Hot answers tagged yiddish
11
Yiddish (literally "Jewish", "Jiddisch" in German) is taught and used by Jewish people mainly. It is not a German school subject.
I wouldn't call it a dialect like the Bavarian dialect. It is a High German language, derived from Middle High German combined with Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic.
It was used by the Ashkenazi Jews ("German Jews") living in Germany ...
7
The difference between a dialect and a language isn't a technical one; it's determined by culture, society and/or politics (cf. Danish/Swedish/Norwegian or Slovakian/Czech*).
Personally, I would consider Yiddish a different language, given the stark and obvious differences between the users of each language, even though as a learner of German, Yiddish is ...
6
Indeed there is "Eingemachtes" in contemporary German.
Duden defines "Eingemachtes" as follows:
(in Gläsern, Dosen u. Ä. aufbewahrte) durch Einmachen, Einlegen (2) in eine Lake o. Ä. haltbar gemachte Lebensmittel (besonders Obst).
Food being stored in jars, preserved by brine or another liquid conservative (esp. fruits).
Today this term usually ...
6
At this time of the year an old Christmas carol from 1480 comes to my mind where "träumen" was used reflexive (i.e. "unecht reflexiv" or rather reciprocal):
Und unsrer lieben Frauen
der traumete ein Traum:
als unter ihrem Herzen
gewachsen ward ein Baum.
In modern German it is only rarely used reflexive, here are a few examples:
Mir ...
5
Im Grimm steht alles, auch das hier über Jauche:
trübe flüssigkeit, flüssiger dünger. das wort gehört zu denen, die ihren ursprünglichen begriff verschlechtert haben; es bedeutet im 15. jahrh., wo es sich zuerst landschaftlich, mitteldeutsch und niederdeutsch, nachweisen läszt, sowie im 16., nur brühe, suppe: jus juche
This translates that regionally ...
5
Admittedly I never heard this or any similar expression in German (not even unrelated to "matter").
What comes to mind however is the now unusual German "die Mär" (used in the meaning of tale, story, report, derived from Old Hig German mârî and also in its diminutive still used in "das Märchen").
By changing gender and thus article we could have said:
...
4
Do you know the famous Yiddish quote by Max Weinreich?
A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot. (אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט)
Eine Sprache ist ein Dialekt mit einer Armee und Flotte/ A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
I'd say it's a language, especially after 1945. Without citing or knowing proper linguistic ...
4
I have my own definitions of dialect and language. Perhaps they are helpful.
If the difference consist of regular vowel shifts but no regular consonant shifts, it's a dialect. (I.e. Yiddish would be a dialect of German.)
If the difference consists of one regular consonant shift, it's a half-language. (I.e. two dialects with such a difference between them ...
4
Yes, there is an equivalent usage of the suffix in non-dialect standard German, even though there seems to be a vowel change involved:
kehren - Kehricht
This is however an unusual case. For common suffixes when bulding nouns from verbs see this nice overwiew.
2
Zappelig
After having done some research I did not find any other meaning of "zappeln", "zappelig" than in the sense of something or someone moving fast back and forth or being restless. This meaning dates as far back as to old high german (according to Pfeifer):
zappeln Vb. ‘(mit den Gliedmaßen, mit dem Körper) schnelle, unruhige Bewegungen machen’, ...
2
I guess the disgusting thing is Jauche. Etymologically it comes from the Sorbian word "jucha" which means "Brühe". And "Brühe" is the English "broth".
Jauche and broth are both liquids, so I wouldn't be surprised about that change of the meaning. If you mess up your broth and it does not taste, then people may say, it smells like (liquid) manure. That could ...
1
Wikipedia says, Yiddish descends from Middle High German, as it was spoken in the High Middle Ages in the Rhineland. When I stumble across a yiddish phrase, I can mostly get the meaning - as I can with Dutch, but I come from a rural area near Salzburg (Austria) where a dialect is spoken, which is closer to Middle High German than to Standard German.
I ...
1
Heinrich Heine träumte es von einem Königskind:
Mir träumte von einem Königskind
Mir träumte von einem Königskind,
Mit nassen, blassen Wangen;
Wir saßen unter der grünen Lind',
Und hielten uns liebumfangen.
"Ich will nicht Deines Vaters Thron,
Und nicht sein Zepter von Golde,
Ich will nicht seine demantene Kron',
...
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