German Reacts to Yiddish! | Feli from Germany 

How much could YOU understand? And what's your linguistic background? 😊 Let me know in the comments!👇 Check out these videos I mentioned: ▸20 German words AMERICANS USE all the time! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aZoThD8NIjU.html ▸German Reacts to Pennsylvania Dutch ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bgZSzlynJQ0.html ▸German Reacts to Texas German ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6OzVW_kjUtk.html

Speaking as a Jewish man, I want to say I was touched by this video. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into learning about Yiddish, and to understand Yiddish is to understand Jews, at least the Ashkenazic ones. There are a few things I'll point out that may help clear up the things that don't really translate from Yiddish to German (or any other language, for that matter): 1. Yiddish was - and still is, for those who still speak it - a live language. Your research correctly said that Yiddish was initially derived from German, as it was spoken in the 9th and 10th centuries, mixed with Hebrew and Aramaic. (Incidentally, Sephardic Jews also developed a language of their own, called Ladino, which was initially derived from Hebrew, Aramaic and Spanish as it was spoken around the same time, as those Jews migrated to the region including and around Spain and Portugal.) Why Aramaic? Because Aramaic wasn't simply "the language of learning". It was the vernacular of the Jewish people starting from the time of the Babylonian expulsion. You might say that the dialect of Aramaic in which the Talmud (the expansive, 64-volume anthology of Jewish law, which includes the discussions/arguments of the rabbis quoted within it) is written was the "original Yiddish", as it includes words and phrases from Hebrew as well as some from French, German and other languages spoken by Jews at the time. Yiddish and Ladino speakers have done the same. Since our first expulsion from Israel, Jews have developed and maintained insider languages. This served several purposes, including a means to evade persecution, a way to identify one another and a way to keep our heritage alive (more on that coming up). And wherever Jews have lived, they have incorporated words of the languages spoken around them into Yiddish. That was the way they dealt with the need to come up with new words for new things and new situations. That's why, in addition to Hebrew, Aramaic and German words, Yiddish now includes Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Latvian and even English words -- and that list isn't exhaustive! So, when Suri from Williamsburg seemed to drop a few recognizable English words, she was still speaking Yiddish. 2. Yiddish is more than just a simple language. It's infused with Jewish law, customs, heritage and culture. Many of the phrases you find confusing are actually references to interpretations of Bible stories, lessons that most religious Jews learned as children in "shul" (more on *that* in moment) and Jewish customs. For example, Suri mentioned a wedding - the word she used was "khassineh". The Hebrew word for a bridegroom is a "khatan", pronounced "khassan" in Ashkenazic Hebrew pronunciation, and in texts of Jewish law, one of the words used for a wedding is "khatunah"; "khassunah" in Ashkenazic pronunciation, which was slurred to "khassineh" in Yiddish. One of the words she used for "right", as in "correct", was "tahkeh". That word comes from the Aramaic used in the Talmud, and a better translation of it, both in Aramaic and Yiddish, would be "Precisely!" Yiddish borrowed that word from Aramaic because pretty much every religious Jewish child born in the last 2000 years knew what it meant. The next segment you played reminded me of another phrase that a Yiddish speaker might use that would probably not make any sense to you: "klop en al kheit". In Yiddish, "klop" means to hit. (In German as well?) But the "al kheit" in that phrase would be unfamiliar because it refers to a lengthy confession of sins that is recited eight times on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Each line in that confession begins with the words "al kheit", which is Hebrew for "for the sin...", and then goes on to name the sin. When we say each line, we hit the left side of the chest, in the vicinity of the heart, hence, "klop en al kheit". But there is still something lost in translation, because a Yiddish speaker using that phrase in day-to-day conversation probably isn't talking about Yom Kippur services, confessing sins or even sincerely apologizing. Most often, that phrase is used to facetiously describe someone going over the top to mask an INsincere apology. For example, "The storekeeper who ripped me off yesterday was crying and moaning and really *klopping en al kheit*, but he wouldn't offer me a refund." 3. The Yiddish word "shul" refers both to a synagogue and a school, specifically, a school of Jewish religious studies. That's because in many Jewish communities, both Jewish prayer services and Jewish learning takes place in the synagogue. In smaller Jewish communities, the synagogue may provide the only Jewish school. In larger ones, the community supports one or more separate Jewish schools, which usually combine both secular studies and Jewish ones, but the synagogue still hosts many educational activities, both for children and adults. 4. German and English aren't the only languages into which Yiddish words have crept. Jews have historically had an outsize impact in the countries we've lived in, including contributions to the economy, academia, sports and entertainment. I suspect if you look at all the languages of countries that have ever had significant Ashkenazic Jewish populations, you'll find Yiddish words here and there. Of course, the adoption of words always went in both directions, so it can be hard to tell if, say, Polish got the word from Yiddish or Yiddish got the word from Polish! Looking forward to your next video!

I'm a Yiddish native learning German rn. I'm gonna say at the beginning I was only able to catch a few words but after 4 months I was able to hold entire conversations in German

As someone who partially knows Hebrew and knows functionally no German, it was amusing when the only things you didn't understand were the only things I did understand. Thank you so much for this video!

As a native Yiddish speaker of the dialogue from the first video, and a German speaker I first must say that you did a great job. And that tate, is indeed father. But tante does mean aunt in Yiddish as well. It’s so interesting to see someone exploring my native language. Thank you for making this video 😊

I'm a secular Jew who's been learning Yiddish for the last few years and I just wanted to thank you for making this video and bringing more attention to the wonderful language.

I very much enjoyed this one, Feli! I am 72 years old, born in Amberg (Bavaria) in 1950, at that time in the zone of American occupation. My mother's family were Jews from Poland who had managed to avoid capture in WWII, and we were displaced persons in Germany when I was born. My parents told me I spoke German until age 2, and I imaging also Yiddish, although I probably could not distinguish between the two at such an early age. I continued to speak Yiddish with my grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles probably until age 7 or 8, at which time, I would answer in English to their Yiddish. Over the following few years, I lost my ability to converse in Yiddish. I always knew a lot of German vocabulary, but never knew even a bit of German grammar until I started taking courses at community college the last few years. I can now carry a simple conversation in Yiddish and German. As time goes on, I"m finding that many new German vocabulary words are also good Yiddish, and that is delightful for me.

Yiddish is my first language, but I now speak primarily English. My family is from Hungary originally, so I decided to learn Hungarian recently, which is a tough language to learn. Whenever I’m too tired to focus but don’t want to lose my Duolingo streak, I do a few German lessons. Super easy for me, feels kind of like cheating.

I love that we live in a time where German and Yiddish speakers can converse freely. Like others have said, I am touched by your video. It shows you want to understand more about the Jewish community. In a time with so much antisemitism (well there's never been a time without a lot of antisemitism really), building bridges is key.

As a swiss german speaker, I understand quite much (beside the Hebrew and Aramaic expressions). You definitely should do a Swiss German one next

My genetic makeup is 100% Ashkenazi Jewish. My parents spoke a good deal of Yiddish in the home, though I really have a limited ability to speak the language myself. My son-in-law is from a small town near Munich, and we've had many conversations about the similarities and differences between the two languages. I was amazed at how much German I knew. I've since visited Germany several times, and I feel I would fit in perfectly with the German mindset, both in terms of quality over quantity and of simple pragmatism (I learned that word is about the same in German). I have, in fact, purchased three BMWs over the years. Unfortunately, my parents (they're both gone now) retained their animosity towards Germany long after the war, as our family lost many in the concentration camps. Knowing what I know of Germany today, were my parents still alive (I'm 70 years old, by the way), I'm sure I could provide them with a more up-to-date perspective. My best to you, and keep up the good work. Your videos are infinitely enjoyable, and it is clear you enjoy what you're doing.

Feli thank you❤🤗 I was born in South America after my family flew from Germany in 1939, my grandfather never taught us German or Yiddish. and really wanted to know the difference between them. You did it perfectly 💕 also the input about the history of the language was great 🤓😎💕 watching the video I noticed that the things you didn't understand were the only ones I understood 😃😅 the Hebrew words, the Aramaic words and the names given to people only as part of the custom/tradition, it's really not something you can know without being in an ashkenazy community. Thank you very much 🙂💕🙏 this video has an additional value for me 😊🌻 Thanks for the great videos, I really like your channel 😎💐 Greetings from Israel.

I love Yiddish because it's a cool and happy language where the heart is on the tip of the tongue. Yiddish also gives me contact with my Ashkenazi ancestors. I hope that this language will become widespread again and that there will be more connection with the Europeans, especially the Germans again, because if any language can connect and heal, it is Yiddish. אַ דאַנק פֿאַר די ווידעא

By "tata" she mentioned her daddy, this is what that means in many slavonic languages

You did very well, Feli. You basically got tripped up by the Hebrew words. As someone who speaks Hebrew and am learning yiddish now, those are actually the easiest words for me to understand and the more German words are still tricky for me.

I learned to speak German in high school. My best friends mom spoke Yiddish. Much to our surprise, I was practicing my German, and she answered me and Yiddish and we could understand each other. I do worry about Yiddish being a lost language because most of the speakers are quite a bit older and the language isn’t spoken that much.🌙💜☮️

I was one of the people who requested a video on Yiddish after watching your great Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German videos. This was even better than I expected, I loved learning the history, and your insight as a native German speaker was awesome. Duolingo recently came out with a Yiddish course and I've been learning it's and it's a lot of fun. I took German in high school and while not fluent by any means, once getting a hang of some of the pronunciation differences of certain sounds, and reading the phonetic sentences, I could hear/see the similarities much more.

As a native Yiddish speaker (from Montreal Canada), who also speaks English as well as German (that I learned from living in Zurich for a couple of years), I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thanks Feli! 🥳🥳

I'm native Yiddish speaker but I only started German recently. I can watch German video's and somewhat understand with captions but pretty early in this (I also speak Hebräisch) I was pleasantly surprised with this video because most of what I've watched on this including the ones you reacted to, they barley understood anything but you you understand basically everything, maybe because you are better at finding the root of the word, I'm not quite sure but great video! Really enjoyed it!

In Yiddish there's also a word for "mothertongue," it's pretty common, (מאמע לשון) "mama loshen." Literally "mother's language." The German/English/Yiddish word "original" are all the same, except that the 'g' is a hard 'g' in German/Yiddish - which gets the English pronunciation here. Just her accent took the American pronunciation. The Yiddish for 'daddy' (טאטע) "tateh" and the German word for 'aunt' (tante) sound the same. In Yiddish, 'tante' is also a way to say "aunt." The word for "synagogue" is the same as the word for "school" which is schul or shul, which is 'Schule'. Jews pray in a "school" in other words! 'Gonif' is the word for "thief" in Yiddish. Thanks for the content. Keep up the good work. בס״ד

I can understand her! I grew up with Yiddish speaking grandparents and great aunts and uncles, and I had no idea what they were saying, but I took 3 years of German in High School and could understand them. They then switched to Lithuanian. LOL!

Williamsburg is a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Mel Brooks was born and raised there. He sometimes used Yiddish words and phrases in his movies for comic effects. For example in Blazing Saddles he played an Indian chief who spoke Yiddish.

Hey Feli 😇 My name is Almog and I am from Israel 🇮🇱 so I am native Hebrew speaker 😇😇😇 First I hope you enjoy in the October Fest🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻 At the end of your video you mentioned 5 German words which derived from Yiddish. As a Hebrew speaker I can recognize the Hebrew root of 4 out of the 5 words. The words are: Ganove, knast, zoff and Tacheles. Ganove is very easy one to explain. The Hebrew word for a steal is Gneva and basically every Hebrew word with the 3 radicals G-N-V mean something of stealing. Knast is also an easy one - in Hebrew the word Knas means a fine - a payment of a wrong doing. Zoff is a trickier word. Today in German you pronounce Z as a combination of an English T & Z sound, but in an earlier times while the the early Latin pronunciation was still dominant its sounded as an English Z of today. And this sound is very close to the S sound. So probably the original pronunciation was like sof (like the English word soft just with out the T). And this word sound very close to the Hebrew word Sayif (begin with a diphthong and end with an If like the English word if) This word means sword, and you can see the connection between a fight and a sword. Tacheles also a tricky one. In ancient Hebrew words that ended with the letter Tav ת ended with an English th sound (like in the word bath). The Ashkenazi Jews pronounce this ending as an English S. Today in Israel we usually pronounce it as an English T. In Hebrew there is a a word Tachlit which mean purpose and also the true essence of a thing. Also in modern Hebrew we have a slang word from Yiddish too - Tachles. Which means the straight forward meaning of a thing. Now after you read all this, I want to tell you that I really enjoy from your channel and all the knowledge you gifts us all.

I'm Jewish, so grew up with Yiddish expressions. I studied German in university. Later, I took Yiddish lessons. I could understand everything my teacher said to me, but would answer in German. He told me that my German was good, but my Yiddish was crap. I had to learn to actually read the Hebrew characters, so that I could see the vowel shifts (I'm a visual learner). That was a long time ago and I've forgotten how to read it, but I can still understand some of it, especially the words that are closer to German.

Very well done and researched. Many years ago my friend and I went to Austria to ski and stayed in a guest house. My friend spoke Yiddish and he was able to converse with the owner for all the basics we needed. The owner spoke no other language than Austrian German.

So interesting! My father's family were German immigrants who came to the New York area from the late 1800s through the 1930s. They were not Jewish but many in their community were, and my father used many Yiddish words that I picked up and now my daughter even uses. I ended up moving to Los Angeles with many Jewish friends and picked up even more Yiddish. Some of my favorite words are in Yiddish!

If you‘re used to hearing Plattdeutsch (low german) you might understand even more. Like tell/erzählen/sprechen is „vertellen“ in Plattdeutsch. So fun to watch!

Familial terms in Yiddish are rather confusing because a lot come from Slavic, namely Polish it seems. So father is "tate" (Polish tata), grandfather is "zayde" (Polish dziadek) and grandmother is "bobe" (Polish baba). But then to confuse things further, aunt is "mume" and uncle is "feter".

You're marvelous. As a native Hebrew speaker who's learning German, listening to you deciphering some words which were obvious for me because of their relation to Hebrew, and vice versa. Thanks for the experience, and thanks for taking the time to educate yourself (and us) about this language to this extent! BTW (just in case no previous commenter mentioned this) - you were not at all wrong about Schul (aka synagogue). The word school (Schule) became a synonym for synagogue (still used by some English-speaking Jews) because in Ashkenazi culture synagogues were also a place where to study scripture, listen to sermons and debate conflicts of Jewish law, so there was an aspect of learning which this word emphasizes.

As a Dutch German speaker I think I have an easier time because it has a lot of Dutch words as well. Was fun video!

I'm fluent in Irish and English and took German for five years, been learning Yiddish for two now. Given I'm converting I understood most of the Hebrew and Aramaic terms, I was really pleased I didn't need subtitles at all for Suri or the really short one, even if they were pretty simple! I actually managed a twenty minute chat in Yiddish the other night too! 🥰

I appreciate your research that you did for the video. I've never seen someone explain Yiddish so well even most yidden don't know the history of the language.

This was so interesting! I am a speaker of Transilvanian Saxon (Siebenbürger Sächsisch), also a language / German dialect that has its origin in the German of the Middle Ages / the Franconian dialect around the Rhein and today's Luxemburg (like Eastern Yiddish, at least this is what I read). It is the language of German speaking settlers in today's Romania (along with standard German which was spoken at church or at school there) that once emigrated in the 12th century to Transilvania and kept their language alive throughout the years. Today there are very few speakers left since a lot of these settlers came back to Germany in the 90s, so their children often don't speak the language anymore. I found it astonishing that I understood a good amount of Yiddish in this video. I think it helped that both the languages have their origins in the Middle High German / the Franconian dialect of the 12th century. Then both the groups migrated to Eastern Europe but took different paths and adapted different words of the language that they were surrounded with, also Yiddish has a certain amount of Hebrew which I personally don't understand. There might still Transilvanian Saxon communities in the US (and even more in Germany), since a few migrated to the US at some point. If you find speakers nowadays it would be interesting how much you understand 🙂

My! I think you're doing better in understanding Yiddish than I. I am a Pennsylvania Deutsch Muttersprachler and I learned standard German too. I am currently at B2 with German. Ich liebe Deutsch.

I used to live near South Williamsburg in Brooklyn, (Hasidic neighborhood) and when I'd walk around I would always try to see if I could make out what was being said. Mixed results 😄

That was so much fan! You were pretty good, understood A LOT and should not probably criticize yourself so much. Thanks for the video, you made my day!

Western Austrian here - almost understood everything, but I'm also learning Hebrew at the moment so that helped too :)

There is the verb "trachten" in German, like "longing for sth". So in the second video, "a mensch tracht" could be easyly translated, if you know "higher" or more lyric German . In German, we say "der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt". Same meaning.

Thanks very much. My mother was born in the USA and her native language (mamaloshen) was Yiddish. I grew up hearing a few words but not learning the language. 1) Mishpuchah (several spellings in English) means family. 2) Tata does indeed mean father. 3) The story about the disappearing rabbi is one my shul reads every Yom Kippur. A sceptic comes to town and hides to see where the rabbi goes. He finds that the rabbi dresses as a peasant and performs various good deeds as part of his penitential prayers. The sceptic becomes a believer and is asked if the rabbi ascends to heaven during the penitential period and responds, "If not higher." 4) A funny story: I thought "spatula" was a Yiddish term because my mother used so much of the mamaloshen in the kitchen. I was in college when I found out it was English from a Latin root. 5) Ganif does indeed come from Hebrew and means thief. 6) To hear more colloquial Yiddish, go to www.youtube.com/@yidlifecrisis

I am trying to learn to speak German and your channel popped up here and I subscribed immediately. Your English is so awesome I thought you were born here when I first heard you speak (until I listened to your intro) haha! Great job with your American accent! Thanks for all the interesting facts and videos!

While there's still a lot I cannot understand, I could grasp much more than you, Feli. I'm northern german, and that makes quite the difference. There are some Low German words and expressions that came to my mind (e.g. "vertellen" means "erzählen"), but more important it's the grammar and the overall sound of the words that is not so unfamiliar, expecially when you take into account the dialect of former german Ostpreußen, nowadays the polish north-east and the bordering russian oblast of Kaliningrad. Also there always have been many workers from Poland, expecially Silesia, coming to the cities of the North Rhine and the harbour of Hamburg. Plus all the emigrants from the east to America came through Hamburg and Bremen. We don't hear yiddish in the streets of Hamburg usually (allthough there is an established jewish community here), but that language still echoes in our ears, if you care to listen.

As always, most entertaining! I am a native of Minnesota, so I speak English (flavored with Canadian, Finnish, German, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, and Norwegian). I have high school French, university German, and I can curse a bit in Serbian from listening to my father. There are so many Yiddish words floating around in novels, film, and TV especially. My favorites are: gonif (thief), starker (bad-ass), klutz, putz, schlemiel, schmuck, and zaftig. Zaftig refers often to an opulently endowed female, but it can also mean rich or ample. Literally, it's like saftig - Juicy. Keep it coming, Feli! Thank you!😎😎

You are very entertaining while remaining educational. I began watching your channel today. After binging on you for the better half of the evening, I am now a subscriber. I hope you continue pursing your passion. You have the talent, and personality to do whatever you want. You must make a lot of people proud in Germany. Your Friend, Todd

Your topics on language I find mildly interesting. Your enthusiasm, energy, and joy is infectious, and makes me watch. You are pretty. You are amazingly open. You are like a breath of fresh air - refreshing.

Great video! My wife is a (semi) native German speaker, and we've had a lot of conversations about the difference between Yiddish and German. Some comments: In Yiddish, mensch also generically means a person. It's also often used to mean a good person, but that depends on context (and tone of voice, etc.) A spiel also means game in Yiddish (note: Yiddish uses "a" instead of "ein") and "tzu spielen" is to play. The first person say "tell" was interesting. The word for "tell" in Yiddish is "derzeilen" and it sounded like she said "dertellen" - sort of a hybrid between the English word and the Yiddish word. "tatte" is Yiddish for dad (fater is more forma, tatte is what most people would say) - I think you heard it as tante which means aunt :) to think in Yiddish is "zu trachten" which is very different from the German denken flegt is used to say someone used to do something or tended to do something. "er flegt geyn" -> he used to go Definitely a number of Hebrew words that confused you :) Also all these speakers had different accents, and the vowel pronunciation changes quite a bit between the accents. There are also a number of words that exist in both Yiddish and German, but have different meanings! Darfen in Yiddish means to need to do something - ich darf essen means I need to eat! Very different than German. (ich muss essen also exists but is much stronger - more "I must eat"). Mir means "we" instead of "me". These differences make the language even harder for German speakers to understands.

My grandparents would speak Yiddish whenever they wanted to talk about us. Even after I had a few years of German I still had a difficult time understanding what they were saying.

That was quite an in-depth, though brief, history of Yiddish! ~ Print and images were very helpful, and well done!

Thanks so much for this video! I appreciate your work on this

Just a slight misprononunciation of 'plague" as "plah-g" instead of "play-g", Feli. Other than that you've once again delivered a great and informative video - this one being a delight to my nerdy linguistics heart. Love you, girl and keep up the good work. Grüße aus Holland 🇳🇱

So interesting to see and hear. Languages and the history behind it really is making me understand them on a whole different level with the knowledge how they even came about. Thank you Feli for this one as well as many other ones in that vein. Greetings from michael in baden württemberg.

Your comments (translations, etc.) are awesome. How you're keeping track, I'll never know. This reminds me of speaking to grandmothers of friends who had English as their 2nd (or 3rd language) when I was a kid. I'm looking forward to the Pennsylvania Dutch video - I'm told one of my great-grandmothers used to speak it to me when I was very young. Very informative - thank you.

Probably the best explanation I've heard so far, thank you.

This woman's English is flawless!

On the second video you watched, I always find it interesting that speakers of different languages say they don’t necessarily know how to translate a word. My husband was born in Vietnam and came here when he was 9 in 83 and he will say this often. Which then makes me wonder if since then the Vietnamese or any language in general has evolved to now incorporate words that initially didn’t have a translation. So very interesting. Love these videos.

I could understand about 50% of it. I am from Amsterdam. Many slang words here originate from Yiddish, like ‘mishpoge’ which was translated as ‘family’ but in Amsterdam means ‘business’. I am curious how well Feli understands Dutch, our language is more or less a simplified version of German, albeit with a different pronunciation.

Impressed by the research you did for this youtube video. BTW - use to live in Clifton Hts, Cincinnati; now in Chapel Hill, NC.

As a Viennese (Austrian) i understood quite a lot - i think more than germans, but maybe thats also because in old viennese slang there are some loanwords from the yiddish communities (nowadays most are replaces with english/german words, but some are still in use).

"tata" is a Proto-Slavic word for "dad" or "daddy". You can find this word in some classical Russian literature (of the 19th century), as well in the etymological dictionary of the Russian language written by Max Vasmer.

Really interesting and educational! Keep these videos coming Feli - dein RU-vid channel ist hoch interessant!! 👏👏

Hi Feli! I had a fascinating experience the first time I heard Ladino. It's the language of Sephardic Jews and is based on Spanish. not German. It has Hebrew words as well. I was watching a Tom Hanks movie called Every Tme We Say Goodbye, and there is a family speaking Ladino in part of the movie. I took a couple years of Spanish in high school, speak it occasionally in daily life, and learned a very little bit of Hebrew as a child. I had never heard Ladino before, but understood nearly every word even before the subtitles came on. When you learn multiple languages when you are young, it makes it easier to learn and adapt to even more languages.

As a native Yiddish speaker I'm looking forward to this :)

I was born in northern Germany but grew up in Rheinhessen with the local dialect there. In Rheinhessisch a lot of words from Yiddish are used and often the ü is pronounced as an i like in „für“ and „fir“. Even the sentence structure is maybe not similar but somewhat familiar. Some of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in northern Europe can be found there too, like in Worms for example.

This might be my favorite video you’ve ever made. So so cool!!

I come from Lower Saxony in Germany. My grandpa was born in Breslau / Silesia (today part of Poland). One of my grandmas came from Volhynia, a region in the borderland of Poland, the Ukraine and Belarus. Both spoke a light dialect like the yddish speakers from Williamsburg and from New York. The backround of this Dialekt is, that many people in this regions were jewish and has spoken german before the World War 2 and the holocaust came over the world. So many people, who died in the Nazi concentration camps was jewish people from there. Thank you very much for this video!!

The first time I was in Germany I was shocked hearing my friends using tacheles, it’s one of the most common Hebrew slang words, and I had no idea german borrowed it too. The funny thing is that Yiddish changed the Hebrew pronunciation of words as well, so Hebrew speakers still use the original word (in this case tachlit, meaning essence), but also the same Yiddish word, sometimes in a different meaning, without even realizing it .I think most Hebrew speakers wouldn’t know tacheles is Yiddish, and it’s used exactly as it is in German. Great video Feli, I loved it so much! The first two were very interesting as well, but this one was really funny and touching as this is my grandparents’ first language. I think you should’ve brought a Hebrew speaker who doesn’t speak German, could’ve been funny seeing you each understand a different part of what they’re saying lol. Danke! 💕

A lot of Jews here in the US including me and my family speak and understand some Yiddish words and phrases but dont outright speak the whole language. I grew up hearing tons of Yiddish words it was always kind of funny and cool to have it integrated into just regular English conversations

Feli put a lot of effort into this video. I watched it twice as it was so much information!

I loved this video! I liked your explanation at the end of the video where you tried to explain the difference between "für" and "fier", which makes totally sense to me to hear it that way, because it´s an eastern Europe influence. I heard it from older ppl speaking German, my ancestors came from Schlesien which is a region in Poland where Prussian people used to live. I think you couldn´t make that connection because you´re from south Germany. But you hear it still today when Polish or Czech ppl learned to speak German. There will always be more an ee (i in German) sound to the ü.

20:08 -The saying is also available in 2 forms in High German: a)"Der Mensch denkt und Gott lenkt"( "Man thinks, God directs") b)"Der Mensch dachte und Gott lachte"( "Man thought and God laughed".)

I am bilingual with Polish and German and I learned some hebrew. I just love Yiddish. I think Polish also helps a lot

Hi I’m from Williamsburg it’s really a close knit community everyone knows everyone! We always play Jewish geography! When u go out shopping in the local jewfish stores people ask u who u are, who your dad is, who your mom is…… and most of the time u end up knowing the same people This is mainly done by the older generation to the young ones…..

Yiddish speaker here... the word Tata means father. Many of the words that you didn't know were different names of things. They're are also a few dialects and we can switch it up a bit that a German speaker can understand it much much better.

I'm a native Yiddish d Speaker, managed to communicate effectively to the proprietors of a hotel in Poland that were ethnically German and spoke no English but Polish and German. They understood me as well.

I’ve watched that 2nd video on RU-vid. It’s such a great video 😀 it’s very interesting to see the comparison between Yiddish and German. I love all languages, but I speak French and Spanish. I’ve studied German, but I don’t know that much 😅

Awesome program. Thoroughly enjoyed your Insights as well.

Just wanted to say thank you, such a thorough research for the intro, and the timing for this video is great, based on what's going on in the world. I'm a Jewish Israeli Hebrew speaker, 3 of my grandparents spoke a little Yiddish but I know almost nothing 😅

Very very interesting. My German parents knew a small bit of Yiddish. This was fun to try, myself. You're great. 👍

shalom from Israel! I enjoy every video you upload on all your channels. Educational and interesting. Thank you

Love these, Feli! Maybe you could also do some contrasting of German to other languages. Have different speakers of other languages speak their languages and hear the differences between you and them (kind of like what World Friends do).. that might be fun and funny. Great content! Keep it up!

I really enjoyed this video. You shouldn't be so worried about us being bored or whatever.. we are here for it.

This is so interesting. I'm studying German (almost B1) and my father used a lot of Yiddish when I was a kid (my family is not Jewish, he just knew and used a bunch of it, along with other langauges). My German is obviously not as good as yours haha but to my surprise, maybe because of my childhood, I actually understood most of the part where you started to get lost with video 1. Tate = father. Zaftig = juicy, full. (Zaftig yiddish = rich command of Yiddish, basically). LIstening to more. Trying not to read the subtitles. Aaaand I'm also lost in the second video lol. I think I can understand conversational Yiddish a lot better than stories/literary.

By coincidence, just a couple of weeks ago I was watching a channel where the host learns rudiments of many languages and tries out his new-found skills on native speakers. His latest video was in Yiddish, and having a limited German vocabulary, I understood more of what was being said than any other video I've seen on that channel.

Languages and their commonalities are always interesting! Very well done!

Very enjoyable video. It was very interesting to see how much you understood. I have also watched some of these videos. As a linguistics aficionado, I, of course read a lot of the comments to see if there were any native German speakers giving their impressions on them. What kept on coming up was that it was very helpful if you spoke a regional variant of German and not just standard German. And everybody claimed it was kind of like their dialect.Saarlanders, Salzburgers, Swabians, Platdeutsch speakers, even a Swiss German speaker all swore that they recognized elements of their own dialects somewhere in Yidish.

Well this was interesting. I knew a Jewish guy who spoke Yiddish years ago and I'd chat a bit with him in Pennsylvania Dutch. I miss him. This video was a nice reminder of those times. Thank you!

It’s so cool that you’re using some Yiddish words in German! ‘Ganav’ in Hebrew is a thief (‘Ganove’). ‘Lignov’ is to steal 😊 Also, we use Tachles in Hebrew all the time. It roughly translates to the essence of something. The point. We also use it as something of a slang word too. For example, someone would say: “The exam this morning was so hard”. And another can reply: “Tachles”. As in “you nailed it”.

I am a retired software engineer and worked primarily on DoD projects. On the wall of many of the places that I worked I saw the admonition: “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.”

i was surprised at how much i understood. which was nearly everything. i lived in midwood for 16 years and israel for 3. it helps that my father spoke german.

It's so funny to know that there are words in German coming from Yiddish. Tacheles actually comes from Hebrew, it is kind of a pronunciation distortion of the word תכלית (Tachleet) which means purpose or point and is pronounced with Askenazi Jewish pronunciation. The cool thing is that we use the Yddish word in Hebrew as well :) with the same meaning you explained

Most enjoyable, Feli. Thanks! My mother's generation spoke Yiddish (and Russian and some Polish), but I don't speak but a few words (2nd-generation American). In the short video, the man used "bubbe," which means grandmother. "Bubbeleh" is the diminutive, "little grandmother," which the Urban Dictionary says "is a non-sexual term of endearment for a female, frequently used by men to show their appreciation and love for a female relative or friend." I've never heard it used that way, only for one's grandmother.

My parents came in from the U.S. to visit me in Germany in 1972. My German friends understood much better than I did when my mother spoke Yiddish with them. After a few weeks, my mother started to understand German, so I had to watch my tongue!

I’m actually learning Yiddish because of some distant Ashkenazi in my dna. And because it’s endangered. Can’t wait to see what I might know!

One of the largest academic centers for Yiddish study is also the center for study/preservation of "its own," local US-German dialect: the University of Texas at Austin. BTW, the Yiddish for Muttersprache ("mother tongue") is _mamaloshen._ Tief im Herzen Texas - טיף אין די האַרץ פון טעקסאַס [tif in di harts fun Texas] (note gender shift between G. & Y.)

The ü and ii (sometimes written as y(y)) are both high vowels, where ü is in the front and ii is further back. It is actually a common phonological phenomenon for these 2 sounds to evolve into each other. For example, older speakers of Baseldütsch and traditional ways of writing out Basel dialect Swiss German may say "Baseldyytsch", although today most speakers will just speak with the ü. It is an expected linguistic pathway.

Wonderful, Feli! Thank you!

Feli, I'm glad you covered this. My aunt used to tell us Yiddish words and expressions, and to my young ears, it sounded pretty German. THANKS for the history lesson, too!

I think he says "tracht", like in "trachten, sich um etwas bemühen"

Great video! I am a New York Jew, my first language is English, and I speak Hebrew pretty well. My parents and grandparents all spoke Yiddish (on my father's side, they also spoke German and Hungarian; on my mother's side, Russian). I heard Yiddish a lot growing up, but I picked up very little. When I took Yiddish in college, there were two kinds of students in the class: Jews, and German majors taking Yiddish because they were required to study a related language. Since Yiddish is 80% German, I thought the German majors would do better than me, but actually, I did better. Because English and German are related, English speakers pick up German pretty quickly, whereas the Hebrew language and alphabet are much more alien. Since I already had English and Hebrew, plus the advantage of having grown up hearing a lot of Yiddish, I progressed faster than the German majors, who struggled with the Hebrew elements. But I found learning the cases and declensions difficult -- Yiddish has only three cases compared to German's four, but that was more than enough to drive me crazy!

I actually got both "tate" and "babe" because they sound similar to polish words: tata (dad) and babcia/baba (nana). Yiddish sounds amazing.

thank you for this video