The Yiddish Language — A Documentary Course

די ייִדישע שפּראַך
36 chapters · total running time 9:20:01 · English narration with Yiddish examples (Hasidic pronunciation)
Download the whole video

Chapters

Tap a chapter to jump to it. Each chapter can also be downloaded as its own file.

  1. chapter file
  2. chapter file
  3. chapter file
  4. chapter file
  5. chapter file
  6. chapter file
  7. chapter file
  8. chapter file
  9. chapter file
  10. chapter file
  11. chapter file
  12. chapter file
  13. chapter file
  14. chapter file
  15. chapter file
  16. chapter file
  17. chapter file
  18. chapter file
  19. chapter file
  20. chapter file
  21. chapter file
  22. chapter file
  23. chapter file
  24. chapter file
  25. chapter file
  26. chapter file
  27. chapter file
  28. chapter file
  29. chapter file
  30. chapter file
  31. chapter file
  32. chapter file
  33. chapter file
  34. chapter file
  35. chapter file
  36. chapter file

Sources

Facts were checked against the YIVO Encyclopedia and the standard reference works of Yiddish scholarship: Max Weinreich's History of the Yiddish Language, Neil G. Jacobs' Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction, Dovid Katz's Grammar of the Yiddish Language, Uriel Weinreich's dictionary and College Yiddish, Harkavy, and the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (Beinfeld and Bochner). Wikipedia was used only as a cross-check. On screen, Yiddish follows the YIVO standard spelling and romanization; the pronunciation column shows how Hasidic speakers usually say each word.

YIVO Encyclopedia articles used (65)
Wikipedia articles used as cross-checks (83)

Abraham Goldfaden, Abraham Sutzkever, Alexander Harkavy, Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazi Jews, Avrom Reyzen, Bei Mir Bistu Shein, Birobidzhan, Boris Thomashefsky, Borscht Belt, Bovo-Bukh, Chaim Grade, Cheder, Yiddishist movement, Dave Tarras, Elia Levita, Fiddler on the Roof, German language, Hasidic Judaism, Haskalah, Haynt, Hebrew alphabet, I. L. Peretz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Itzik Manger, Jacob Adler, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Jewish humor, Jewish languages, Joshua Fishman, Yiddish, Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, Kiryas Joel, New York, Klezmer, Klezmer, Ladino, List of English words of Yiddish origin, Lower East Side, Yiddish, Mark Warshawsky, Maurice Schwartz, Max Weinreich, Mendele Mocher Sforim, Middle High German, Solomon Mikhoels, Mordechai Gebirtig, Mordkhe Schaechter, Moscow State Jewish Theatre, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Naftule Brandwein, Nahum Stutchkoff, Night of the Murdered Poets, Nigun, Yiddish, Oyfn Pripetshik, Paper Brigade, Rashi script, Satmar, Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch, Shtetl, Solomon Birnbaum, The Dybbuk, The Forward, Tz, Uriel Weinreich, Vilna Ghetto, Yiddish dialects, YIVO, Yiddish, Yiddish Book Center, Yiddish Wikipedia, Yiddish dialects, Yiddish grammar, Yiddish literature, Yiddish orthography, Yiddish phonology, Yiddish literature, Yiddish theatre, Yiddish, Yiddish words used in English, Yiddishist movement, Yiddish words used in English

Images (100): Wikimedia Commons, free licences

Maps, charts, tables and every other graphic were drawn for this documentary.

Notes and open questions

Debated points (the origins of Yiddish, several etymologies, speaker numbers) are labelled as debated in the video. Numbers of speakers are estimates. These items could not be fully verified and were softened or flagged in the narration:

Fact-check notes (45)