Hey, guys.
I’m not learning yiddish, nor am I jewish. But I recently remembered this song, called “Hulyet, hulyet, kinderlekh” (pardon if that’s not the correct way to write it) and wanted to share it with you. I really like this version, as it kinda gives goosebumps.
I also know the version by Zupfgeigenhansel, too.
Good stuff!
Ill have to give this a listen! Rough translation of the title: “play, play, children” with childrenint the first diminutive.
Thanks for sharing!
The thing is, I can totally understand many parts of yiddish, because I speak German. Both languages are very similar.
They definitely have a lot of overlap! Loshn koydesh is probably (imo) the hardest part of yiddish (for non hebrew speakers), and after that is the vowel shifts common to some communuties (e.g. in the song בײַ מיר ביסטו שײן / bay mir bistu shayn, as performed by the barry sisters, we hear the vowel shift from ‘u’ -> ‘i’).
I feel that I can understand roughly 60-70% of that song and also can sing along to it pretty well. The sounds yiddish speakers make are no challenge for me. But I speak German, Danish, Japanese and English, so I got a lot of tongue-twisting practice.
60-70% sounds about right! Yiddish is (if i remember correctly) about 50-60% germanic, with 15-20% loshn koydesh, and the rest is a mishmash of other languages (some stuff from slavic languages, for example).
You’re welcome!
Heres another yiddish childrens song, if youre interested: https://y.donttrackme.fossware.space/watch?v=1Zsn3SmMYUE