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Exercises to help you learn the alef-beys—the Yiddish alphabet—from alef to sof
In this guide, you will begin to learn how to read and write in Yiddish. Yiddish is written in the Hebrew alphabet, and for these lessons, we will be using standard YIVO orthography.
Yiddish is a Germanic language with about three million speakers, mainly Ashkenazic Jews, in the USA, Israel, Russia, Ukraine and many other countries. The name Yiddish is probably an abbreviated version of ייִדיש־טײַטש (yidish-taytsh), which means "Jewish German".
In this video, you'll see Yiddish letters in both print and cursive forms, with accompanying audio that provides the names of the letters and the sounds they make. The Yiddish alphabet is written from right to left. The cursive form of a letter is sometimes quite different from its print form.
Yiddish orthography is the writing system used for the Yiddish language. It includes Yiddish spelling rules and the Hebrew script, which is used as the basis of a full vocalic alphabet. Letters that are silent or represent glottal stops in the Hebrew language are used as vowels in Yiddish.
Even though most likely the vast majority of Yiddish Alef-Beis you will read will be in print, if you plan to do handwritten course work, or send off Yiddish postcards, you’ll want to learn Yiddish handwriting. There is a big difference between many Written and printed Hebrew and Yiddish characters.
This page will teach both Yiddish as it's spelled in the Hebrew alphabet, and YIVO (Jewish Research Institute) Yiddish transliteration, which we will use in our course. We use it because it has become a standardized way of spelling Yiddish, so it's clear how to pronounce things.
