the plural can get any diminutive.
קינדער, kinder (children) → קינדערלעך, kinderlekh (children, diminutive).
Besides the addition of -el and -ele, there are more ways to make a word be in the diminutive.
One way is by adding the ending טשיק-, or the Polish -
czyk.
יונגערמאַן, yingerman (young man) → יונגערמאַנטשיק, yingermanchik.
Numerals
Cardinal numbers
Ordinal numbers
The ordinals are adjectives, and as such are inflected to agree with the nouns they modify. For example: 'the first lady' is די ערשטע דאַמע (''di ershte dame'': since דאַמע ''dame'' 'lady' is feminine, the ordinal ערשט ''ersht'' takes the suffix ''-e'' to agree with it.
Syntax
Like most Germanic languages, Yiddish generally follows the
V2 word order
In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent ...
: the second
constituent of any
clause is a
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
, regardless of whether the first constituent is the
subject, an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
, or another
topicalized element. The V2 grammar of Yiddish differs from that of German and other closely related languages, however: Yiddish uses V2 word order in
subordinate clauses as well as
main clause
An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself.
Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
s, while in German only main clauses exhibit V2.
However,
verb-initial word order may be used to indicate a causal or other close contextual relationship between consecutive sentences, with a meaning similar to English ''so''.
It is customary to use freer word order in Yiddish poetry.
Clitics
Optional
contractions are commonly used in both spoken and literary Yiddish. Some auxiliary verbs and personal pronouns are often contracted, especially in colloquial speech. For example, the phrase ער האָט מיר געזאָגט (he told me) may be contracted to ער׳ט מיר געזאָגט or ר׳האָט מיר געזאָגט with the auxiliary almost disappearing, while זאָלן מיר אים דערציילן דאָס געהיימע וואָרט (let's tell him the secret word) may be contracted to זאָל׳מיר׳ן דערציילן ס׳געהיימע וואָרט . The last phrase is more characteristic for the Central (Polish)
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
.
Dialectal differences
The Northern or so-called Lithuanian dialect of Yiddish from the Baltic countries and Belarus is notable, among a number of other peculiarities, for its lack of the neuter gender and the simplified case system. Substantives which are neuter in standard literary Yiddish appear as masculine or feminine. Only two cases, nominative and accusative or oblique, exist in the Northern Yiddish, except for a few isolated remnants of the dative. The auxiliary verb האָבן ('to have') may be used with any verb in the Northern Yiddish, including the cases when the literary Yiddish and other dialects require זײַן ('to be').
Other primary differences between the dialects are in the stressed vowels within the dialect, the differences in their morphology and grammar as well as the northern dialects are more conservative as mentioned above while southern dialects have preserved vowel distinctions.
The realization of stressed vowels is where the main phonetic distinctions across the different dialects are found. Long and short vowels are not separated in Yiddish. Stressed vowels are about the same length. Compared to their English equivalents, they are located closer to the peripheral locations of the cardinal vowels in the vocal tract.
Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish
Spoken Yiddish within contemporary
Hasidic communities has seen the emergence of a new set of demonstrative determiners, ''de,'' ''deys'', and ''deye''. ''Deye (determiner)'' and ''deys'' (pronoun) are both used in the singular. They roughly correspond to the English word ‘This’. For example, one may hear ''deye yingl iz groys'' 'This boy is big', but for the pronoun form it would be ''Deys iz groys'' 'This is big'. ''Deys'', like ''dos'' (from which it is likely derived, and blended with ''di'') when functioning as a pronoun, is used only for non-human subject nouns. Finally, ''deye'' 'these' is used for plural and can also function as a pronoun. Curiously, ''dey'', ''deys'', and ''deye'' do not appear in Hasidic Yiddish in written form, reflecting the wide divergence between spoken and written forms among Hasidic Yiddish speakers.
A common belief, especially among non-native or academically-trained Yiddish speakers, is that the case and gender system is disappearing from
Hasidic Yiddish, though this has been found to be a misapprehension.
In casual usage of Hasidic Yiddish, especially in spoken form, the definite articles ''der'', ''di'', and ''dos'' often appear to have shifted to a more general single definite article ''de'' in the nominative, accusative, and dative cases, for both singular and plural, complemented by the demonstrative determiners ''de,'' ''deys'', and ''deye''.
However, more recent studies of Hasidic Yiddish publications show that a definite case and gender system exists in written Hasidic Yiddish, albeit in a modified, and in some cases, more relaxed, form. ''Der'' is widely used for masculine nouns, but never for feminine, even as the use of ''di'' has crept beyond the feminine and the plural. In the accusative and dative cases, Hasidic Yiddish uses the definite article ''dem'' and its corresponding inflected nouns for the masculine case, and, to a lesser degree, to the dative feminine, where applicable. However, the usage of ''der'' for the accusative feminine is more relaxed, and is often replaced by ''di''.
On the whole, written Hasidic Yiddish appears largely dependent on an individual writer's knowledge of Yiddish grammar and specific editorial style guides. More established publications, such as ''Der Yid'', ''Di Tzeitung'', and ''Maales'' adhere to the case and gender system more closely (as, in the case of the first two, is reflected in their publication names). The same is true for much of what published in Israel, such as the works of the popular children's book author Menachem Mendel. ''Dos Yiddishe Vort'', published for many decades by Agudath Israel of America until 2013 and whose many issues are still widely read in Hasidic communities, adhered meticulously to the usual standards, as did the Jerusalem-based ''Dos Yiddishe Licht'', and its present incarnation, ''Balaychtungen''. ''Maales'', in particular, has since its inception in the 1990s placed strong emphasis on standards and consistency for both grammar and orthography.
Newer Hasidic Yiddish publications show greater variance among their writers, some of whom show adherence to standard Yiddish orthographic styles and conventions, while others do not, suggesting that editorial guidelines focus largely on content and article structure, and don't have strong style preferences. This is seen not only for case and gender, but also on matters of spelling, punctuation, and the use and styling of English words in transliteration.
A more accurate observation is that Hasidic communities show less concern for grammatical rules — neither for Yiddish nor for the widely-used scholastic Hebrew (nor, for that matter, for English). This could be due to a vestigial aversion to the study of grammar, or ''dikduk'', within ordinary educational curricula, originally a reaction to the 19th century Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, which sought to increase grammatical knowledge and standards for both Yiddish and Hebrew. Another possible cause for grammatical standards that differ somewhat from conventional academic Yiddish is the tendency among Hasidim towards autodidactism in adulthood, as the educational emphasis for children and adolescents is largely on religious studies, especially for boys, who tend to be more Yiddish-speaking than girls. Despite these, however, Hasidic Yiddish is nonetheless still highly standardized, suggesting that standards are learned as first principles directly from the language as it is used, and simply lack deference to standards-creating institutions who have ignored more nuanced linguistic developments in post-World War II Yiddish-speaking communities.
[http://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-23711/29_Leket_Krogh_How_Satmarish_is_Haredi_Satmar_Yiddish_A.pdf ]
References
Bibliography
*Jacobs, Neil G. ''Yiddish: a Linguistic Introduction'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, .
*Katz, Dovid, ''Grammar of the Yiddish Language'', Duckworth, London, 1987, .
**http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/2-1987-Grammar-Yiddish.pdf Grammar of the Yiddish Language by
Dovid Katz
Dovid Katz (Yiddish: , also , Hirshe-Dovid Kats, , born 9 May 1956) is an American-born, Vilnius-based scholar, author and educator, specializing in Yiddish language and literature, Lithuanian Jewish culture, and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. ...
*Mark, Yudl, ''A Grammar of Standard Yiddish'', CYCO, New York, 1978 (in Yiddish).
*Schaechter, Mordkhe, ''Yiddish Two'', League for Yiddish, Inc., New York, 1993.
*Weinreich, Uriel. 1971. ''College Yiddish''. New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
*Zucker, S. 1994–2003. ''Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature and Culture 1–2''. New York: Workmen's Circle.
{{Language grammars
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...
West Germanic grammars