# Yiddish phonology

There is significant phonological variation among the various Yiddish dialects. 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.

## Consonants

* /m, p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
* The /l – ʎ/ contrast has collapsed in some speakers.
* The palatalized coronals /nʲ, tsʲ, dzʲ, tʃʲ, dʒʲ, sʲ, zʲ/ appear only in Slavic loanwords. The phonemic status of these palatalised consonants, as well as any other affricates, is unclear.
* /k, ɡ/ and [ŋ] are velar, whereas /j, ʎ/ are palatal.
** [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ after /k, ɡ/, and it can only be syllabic [ŋ̍].
** [ɣ] is an allophone of /χ/ before /b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʒ/.
* The phonetic realization of /χ/ and /nʲ/ is unclear:
** In the case of /χ/, Kleine (2003) puts it in the "velar" column, but consistently uses a symbol denoting a voiceless uvular fricative ⟨χ⟩ to transcribe it. It is thus safe to assume that /χ/ is phonetically uvular [χ].
** In the case of /nʲ/, Kleine (2003) puts it in the "palatalized" column. This can mean that it is either palatalized alveolar [nʲ] or alveolo-palatal [ɲ̟]. /ʎ/ may actually also be alveolo-palatal [ʎ̟], rather than just palatal.
* The rhotic /r/ can be either alveolar or uvular, either a trill [r ~ ʀ] or, more commonly, a flap/tap [ɾ ~ ʀ̆].
* The glottal stop [ʔ] appears only as an intervocalic separator.
As in the Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact (Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian), but unlike German, voiceless stops have little to no aspiration; unlike many such languages, voiced stops are not devoiced in final position. Moreover, Yiddish has regressive voicing assimilation, so that, for example, זאָגט /zɔɡt/ ('says') is pronounced [zɔkt] and הקדמה /hakˈdɔmɜ/ ('foreword') is pronounced [haɡˈdɔmɜ].

## Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Standard Yiddish are:
Yiddish monophthongs :
| | Front | Central | Back |
| Close | ɪ | | ʊ |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɜ | ɔ |
| Open | a | | |
* /ɪ, ʊ/ are typically near-close [ɪ, ʊ] respectively, but the height of /ɪ/ may vary freely between a higher and lower allophone.
* /ɜ/ appears only in unstressed syllables.
Diphthongs :
| Front nucleus | Central nucleus | Back nucleus |
| ɛɪ | aɪ | ɔɪ |
* The last two diphthongs may be realized as [aɛ] and [ɔɜ], respectively.
In addition, the sonorants /l/ and /n/ can function as syllable nuclei:
* אײזל /ˈɛɪzl̩/ '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 are always unstressed.

### Dialectal variation

Stressed vowels in the Yiddish dialects may be understood by considering their common origins in the Proto-Yiddish sound system. Yiddish linguistic scholarship uses a system developed by Max Weinreich in 1960 to indicate the descendent diaphonemes of the Proto-Yiddish stressed vowels.
Each Proto-Yiddish vowel is given a unique two-digit identifier, and its reflexes use it as a subscript, for example Southeastern o$_{11}$ is the vowel /o/, descended from Proto-Yiddish */a/. The first digit indicates Proto-Yiddish quality (1-=*[a], 2-=*[e], 3-=*[i], 4-=*[o], 5-=*[u]), and the second refers to quantity or diphthongization (−1=short, −2=long, −3=short but lengthened early in the history of Yiddish, −4=diphthong, −5=special length occurring only in Proto-Yiddish vowel 25).
Vowels 23, 33, 43 and 53 have the same reflexes as 22, 32, 42 and 52 in all Yiddish dialects, but they developed distinct values in Middle High German; Katz (1987) argues that they should be collapsed with the −2 series, leaving only 13 in the −3 series.
Netherlandic :
| | Front | Back |
| Close | i$_{31}$ iː$_{32}$ | u$_{52}$ |
| Close-mid | eː$_{25}$ | o$_{51}$ oː$_{12}$ |
| Open-mid | ɛ$_{21}$ ɛj$_{22/34}$ | ɔ$_{41}$ ɔu$_{42/54}$ |
| Open | a$_{11/13}$ aː$_{24/44}$ | a$_{11/13}$ aː$_{24/44}$ |
Polish :
| | Front | Back |
| Close | i$_{31/51}$ iː$_{32/52}$ | u$_{12/13}$ |
| Close-mid | eː~ej$_{25}$ | oː~ou$_{54}$ |
| Open-mid | ɛ$_{21}$ | ɔ$_{41}$ ɔj$_{42/44}$ |
| Open | a$_{11}$ aː$_{34}$ aj$_{22/24}$ | a$_{11}$ aː$_{34}$ aj$_{22/24}$ |
Lithuanian :
| | Front | Back |
| Close | i$_{31/32}$ | u$_{51/52}$ |
| Close-mid | ej$_{22/24/42/44}$ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ$_{21/25}$ | ɔ$_{12/13/41}$ ɔj$_{54}$ |
| Open | a$_{11}$ aj$_{34}$ | a$_{11}$ aj$_{34}$ |

## Comparison with German

In vocabulary of Germanic origin, the differences between Standard German and Yiddish pronunciation are mainly in the vowels and diphthongs. All varieties of Yiddish lack the German front rounded vowels /œ, øː/ and /ʏ, yː/, having merged them with /ɛ, e:/ and /ɪ, 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 /aɪ/, Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them; and likewise, the Standard German /ɔʏ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthong öu and the long vowel iu, which in Yiddish have merged with their unrounded counterparts ei and î, respectively. Lastly, the Standard German /aʊ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthong ou and the long vowel û, but in Yiddish, they have not merged. Although Standard Yiddish does not distinguish between those two diphthongs and renders both as /ɔɪ/, the distinction becomes apparent when the two diphthongs undergo Germanic umlaut, such as in forming plurals:
| Singular | Singular | Singular | Plural | Plural |
| MHG | Standard German | Standard Yiddish | Standard German | Standard Yiddish |
| boum | Baum /baʊ̯m/ | בױם /bɔɪm/ | Bäume /ˈbɔʏ̯mə/ | בײמער‎ /bɛɪmɜr/ |
| bûch | Bauch /baʊ̯x/ | בױך /bɔɪχ/ | Bäuche /ˈbɔʏ̯çə/ | בײַכער‎ /baɪχɜr/ |
The vowel length distinctions of German do not exist in the Northeastern (Lithuanian) varieties of Yiddish, which form the phonetic basis for Standard Yiddish. In those varieties, the vowel qualities in most long/short vowel pairs diverged and so the phonemic distinction has remained.
Yiddish has some coincidental resemblances to Dutch in vowel phonology, which extend even to orthography, such as Dutch ij versus Yiddish tsvey judn, both pronounced /ɛɪ/; and Dutch ui (pronounced /œy/) versus Yiddish vov yud (/ɔj/). For example, the Yiddish "to be" is זײַן, which orthographically matches Dutch zijn more than German sein, or Yiddish הױז, "house", versus Dutch huis (plural huizen). Along with the pronunciation of Dutch g as /ɣ/, Yiddish is said to sound closer to Dutch than to German because of that even though its structure is closer to High German.
There are consonantal differences between German and Yiddish. Yiddish deaffricates the Middle High German voiceless labiodental affricate /pf/ to /f/ initially (as in פֿונט funt, but this pronunciation is also quasi-standard throughout northern and central Germany); /pf/ surfaces as an unshifted /p/ medially or finally (as in עפּל /ɛpl/ and קאָפּ /kɔp/). Additionally, final voiced stops appear in Standard Yiddish but not Northern Standard German.
| M. Weinreich's diaphoneme | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Examples | Examples | Examples |
| M. Weinreich's diaphoneme | Middle High German | Standard German | Western Yiddish | Northeastern ("Litvish") | Central ("Poylish") | South-Eastern ("Ukrainish") | MHG | Standard German | Standard Yiddish |
| A$_1$ | a in closed syllable | short a /a/ | /a/ | /a/ | /a/ | /a~ɔ/ | machen, glat | machen, glatt /ˈmaxən, ɡlat/ | מאַכן, גלאַט /maχn, ɡlat/ |
| A$_2$ | â | long a /aː/ | /oː/ | /ɔ/ | /uː/ | /u/ | slâfen | schlafen /ˈʃlaːfən/ | שלאָפֿן /ˈʃlɔfn̩/ |
| A$_3$ | a in open syllable | long a /aː/ | /aː/ | /ɔ/ | /uː/ | /u/ | vater, sagen | Vater, sagen /ˈfaːtɐ, zaːɡən/ | פֿאָטער, זאָגן /ˈfɔtɜr, zɔɡn/ |
| E$_1$ | e, ä, æ, all in closed syllable | short ä and short e /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | becker, mensch | Bäcker, Mensch /ˈbɛkɐ, mɛnʃ/ | בעקער, מענטש /ˈbɛkɜr, mɛntʃ/ |
| E$_1$ | ö in closed syllable | short ö /œ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | töhter | Töchter /ˈtœçtɐ/ | טעכטער /ˈtɛχtɜr/ |
| E$_5$ | ä and æ in open syllable | long ä /ɛː/ | /eː/ | /ɛ/ | /eː~eɪ/ | /eɪ~ɪ/ | kæse | Käse /ˈkɛːzə/ | קעז /kɛz/ |
| E$_{2/3}$ | e in open syllable, and ê | long e /eː/ | /ɛɪ/ | /eɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /eɪ/ | esel | Esel /eːzl̩/ | אײזל /ɛɪzl/ |
| E$_{2/3}$ | ö in open syllable, and œ | long ö /øː/ | /ɛɪ/ | /eɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /eɪ/ | schœne | schön /ʃøːn/ | שײן /ʃɛɪn/ |
| I$_1$ | i in closed syllable | short i /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | niht | nicht /nɪçt/ | נישט /nɪʃt/ |
| I$_1$ | ü in closed syllable | short ü /ʏ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | brück, vünf | Brücke, fünf /ˈbʁʏkə, fʏnf/ | בריק, פֿינף /brɪk, fɪnf/ |
| I$_{2/3}$ | i in open syllable, and ie | long i /iː/ | /iː/ | /ɪ/ | /iː/ | /iː/ | liebe | Liebe /ˈliːbə/ | ליבע /ˈlɪbɜ/ |
| I$_{2/3}$ | ü in open syllable, and üe | long ü /yː/ | /iː/ | /ɪ/ | /iː/ | /iː/ | grüene | grün /ɡʁyːn/ | גרין /ɡrɪn/ |
| O$_1$ | o in closed syllable | short o /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | kopf, scholn | Kopf, sollen /kɔpf, ˈzɔlən/ | קאָפּ, זאָלן /kɔp, zɔln/ |
| O$_{2/3}$ | o in open syllable, and ô | long o /oː/ | /ɔu/ | /eɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ | hôch, schône | hoch, schon /hoːx, ʃoːn/ | הױך, שױן /hɔɪχ, ʃɔɪn/ |
| U$_1$ | u in closed syllable | short u /ʊ/ | /ʊ/ | /ʊ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | hunt | Hund /hʊnt/ | הונט /hʊnt/ |
| U$_{2/3}$ | u in open syllable, and uo | long u /uː/ | /uː/ | /ʊ/ | /iː/ | /iː/ | buoch | Buch /buːx/ | בוך /bʊχ/ |
| E$_4$ | ei | ei /aɪ/ | /aː/ | /eɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /eɪ/ | vleisch | Fleisch /flaɪ̯ʃ/ | פֿלײש /flɛɪʃ/ |
| I$_4$ | î | ei /aɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /aː/ | /a/ | mîn | mein /maɪ̯n/ | מײַן /maɪn/ |
| O$_4$ | ou | au /aʊ/ | /aː/ | /eɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ | ouh, koufen | auch, kaufen /aʊ̯x, ˈkaʊ̯fən/ | אױך, קױפֿן /ɔɪχ, kɔɪfn/ |
| U$_4$ | û | au /aʊ/ | /ɔu/ | /ɔɪ/ | /oː~ou/ | /ou~u/ | hûs | Haus /haʊ̯s/ | הױז /hɔɪz/ |
| (E$_4$) | öu | äu and eu /ɔʏ/ | /aː/ | /eɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /eɪ/ | vröude | Freude /ˈfʁɔʏ̯də/ | פֿרײד /frɛɪd/ |
| (I$_4$) | iu | äu and eu /ɔʏ/ | /aɪ/ | /aɪ/ | /aː/ | /a/ | diutsch | Deutsch /dɔʏ̯t͡ʃ/ | דײַטש /daɪtʃ/ |

## Comparison with Hebrew

The pronunciation of vowels in Yiddish words of Hebrew origin is similar to Ashkenazi Hebrew but not identical. The most prominent difference is kamatz gadol in closed syllables being pronounced same as patah in Yiddish but the same as any other kamatz in Ashkenazi Hebrew. Also, Hebrew features no reduction of unstressed vowels and so the given name Jochebed יוֹכֶבֶֿד would be /jɔɪˈχɛvɛd/ in Ashkenazi Hebrew but /ˈjɔχvɜd/ in Standard Yiddish.
| M. Weinreich's diaphoneme | Tiberian vocalization | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Pronunciation | Examples |
| M. Weinreich's diaphoneme | Tiberian vocalization | Western Yiddish | Northeastern ("Litvish") | Central ("Poylish") | Standard Yiddish |
| A$_1$ | patah and kamatz gadol in closed syllable | /a/ | /a/ | /a/ | אַלְמָן, כְּתָבֿ /ˈalmɜn, ksav/ |
| A$_2$ | kamatz gadol in open syllable | /oː/ | /ɔ/ | /uː/ | פָּנִים‎ /ˈpɔnɜm/ |
| E$_1$ | tzere and segol in closed syllable; hataf segol | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | גֵּט, חֶבְֿרָה, אֱמֶת‎ /gɛt, ˈχɛvrɜ, ˈɛmɜs/ |
| E$_5$ | segol in open syllable | /eː/ | /ɛ/ | /eː~eɪ/ | גֶּפֶֿן /ˈgɛfɜn/ |
| E$_{2/3}$ | tzere in open syllable | /ɛɪ/ | /eɪ/ | /aɪ/ | סֵדֶר‎ /ˈsɛɪdɜr/ |
| I$_1$ | hiriq in closed syllable | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | טיִף‎ /tɪf/ |
| I$_{2/3}$ | hiriq in open syllable | /iː/ | /ɪ/ | /iː/ | מְדִינָה /mɜˈdɪnɜ/ |
| O$_1$ | holam and kamatz katan in closed syllable | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | חָכְמָה, עוֹף‎ /ˈχɔχmɜ, ɔf/ |
| O$_{2/3}$ | holam in open syllable | /ɔu/ | /eɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ | סוֹחֵר /ˈsɔɪχɜr/ |
| U$_1$ | kubutz and shuruk in closed syllable | /ʊ/ | /ʊ/ | /ɪ/ | מוּם /mʊm/ |
| U$_{2/3}$ | kubutz and shuruk in open syllable | /uː/ | /ʊ/ | /iː/ | שׁוּרָה /ˈʃʊrɜ/ |
Patah in open syllable, as well as hataf patah, are unpredictably split between A$_1$ and A$_2$: קַדַּחַת, נַחַת /kaˈdɔχɜs, ˈnaχɜs/; חֲלוֹם, חֲתֻנָּה /ˈχɔlɜm, ˈχasɜnɜ/.