Yiddish, a historically Jewish language, is closely related to German. It’s often said that Yiddish vocabulary is about 80% German words, 10% Slavic, and 10% Hebrew. Both were developed during the Middle Ages in central Europe, and many German speakers today can understand the language.
Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet, and writes from right to left. Start out by learning the Yiddish Alphabet at the YIVO institute’s webpage. YIVO also offers other resources online.
Yiddish Dictionary Online – Although the website is a bit counterintuitive, this is one of the most comprehensive Yiddish dictionaries available online. Many other dictionary websites use the data from this website with their own
Yiddishpop.com is a bit silly but is a great way to start learning the language. The lessons use short, animated videos. The benefit to these is that they are completely in Yiddish, and use context rather than translation to help you learn.
Yiddish Biz is a more traditional way to learn the language. Made up of a series of English-Yiddish videos, the site progresses from single words and short phrases, many of which involve English cognates, to more complex sentences.
Once you’ve mastered the basics of Yiddish, be sure to look at some of the cultural resources. The Yiddish Book Center website offers digital collections of books in Yiddish, as well as a number of other resources. The Yiddish Daily Forward is a cultural and news journal with many articles in English and Yiddish.
Last but not least, here’s a Yiddish pop song, “Dona Dona,” written in the 1940s and sung by Nehama Hendel in 1965…