Yiddish phonology

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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.

1 Consonants
2 Vowels
3 Comparison with German
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Standard Yiddish are:

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar or palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops and affricates	p b		t d	ts dz	tʃ dʒ	k g
Nasals	m		n		nʲ	(ŋ)
Fricatives		f v		s z	ʃ ʒ	x	h
Liquids			l	r	lʲ
Semivowel					j

[ŋ] is not a phoneme but an allophone of /n/ which appears before /k/ and /g/. The "plain" lateral /l/ is generally velarized [ɫ] in contrast to the palatalized /lʲ/. The rhotic /r/ may be realized either as an alveolar trill [r] or as a uvular trill [ʀ].

As in the Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact (Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian), but unlike German, voiceless stops are unaspirated, and voiced stops are fully voiced. Moreover, Yiddish has regressive voicing assimilation, so that, for example, זאָגט /zɔgt/ 'says' is pronounced [zɔkt] and הקדמה /hakˈdɔmə/ 'foreword' is pronounced [hagˈdɔmə]. However, unlike both German and its nearest Slavic neighbors, final devoicing does not occur in Yiddish.

[edit] Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Standard Yiddish are:

**Monophthongs**
	Front (unrounded)	Central (unrounded)	Back (rounded)
Close	i		ʊ
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

**Diphthongs**
Front nucleus	Central nucleus	Back nucleus
ɛj	aj	ɔj

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

אײזל /ˈɛjzl̩/ '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 and [ə] are always unstressed. [ə] can be analyzed as the unstressed allophone of /ɛ/.

[edit] 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 a as in Vater 'father', which corresponds to o in the Yiddish פֿאָטער foter, and the German long e and long o which are diphthongized in Yiddish to ey and oy. As in many Germanic languages, Yiddish lacks the German front rounded umlaut vowels ö and ü. They are replaced in Yiddish by e and i 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 î to ei (pronounced [ai]), Standard Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them as ey and ay respectively. The German au (as in kaufen 'buy') corresponds to the Yiddish oy (in קױפֿן koyfn); lastly, the German eu (pronounced [oi], as in Deutsch 'German') corresponds to ay in Yiddish (in דײַטש daytsh). Consonantal differences between German and Yiddish include the smoothing of the German affricate pf to plain f in Yiddish, and the fact that Standard Yiddish (but not Standard German) allows word-final voiced obstruents.

[edit] References

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, Tubingen, 1992-2000, ISBN 3-484-73013-7.
Jacobs, Neil G., Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, ISBN 0-521-77215-X.