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Thanks.

2007-08-02 06:49:15 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Languages

12 answers

No.

1) "Jewish" is not a language; Jewish is a person who is either a follower of the Jewish religion (Judaism), or someone whose ethnic and national affiliation is the Jewish nation, the Jewish people (descendents of the Hebrew/ Israelite tribe of Judah).

2) "Hebrew" is the language that was spoken by the Hebrews, an ancient nation that was set at the area of nowadays Israel some two thousand years ago. Most of the Hebrew tribes were expelled and scattered by the Assyrians at 721 BCE, and the only tribes that were left are the ones that set at the kingdom of Judah (Jerusalem's area)- the Jews.
Hebrew is a Semitic language (like Arabic, Aramaic…) and this is the language in which the bible was written. It is now spoken as the formal language of Israel by 7,000,000 people approximately.

3) Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazi Jews: Jewish people who live in East Europe and Germany. Yiddish is written with Hebrew characters and literally means "Jewish"; it is based on the Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish…) and its vocabulary is a mixture of Polish, German, Russian and Hebrew.
Yiddish was much more common among the Ashkenazi Jews prior to the Holocaust, and is now considered "endangered", as it is now spoken by not more than 3,000,000 people.

2007-08-05 21:24:12 · answer #1 · answered by yotg 6 · 2 0

The word Jewish usually isn't used to describe a language, but I suppose that it could be used as a "blanket term" for all Jewish languages.

Yiddish is a Germanic language that Jews in Europe began using around the 10th century.

Hebrew was first an ancient Middle-Eastern language that gradually died out and was only used in religious circles (much like Latin today) but it came back into use after a Jewish linguist decided that Hebrew should be the language of the Jews.

2007-08-02 07:03:46 · answer #2 · answered by tomayto2 1 · 1 0

No. Yiddish is a Germanic language closely related to Standard German (it derived from a High German dialect). It is written with the Hebrew alphabet, but is a Germanic language. Hebrew is a Semitic language that evolved from Canaanite about 3000 years ago. The two languages are totally unrelated to one another. While Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet and has a number of Hebrew loan words, it is totally different grammatically and in its basic vocabulary.

2016-05-21 01:45:23 · answer #3 · answered by indira 3 · 0 0

Jewish isnt a language. Yiddish is German with some Hebrew words.

2007-08-02 09:09:05 · answer #4 · answered by ST 4 · 0 0

Jewish is not a language, its a religion.
can you talk in Catholic?
Hebrew is the local language for Israel, most Jews know a little of it, since the majority of the prayers are in Hebrew, most Jewish schools give you a few hours of Hebrew classes a day. (not enough to be fluent)
Yiddish, is an almost dead language, it comes from English & german, it was spoken the most during the holocoust.
the older generation (like my grandfather-89 yrs old-polish) still uses it, but the next generation doesnt. its a language that soon will dispear.

2007-08-02 07:45:07 · answer #5 · answered by sara76c 4 · 1 0

Hi
Jewish is not a religion. Jewish people usually speak Hebrew.
Hebrew is the national language of Israel and spoken in Synagogues. Yiddish is a germanic language that people may still use occasionally, but is very different in dialect then Hebrew.

2007-08-02 06:53:27 · answer #6 · answered by Janice 4 · 2 0

OK, I'm Jewish so let me answer this. "Jewish" is not a language. It's an adjective used to describe someone whose religion is Judaism.

Hebrew is the language of Judaism. It does not use the letters of Romance languages (like English) but rather has its own alphabet and has been around for thousands of years. It is the original language of the Bible. Yiddish is a nonterritorial Germanic language, spoken throughout the world and written with the Hebrew alphabet. It originated in the 10th century in central and eastern Europe, and spread via emigration to other continents.

2007-08-02 07:09:50 · answer #7 · answered by Mark S, JPAA 7 · 3 0

Hebrew is the most "native" language of Izraelis....
and The Tora was written suing this...
but Yiddish is very similar to German this is language of Jewish who it seems were many times i nGermany, but Later they transfered to Poland...
I don't knnow much but it seems this is mix of Hebrew and German....

2007-08-02 11:42:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

First, there is no "Jewish" language.
Yiddish is a German based language with
a mixture of words from other languages thrown in.
It most closely resembles middle-German and is
written in Hebrew letters.
Hebrew is a Semetic language and is
completely different in structure from Yiddish.
It is a sister language of Arabic, in that
both these languages have similar structures.
Hope that helps!

2007-08-02 07:12:57 · answer #9 · answered by steiner1745 7 · 1 0

If I've got it correct, Hebrew is the main language of Israel...
Yiddish is sort of a pidgin dialect.
It has some Hebrew, German, Russian, and even some English portions.

2007-08-02 06:56:05 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1 1

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