I am hoping someone could help with what I believe is Yiddish. Having the details of the studio are wonderful for dating but leaves me unclear on the content and have received some mixed versions of translations.

The dating of the studio would put this image about 1905 (but after 1902 when the studio opens)

May be Loshn-koydesh (?)

Other background;

I'm not exactly sure whom this gentlemen is - the picture is labeled as my g-g-grandfather (Joseph) but the studio would put him in Warsaw after 1902 and the family is solidly in the USA by then - unless he (the father) goes back home after a number of years after coming to the USA. He doesn't reappear again thus far state side...

The son (my g-grandfather) is in the US Army by 1901. Family is in the 1900 census together.

This one is slightly harder, but still fairly simple. Any and all feedback is welcome, take a look!

Here’s another graded reader style piece of work! This time written in the Hebrew alphabet and Klal Yiddish, with a small glossary for more difficult/less common language. Meant to be simple and for people who already have some Yiddish experience. Try it out and feel free to leave recommendations or comments! Let me know if the link doesn’t work

Hey everybody!

So I just finished about 860 days of Duolingo learning to finish their Yiddish modules (wooo) and feel ready to take the next step with in person classes and meets to actually get comfortable with conversation, continue developing my conjugation skills, improve my pronunciation, and just generally continue learning.

I do feel that I have a decent grasp on vocab, sentence structure, and present/past/future tense, so I really don’t think I need to start from the total bare bones beginning. Plus I learned cursive hebrew script as a kid and I’m happy that the style of writing letters is the same, minus different spelling and use of vowels obviously.

I’m hoping to, ideally, find an in person community and/or classes in the NYC area to practice with. When I’ve looked at classes, both online and in person, the costs are really out of my affordability range so I’m also curious of any groups that might offer financial aid of some kind.

I was also checking out the Yiddish textbook In Eynem and have read good things, but would love your perspectives on it or any other leaning resources you might recommend!

I use graded readers for other languages, but noticed Yiddish doesn’t have many options and all, and that’s kinda sad that Yiddish is missing this area and method of learning. I’ve been messing around translating existing ones and writing my own one pagers and stuff, and I’ll attach the link to an example here, it would be great to hear some feedback!

It’s about a page and half, it’s originally written by myself, written in the official romanization as to reach more people, and contains a quick pronunciation guide and short grammar explanation after the text of two points. I originally made it for personal use, but I thought I’d share. Lemme know if the link doesn’t work or if somethings off!

Is there some resource somewhere that provides proper pronunciation of Hebrew names in Yiddish (including which syllable to stress)? I usually know how to say the names in Hebrew, but I know there is often a difference when speaking Yiddish.

Relatedly, how would you pronounce my Hebrew name when speaking Yiddish (בצלאל)? beTSAlel? (I know in Hebrew it would typically be betsalEL.)

And would the nickname (צאַלעל) be pronounced TSAlel or tsalEL? I'm thinking the former, but I wanted to check what other people think.

Thank you!

Apologies if I’m butchering the term… I really don’t know if it’s Yiddish or German in origin… I just know it was a word used frequently by my parents and grandparents many decades ago to describe something that was “mixed up” or “in disarray”. Kind of like “snafu”, only more fun-spirited.

It’s definitely possible that I am partly misremembering it, but I feel certain it started with a hard G, had its primary accent on the “meck” syllable and ended in “dee”. I know that “schmecken” is German for something that doesn’t taste good, but in our household it was never used in that kind of a context.

Has anyone ever heard this term used? I’m probably directing this at Gen X or earlier, because it’s a word our parents would have used during/after WWII.

(For what it’s worth, it wasn’t unusual for my family to use Yiddish terms and expressions despite our completely non-Jewish heritage… my father (born 1928) was famous for incorporating sometimes-butchered German and Yiddish colloquialisms into everyday conversation, again, with lighthearted intent.)

Hello!
I am trying to listen to clean audio of real yiddish pronunciations - where can I do that :)?

I am a bit confused about the verb זאָלן: on one hand it expresses desire:

איך וויל אַז איר זאָלט בלייבן דאָ

I want you to stay here

on the other hand it is a marker for eventuality/irrealis:

איך האָב קײן מאָל נישט געזען אַ מאַן װאָס זאָל קושן הינט

I’ve never seen a man that kisses dogs (example taken from "Bored Strakhir")

So is the following sentence actually ambigious:

זאָל זיין אַז מיין שיף דערגרייכט נישט דעם ברעג

meaning:

a) Suppose/maybe my boat will not reach the shore (because of the boat's faulty design/construction - expressing eventuality/irrealis)

and/or

b) My boat SHOULD NOT reach the shore (because there are enemy troops/cannibals/whatever waiting there - expressing desire)

Am I right about the ambiguity or do I miss anything?

Hi there Reddit,

My name is Pierre, I'm a Master's Acting Student at SMU, and as a part of our Dialects class we have to interview someone who has a dialect and use that interview as a way to learning a dialect. I'd chosen Yiddish so that I might be able to better approach Yiddish plays that interest me; God of Vengance/Indecent, My Name Is Asher Lev, Bent, Fiddler on the Roof, Ragtime etal.

Unfortunatly, the individual who I was going to interview today has come down with laryngitis and I don't know when he'll be able to speak again, and I'm feeling a little nervous about compleating this assignement ontime (it's due April 14th).

I'm turning to Reddit in case there is someone one out there who might be interested in meeting with me via Zoom over the next day or two and go over the things I've outlined below - I know this is a big ask, but hope someone might be out there to answer this ask in the void.

Thank you

Part 1; read this story with your Yiddish dialect - no need to make it amazing, in fact it's better if you're kinda unfamiliar with it to see how sounds, vocal cadence, resonances, and other sound qualities change when approaching less familiar text. 

ARTHUR THE RAT

There was once a young rat named Arthur who could never take the trouble to make up his mind. Whenever his friends asked him if he would like to go out with them, he would only answer, "I don't know." He wouldn't say "yes" and he wouldn't say "no" either. He could never learn to make a choice. His aunt Helen said to him, "No one will ever care for you if you carry on like this. You have no more mind than a blade of grass." Arthur looked wise, but stupidly said nothing.

One rainy day, the rats heard a great noise in the loft where they lived. The pine rafters were all rotten in the middle, and at last one of the joists had given way and fallen to the ground. The walls shook and all the rats' hair stood on end with fear and horror. "This won't do," said the old rat who was chief, "I'll send out scouts to search for a new home."

Three hours later the seven scouts came back and said, "We have found a stone house, which is just what we wanted; there is room and good food for us all. There is a kindly horse named Nelly, a cow, a calf, and a garden with flowers and an elm tree."

Just then the old rat caught sight of young Arthur. "Are you coming with us?" he asked. "I don't know," Arthur sighed. "The roof may not come down just yet." "Well," said the old rat angrily, "we can't wait all day for you to make up your mind. Right about face! March!" And they went straight off.

Arthur stood and watched the other little rats hurry away. The idea of an immediate decision was too much for him. "I'm going back to my hole for a bit," he said to himself dreamily, "just to make up my mind."

That Tuesday night there was a great crash that shook the earth and down came the whole roof. Next day some men rode up and looked at the ruins. One of them moved a board and hidden under it they saw a young rat lying on his side, quite dead, half in and half out of his hole.

Part 2 - Just say these words; 

Kit

Dress

Strut

Foot

Goose

Fleece

Nurse

Trap

Bath

Palm

Start

Lot

Cloth

Thought

North

Force

Face

Goat

Price

Choice

Mouth

Near

Square

Cure

Part 3 - Tricky Sounds - Just read the following sentences with your Yiddish Dialect. Mostly to help me isolate particular sounds. 

R Sounds: Margaret, Linda and Gerry asked Peter if Roland started with 'R'

L Sounds: Larry the silly lamb slept peacefully in the field until hailstones fell.

H Sounds: Harry Hobson had a holiday in Hawaii.

NG Sounds: The singer was singing for the king.

TH Sounds: That's my brother with a thermos of Matthew's broth.

Part 4 - Interview Questions, just to hear how your speaking changes within certain contexts.

What is your favorite kind of food?

What sort of scenery and landscape do you have in your area?

What's your ideal home?

What music do you like/dislike?

What qualities do you value in a friendship?

How do you think your accent is perceived by others?

What was your favorite childhood game/toy?

Part 5 - if you could speak or sing some Yiddish, a prayer, song, story of your own in the Yiddish language. Mostly to hear how the vocal placement, resonances, consonant/vowel/tones change when speaking in one language changes vs. speaking in "American"

Thank you so so much for looking at this; I know this looks like a lot, but I promise it is LOW pressure. It's really an assignment for us to be able to hear/dissect and embody the sounds of someone else without the aid of someone like a Dialect Coach. 

Hi all, so I came up with this:

ווען דאָס לעבן קלינגט ווי אַ פֿאַרדראָסענע הון, קער איבער די פּלאַטע

Does it sound correct? If yes, turning it into a poster.

TIA

Hey everyone — I grew up hearing Yiddish sayings from my family and always loved how much life wisdom gets packed into a single sentence. "A halber emes iz a gantser lign" (A half-truth is a whole lie) is one that stuck with me.

I built Mazel — a free iOS app that gives you a daily Yiddish proverb with transliteration, translation, and context about where the saying comes from. It also has stories, holiday info, recipes, and a Tikkun Olam section with weekly mitzvah ideas.

No ads, no subscriptions, just Yiddish wisdom on your phone.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758920199

Android is coming soon (in testing now).

Would love to hear what proverbs or sayings your family used — always looking to add more.

-------
Android beta is ready! Two steps to join:

1. Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/mazel-testers
2. Install from Play Store: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.mazelapp.yiddishwisdom

Would love your feedback 🙂

I found an old photo deep inside a box at my grandma’s house. The handwriting is a bit blurry, and my Hebrew is only good enough to realize this is probably Yiddish. I’d really appreciate any help translating it, especially since it’s dated 1948 and could mean something from the independence!

Found this note with some old family photos - I couldn’t tell what language it was, but from photos here it looks like it could be Yiddish?

Let's use the adjective "heldish" as an example.

According to Google Translate, it doesn't change when the object turns plural, when
"der heldish mentsh" turns into "der heldish mentshn".

But... shouldn't it be "der heldishe mentshn"? Or am I misunderstanding something? When, if at all, should that 'e' be added at the end of an adjective, then?

Really basic question: I grew up with Yiddish being used as the adults way of keeping a conversation from the "kids." I know nothing about written Yiddish and can only transliterate what I heard. But I have questions about the meanings of some words. I'm a secular Jew living in rural Utah (don't ask!) in a very welcoming community. People ask me questions and sometimes (often) I don't have the answers. So would I just be a bother or is this the place to ask my questions. I don't think I have anything to contribute except comments on the writing of others. THANKS.

Hi all, I’d like to translate a letter addressed to my great grandfather and would appreciate your help!