In Reply to: Question posted by steve barry on Thursday, May 8th 2008:

Although Yiddish uses Hebrew letters in its written form, Yiddish is more of a Germanic language. There are some similarities to German; for example (excuse my spelling), in German they say "Gesundheit" when someone sneezes. Yiddish says "Gesundt." A German lady I once knew said that Yiddish bore similarities to what they refer to as the "low German."

My father spoke Yiddish. My mother knew only a handful of colorful expressions. As the older generation of European Jews is dying out, Yiddish is dying along with them. That's a shame, since it's such an integral part of the culture.

Back to the original question: Yiddish and Hebrew are not the same. Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel.

Reference ID: BX22043

Responses:

• Re: Question Raanan G 05/08/2008 (1)
  • Re: Question Joe F 05/10/2008 (0)