Yiddish v. Hebrew?

Question

What are the origins of this conflict? How does one traditionally end up on a side? Which is the actual official Jewish language, or is there not one? And what language are all those stereotypical sayings (oy vey, mazel tov, etc) in?

Answer 1

Well, Hebrew is supposed to be the "holy language" used for the Torah (and all of the holy books), though somewhat changed.

Rabbis thought that since it's such a holy language, we should only use it in our studies and prayers, so they made Yiddish; a language mix of Hebrew, German, Polish and some other made up stuff.

Answer 2

Conflict? What conflict?
And what do you even mean by "official language"? That makes no sense except in a national context (e.g. English and French are the official languages of Canada).
The truth of the matter is that Hebrew, the language of the Bible has always been with the Jewish people. It was the language that was used for all Jewish prayers and most religious writings.

In addition, Jews have spoken other languages depending on where they ended up.
For example, Aramaic (a "Hebrew like" language) was very popular for many 100s of years.
The Jews who lived in Spain created a Spanish like language called Ladino.
And the Jews who lived in Germany and surrounding countries developed Yiddish, based on German, Hebrew, and other langages. It was mainly used for everyday speech while Hebrew was generally reserved for religious purposes.

Most sayings which you may be familiar with are from Yiddish. Interestingly, Mazel Tov from Yiddish is taken directly from Hebrew and means "good fortune".

Answer 3

Hebrew is the official language of the Jews, Yiddish however is a "dirty language" it is a mixture of Hebrew, German, and a couple of slavic languages, yiddish it self varies depends on the country of origin. Those "stereotypical" sayings are a mixture of both. Mazel Tov is hebrew, and I think Oy Vey is yiddish.

Answer 4

Hebrew is the official language of Israel not jews,Jewish is a religion therefore there isnt a certaik language jews speak.However,the 'holy' language and the one in which the Torah (jewish bible) was written in is biblical hebrew which is where modern hebrew is derived.Yiddish on the other hand is a language mostly used by Jews in central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust. It was originally a German dialect with words from Hebrew and several modern languages.