2007-08-26 23:35:26 · 6 answers · asked by arealsquare 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I would not describe Yiddish as an "outgrowth" of Middle High German. Old Yiddish and Middle High German were very closely related Germanic languages which developed apart when many Ashkenasi Jews (originally settling in South and West Germany) settled in Central and Eastern Europe. While the West Yiddish varieties (containing few Slavic words) more or less disappeared with the full integration of Jews in German society in the 19th century, the East Yiddish varieties (mainly divided into the Northern varieties with a centre in Vilnius and the southeastern varieties with centres in the Ukraine and in Romania) became the "default" Yiddish varieties.
2007-08-27 00:00:33 · answer #1 · answered by Sterz 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yiddish clearly is derived from some medieval form of German, but there is some disagreement among scholars as to its exact history, f.ex., which part of Germany it comes from, also at what point in time we can say that Yiddish became a separate language. The conventional wisdom about deriving Yiddish from Middle High German has to do with this question of dating, and is probably wrong. As for location, the latest research points to the western parts of Germany, but this is controversial. There are in innumerable controversies about this language and its history, even the name. Many people, incl. scholars, dislike the name Yiddish at least as applied to the dialects spoken in Germany and further west (and/or to the medieval dialects). Yiddish has and presumably from very early times some words of Hebrew and some of Romance (probably Old French) origin. It also from a very early time had a handful of Slavic words (perhaps Old Czech but this is not certain). The massive numbers of Slavic (Polish and Russian) words found in some modern Yiddish dialects are a fairly recent feature.
2007-08-27 09:53:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Yiddish is really a dialect of German which was created and spoken by German Jews. Yiddish is largely made up of German and Hebrew words.
2007-08-27 07:34:08 · answer #3 · answered by ? 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
No one has so far mentioned that the name "Yiddish" derives from the Yiddish pronunciation of the German word "Jüdisch" (Jewish)
2007-08-27 07:58:27 · answer #4 · answered by GrahamH 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because Yiddish is the language of the Jews of Eastern Europe, and now spoken by their descendants in various parts of the world. It is an outgrowth of Middle High German and also contains Hebrew and Slavic words. It is written in Hebraic characters.
2007-08-27 06:39:58 · answer #5 · answered by JJ 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Wenn du deine Deutschkenntnisse verbessern willst ,
komm auf der http://www.zdeutsch.com
2007-08-27 07:02:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 5⤋