Comparison
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 M. Weinreich (1960) to indicate the descendent diaphonemes of Proto-Yiddish (PY) stressed vowels. Each PY vowel is given a unique two-digit identifier, and its reflexes use this as a subscript, for example Southeastern o11 is the vowel /o/, descended from PY */a/. The first digit indicates PY quality (1-=*, 2-=*, 3-=*, 4-=*, 5-=*) 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 only occurring in PY vowel 25). Vowels 23, 33, 43 and 53 have the same reflexes as 22, 32, 42 and 52 in all Yiddish dialects, though they developed distinct values in Middle High German; Katz (1978) argues that these should be collapsed with the -2 series, leaving only 13 in the -3 series.
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| PY | Netherlandic | Polish | Lithuanian |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 (A1) | alt | alt | alt |
| 42 (O2) | brɔut | brɔjt | brejt |
| 13 (A3) | vas | vus | vɔs |
| 24 (E4) | ān | ajn | ejn |
| 54 (U4) | hɔuz | hōz~ houz |
hɔjz |
Litvish Yiddish has /ej/ for standard academic and literary /ɔj/ everywhere except for vowel 54.
| Vowel (Hebrew script) | Northern Yiddish (Litvish) | Southern Yiddish (Poylish, Galitzish) | Comparison (Heb. script = NY = SY) |
|---|---|---|---|
| אָ | o | u | דאָס, זאָגן = dos, zogn = dus, zugn |
| אֻ, וּ | u | i | קוגעל = kugel = kigel |
| ײֵ | ai | ah | זײֵן = zayn = zahn |
| אֵ, ײ | ey | ay | קלײן, צװײ = kleyn, tzvey = klayn, tzvay |
| ױ, וֹ | ey | oy | אױך = eykh = oykh/oukh |
| ע | e | ey | שטעטל = shtetl = shteytl (Note: Unstressed /e/ does not change) |
Some dialects have final consonant devoicing.
Merger of /ʃ/ into /s/ was common in Litvish Yiddish in previous generations. This trait, known as Sabosdiker losn, was stigmatized and deliberately avoided by recent generations of Litvaks.
Read more about this topic: Yiddish Dialects
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