Verse:Irta/Judeo-Mandarin

In this versespace:

Verse:

Irta/Judeo-Mandarin

• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Ballmer
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Filichdiș
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Literature
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Music
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Names
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Proto-Ăn Yidiș
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Sketchbook
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Translations
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Wordlist
• Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Ăn Yidiș

Verse talk:

Judeo-Mandarin
Yiddish (in-universe), Judeo-Gaelic, Nithish, Yithish, Ithish
אן ייִדיש ăn Yidiș/אן אידיש ăn Idiș
Pronunciation	[ən '(j)ɪd̪ɪʃ]
Created by	Inthar
Setting	Verse:Irta
Native speakers	13 million (2021)
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Goidelic Old Irish Middle Irish Judeo-Mandarin

In Irta, Ăn Yidiș (natively אן ייִדיש ăn Yidiș /ən 'jɪt̪ɪʃ/ [ən 'jɪd̪ɪʃ] or אן אידיש ăn Idiș, historically א קֿאָלצש תּאק נא יידיהּ ă Gholģ (tăg nă Yidih) /ə 'ʁoltʃ (t̪ʰək nə jit̪ih)/ '(Judeo-)Gaelic'; in-universe Hebrew: יידיש yidiš; in-universe Standard Irish: an Īdysı /ən̠ʲ ˈiːd̪ˠɪʃ/) is a Goidelic language which is the historical vernacular of the Tsarfati (= our France) Jews (נא צרפֿתיהּ nă Zărfósih). Today it is the main vernacular of major (often Hasidic) Jewish communities in Europe, Britain, Ireland, Canada, the US, Korea and Japan. With over 13 million speakers, ~70% of whom live in North America, it is the second most spoken Celtic language after Irish and the most spoken Jewish language in Irta. Ăn Yidiș is a possible answer to "What if Yiddish were Goidelic?" and is called "Yiddish" (or sometimes "Nithish" /nɪðɪʃ/, "Yithish" or "Ithish") in in-universe English.

Among Ăn Yidiș speakers, Riphean, Hebrew, English and Irish are common second languages (religious Jews learn Hebrew for worship and prayer and Aramaic for study of rabbinic texts such as the Talmud).

Traditional scholarly consensus holds that Ăn Yidiș evolved from a 10th century Middle Irish dialect that was spoken in Western France, at the borders of the then-Irish empire where enforcement of Catholic religious persecution was laxer. A minority view holds that there was no single Proto-Ăn Yidiș: Jewish speakers of Middle Irish originally spoke two separate Irish dialects, whose descendants are Alpine Ăn Yidiș and Eastern European Ăn Yidiș, respectively, and Standard Ăn Yidiș is effectively a koine of the two Proto-Ăn Yidiș dialects. (We'll assume the single origin hypothesis in most cases.)

On top of the inherited Gaelic vocabulary, Ăn Yidiș mainly borrows words from Hebrew and Talmudic Aramaic, but also from Azalic, Galoyseg, Riphean and Hivantish. Much like our Scottish Gaelic, Judeo-Mandarin was influenced by Brythonic languages, hence the grammatical similarity of Ăn Yidiș to Scottish Gaelic (although Scottish Gaelic doesn't exist in this timeline; Scotland speaks Irish with a minority speaking English or Albionian). Some syntactic influence can also be seen from Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic, which are head-initial languages like Goidelic.

The phonaesthetics of Ăn Yidiș is "Scottish Gaelic but less Icelandic and more Romanian, Polish, and Mandarin." Its grammar is also based heavily on Scottish Gaelic but is simpler; for example, it has no non-imperative finite verbs except forms of the auxiliary בּי bi, and also simplifies subordinating conjunction + auxiliary combinations to some extent.

History

Main page: Verse:Irta/Ireland

Main article: Ăn Yidiș/Proto-Ăn Yidiș

Main article: Ăn Yidiș/Literature

Phonology of IFAY Ăn Yidiș

The following describes the (somewhat artificial) standard, often called אן כּאיזאן ăn Cayzăn [əŋ 'kʰajtsən~əŋ 'kʰajdzən] 'the standard', originally codified by the Ăn Yidiș Research Institute (אנט אינשׂטיתּוֹט פישׂיפאך תּאצש אן ייִדיש ănd Insditud Fisifăch tăģ ăn Yidiș; abbreviated to איפאַי/IFAY /i'faj/).

Consonants

The consonantal phonology of Standard Ăn Yidiș is fairly conservative (in fact, more conservative than Modern Irish) and has a similar inventory of consonants in most dialects (except for some dialects like Ballmer Ăn Yidiș which merges l and ł into dark L). Some differences from Irish and Scottish Gaelic are:

• depalatalization of slender labials
• some Slavic-like and Polish-like sound changes, like Old Irish palatalized c > /tʃʰ/, etc.
• almost complete loss of the fortis-lenis distinction in resonants in most dialects.
  • The now almost extinct conservative Alpine dialect preserves Old Irish fortis unpalatalized n /n̪ˠ/, fortis unpalatalized r /rˠ/ and palatalized l /ʎ/, written as נּ רּ לּ. These are found word-initially in native but not Semitic vocabulary, e.g. נּאי /n̪ˠʌj/ 'nine' (Standard נעי /nej/ ney), and are retained non-initially in Semitic words as well: חנּה /'xaun̪ˠə/ 'Chana (Hannah)' (Standard /'χanə/ Chană), תּפילּה /tfiʎə/ 'prayer' (Standard tfilă). In these dialects, כּלּה /ˈkʰaʎə/ 'bride' does not sound like the reflex of the Irish word caile 'maidservant' which has l /l/ instead.

Standard Ăn Yidiș consonants

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	affr.	plain	affr.
Nasal		m m	n, ņh n		[ɳ]		ņ ɲ	[ŋ]
Stop /Affricate	tenuis/lenis	b p	d t̪	z t̪͡s̪	[ʈ]	[t͡ʂ]	ģ t͡ʃ	g k
	aspirated/fortis	p pʰ	t t̪ʰ	ț t̪͡s̪ʰ	[ʈʰ]	[t͡ʂʰ]	c̦ t͡ʃʰ	c kʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f, ph f	[θ]	s s̪		[ʂ]	ș, c̦h ʃ	ch χ	h, th, țh h
	voiced	v, bh, mh v	[ð]	[z̪]			[ʒ]	gh, dh ʁ
Approximant	central	ł w			r r~ɻ		y, zh, ģh j
	lateral		l l		[ɭ]

Notes

• Aspirated stops are as strongly aspirated as in Mandarin or German and are also slightly lengthened when not initial: [pˑʰ t̪ˑʰ t̪͡s̪ˑʰ t͡ʃˑʰ kˑʰ].
• Unaspirated stops have zero or short voice onset time and can only be voiced after vowels, and never at the onset of a stressed syllable; voicing initial unaspirated stops by default sounds non-native, although some accents can voice stops after nasals. In Naquian/Quintlopetl Ăn Yidiș they may be weakly ejectivized [pʼ t̪ʼ t̪͡s̪ʼ tʃʼ kʼ] when initial and in the onset of a stressed syllable.
• t d s are lamino-dental and may be slightly velarized.
• ț z are lamino-dental.
• t d z may have fricative allophones [θ ð z̪] after vowels.
• Initial n is dental; initial l is alveolar. Otherwise n l are alveolar unless they assimilate (e.g. in the case of n before t d s) or retroflex (when following r).
• /t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ ʃ/ are not labialized unlike in English. They may be alveolopalatal [t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ ɕ].
• r is most commonly an alveolar or retroflex approximant (not velarized or pharyngealized, so more like Hiberno-English r than American r). The sequences /rn rl rtʰ rt⁼ rt͡sʰ rt͡s⁼ rs/ are realized as retroflex [ɳ ɭ ʈʰ ʈ⁼ ʈ͡ʂʰ ʈ͡ʂ ʂ], even across word boundaries: נאך אפֿשר לעט năch efșăr led [nəχ efʃə ɭet] 'can't you?' It may also be a retracted alveolar flap [ɾ̠] or trill [r̠].
• Stop + fricative clusters are distinct from affricates: some minimal pairs are טשעוואר dșevăr /tʃevər/ 'sister' and צשעוואר ģevăr /t͡ʃevər/ 'winter'; תּשי tși /tʰʃɪ/ '3' and ת׳שי c̦i /t͡ʃʰɪ/ 'at her'.
  • /s ʃ/ are held longer after aspirated stops after unaspirated stops: קשיען gșien ['kʃiən] 'sun', כּשיכנאך cșichnăch ['kʃ:ɪχnəχ] 'to finish'. After a voiced fricative /ʃ/ is realized as [ʒ]: bhșeagh /vʒeəʁ/ 'beautiful (f. sg. attr.)'.
• /h/ is always pronounced clearly. It is usually [h~ɦ] but is [ç] after /ɪ/. Word-finally it is always [ħ̞] unless preceded by /ɪ/
• /n/ assimilates to [ŋ] before /k kʰ/.
• Standard Ăn Yidiș does not have syllabic nasals, though some dialects such as the Baltic dialect have them.

Vowels

Vowels in all Ăn Yidiș dialects have been subject to major vowel shifts and diphthongizations from Middle Irish (which were already in progress by proto-Ăn Yidiș times). Most dialects also lost vowel length, which is still present in Irish.

Standard Ăn Yidiș monophthongs

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i /ɪ/	ü /y/		u /u~ʊ/
Mid	e /e/		ă /ə/	o /o/
Open			a /a/

In addition, there are the following diphthongs. not counting vowel + /j w/ sequences: ea oa ie ua /eə oə iə uə/.

• /e o/ are mid [e̞ o̞].

The hiatus vowel sequences iă üă uă are pronounced [ɪjə yɥə uwə~ʊwə].

Stress

Most Hebrew and Aramaic loans are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, like Hebrew loans in Yiddish, but some common Hebrew and Aramaic loans are stressed on the initial or the third-from-last syllable instead. What loans this happens to depends on dialect. In Standard Irta/Judeo-Mandarin, antepenultimate stress occurs regularly whenever the third-from-last syllable ends in a geminate consonant: e.g. רבּנים rábănim '(Orthodox) rabbis' (plural of רב rav), קבּלה Gábălă 'Kabbalah', and also irregularly, as in חנוכּה Chánică 'Hanukkah'.

tsere in closed ultimate syllables reduces to i

Intonation (in Secular Ăn Yidiș)

In the varieties closest to Standard Ăn Yidiș, such as the secular varieties spoken in the US and Cualand, stressed syllables are pronounced ~1.3 times as long as unstressed ones. Questions do not differ from declaratives in intonation. In exclamations the intonation is more exaggerated than normal.

Within a prosodic unit

A prosodic unit begins at mid-level pitch and falls linearly to a low pitch right before the stressed component. The intonation of the stressed component depends on the syntactic role of the prosodic unit, but at the end of the sentence it usually (except e.g. for sarcasm) falls on the stressed syllable and remains low thereafter.

1. The highest level of prosodic unit is the sentence itself, and
2. subclauses of the sentence
3. Within a clause, the main high-level prosodic units include fronted phrases in cleft constructions (including interrogative pronouns), auxiliary-subject phrases, verb-phrases (which contains the lexical verb), and infinitive clauses.
4. These prosodic units are themselves divided into smaller phrases.

Sentence-level

טעש אפשר לוֹם א ראָ כּדי אט-תֿיאור

Deș efșăr lum ă ro cdey ăd-theyăr?

(Secular American) [t⁼ɛ́ʃ ‖ ɛ­­̄fʃə ɭùm | ə ɻɔ́ ‖ kʰt̪⁼ɛ̂j | əð ɦɛ̂jə̀ɻ]

'What can I say to describe you?' (the peak of cdey ăd-theyăr is higher than that of efșăr lum ă ro)

(Unmarked syllables are on a roughly linear pitch gradient between the ones marked for pitch with tone diacritics)

Miscellaneous

• ə V > V: (cf. Israeli Hebrew)

Mutation

Some but not all modern varieties of Ăn Yidiș have initial consonant mutation which serves grammatical roles. Standard Ăn Yidiș has lenition and h-prothesis but no eclipsis. Initial lenition is called הרפּיה hărpóyă lit. 'rafe-ization/weakening', after the diacritic רפה rofă. Sometimes it's called הרפּיה קֿעלאך hărpóyă Ghełăch to distinguish it from הרפּיה עבראך hărpóyă Evrăch, i.e. Hebrew begadkefat which mutates some consonants differently and operates within Hebrew and Aramaic loans in Ăn Yidiș.

• Lenitions:
  • b /p/ > bh /v/
  • d /t/ > dh /ʁ/
  • z /ts/ > zh /j/
  • f /f/ > fh /0/
  • g /k/ > gh /ʁ/
  • ģ /tʃ/ > ģh /j/
  • c /kʰ/ > ch /χ/
  • c̦ /tʃʰ/ > c̦h /ʃ/
  • m /m/ > mh /v/
  • ņ /ɲ/ > ņh /n/
  • p /pʰ/ > ph /f/
  • t /tʰ/ > th /h/
  • ț /tsʰ/ > țh /h/

s and ș never lenite unlike their corresponding Irish sounds.

Initial /h/ from lenition is deleted whenever it would form a forbidden consonant cluster. For example, tchină /tʰχinə/ lenites to thchină (/χinə/ instead of */hχinə/).

Orthography

See also: Verse:Irta/Hebrew#Tsarfati Hebrew

Ăn Yidiș is written in an adapted Hebrew alphabet. As in our Yiddish, non-Hebrew, non-Aramaic words are usually written phonetically (except when initial lenition is specified). Vowels are written with full letters or with full letters with vowel diacritics. Though Ăn Yidiș speakers tend to omit niqqud diacritics, they'll be used consistently in this article.

IFAY orthography

This article uses the IFAY orthography which is used in Irta, described below. Trician Ăn Yidiș uses a hyper-etymological orthography for native words, reflecting the distinction between PIE breathy-voiced and voiced stops.

Consonants

Assume no initial lenition. The consonants are spelled as follows in non-Hebrew, non-Aramaic words:

• /k kʰ χ ʁ/ ק כּ כ/ך ג
• /tʃ tʃʰ ʃ ɲ/ צש ת׳ש ש נ׳/ן׳
• /ts tsʰ s/ צ/ץ ת׳ ס
• /t tʰ n/ ט תּ נ/ן
• /p pʰ f v m/ בּ פּ פף וו מ/ם (initially /v/ is spelled וו when not or not obviously a result of lenition, especially in foreign words)
• /j r l w h/ י(י) ר ל ל׳ ה

(Assuming PSem *s was /ts/)

Final /h/ is always written הּ in vowel-pointed spelling.

גּ, דּ, ד in Hebrew and Aramaic loans are unaspirated /k/, /t/, /t/. ח in Hebrew loans represents /χ/.

Rafe (רפה rofă) is used for initial lenition: בֿ גֿ צֿש דֿ צֿ טֿ כֿ מֿ פּֿ פֿ ת' ת'ש קֿ תֿ for bh gh ģh dh zh dh ch mh sh ph fh țh c̦h gh th /v ʁ j ʁ j h x v h f 0 h ʃ x h/

/j/ between two vowels is written יי.

Historical slender r becomes ș /ʃ/ after voiceless fricatives and aspirated stops: כּשעי e.g. cșey /kʰʃej/ 'earth, soil'.

Vowels

On the null initial, vowels are spelled as follows (in non-Hebrew, non-Aramaic words):

אַ א אַי ע עא עי אי איע אָ אָא אָי אוֹ אוֹא אוֹי אוּ אוּע אוּי

a ă ay e ea ey i ie o oa oy u ua uy ü üe üy

For non-null initials the appropriate consonants are used replacing the null-initial aleph if necessary. For example:

בּאַ בּא בּאַי בּע בּעא בּעי בּי בּיע בּאָ בּאָא בּאָי בּוֹ בּוֹא בּוֹי בּוּ בּוּע בּוּי

ba bă bay be bea bey bi bie bo boa boy bu bua buy bü büe büy

Hebrew words are spelled similarly to (Modern) Hebrew, with the following additional rules:

• /o/ from qamatz qatan does not use vav as a mater lectionis.
• A dagesh on bet, gimel, kaf, pe, or tav is always written when they represent their unlenited values, i.e. /p k kh ph th/. Note that ת = /s/ in Hebrew and Aramaic loans.

Other notes

By folk etymology, some native words which are coincidentally similar to Hebrew words are spelled as if they were derived from Hebrew:

• כּלהאק calăg (f) 'woman' "←" כּלה cală (f) 'bride, daughter-in-law', in ĂnY also 'young lady, lass' + -ăg diminutive suffix (celăg, celă in some dialects with umlaut, reflecting MIr caile). A semantic shift towards the Hebrew meaning of cală is also evident; similar words in Irish and Scottish Gaelic mean 'girl'.
• אנעתשא ănéyșă, ănéșă 'now', from *inoisse, from OIr indossa. It's written like and has been influenced by ăn eys șa 'this time' where עת eys 'time' is a Hebrew loan.
• The spelling of ייִדאך Yidăch 'Jew(ish)' was influenced by the Hebrew word יהודי 'ibid.'; the expected phonetic spelling would be ייִטאך. (It actually came via Middle Irish *Iúdach.)

Trician Ăn Yidiș orthography

In Crackfic Tricin, d z ģ g in native morphemes are spelled

• ד ז זש גּ if they come from PIE *dʰ, *ǵʰ, *gʰ, or *gʷʰ
• ט צ צש ק if they come from PIE *d, *ǵ, or *g (which assumes the glottalic theory) or from PCel voiceless stops
• ת֬ ת֬׳ ת֬׳ש כ֬ if they come from historical urú of Proto-Celtic voiceless stops (from PIE voiceless stops).

(In non-Jewish loan morphemes tenuis stops are spelled as emphatics: e.g. -אק -ăg which comes from Brythonic.)

Consonants from historical lenition in native words are always written as the appropriate Hebrew letters with rafe. Proto-Celtic consonants lost in Old Irish are also spelled out, as in Crackfic Trician Irish.

Punctuation

Like Japanese, Ăn Yidiș does not usually use question marks; they're unnecessary because of question particles (they're still used in transliteration in this article). Question marks are only used when no interrogative particle or word is used, e.g. in single-word questions. The same convention is used when Ăn Yidiș speakers write in Hebrew.

Dialects

Ăn Yidiș dialects differ in accent, grammar and vocabulary.

The Ăn Cayzăn standard was

• phonologically based on an artificial "middle of the road" accent (by late-19th-century standards) optimized for wide intelligibility
• grammatically based on the late 19th century Hasidic dialect which was spoken in our Lithuania but nudged a bit closer to Irish and Mishnaic Hebrew grammar (read: close to our Scottish Gaelic but simplified a little)
• vocabulary-wise, it's a koinéized mixture of different dialects, with the addition of some hypothetical cognates of Irish words.

The Ăn Cayzăn accent has not been a natively spoken accent of Ăn Yidiș before. Formal written Ăn Yidiș, which is used e.g. in novels, newspapers, or communal records, follows Ăn Cayzăn grammar closely, but many speakers speak another variety and read the formal written language in their native accent. Ăn Cayzăn is also used when speakers of different Ăn Yidiș dialects speak with each other. The most common spoken dialects today are Ballmer and Bohemian dialects (mainly spoken in Hasidic communities) and Modern Ăn Cayzăn (spoken by secular Ăn Yidiș speakers). In Irta, Ăn Yidiș is usually taught with Ăn Cayzăn grammar and a Bamăriș accent since Bamăriș is the most commonly spoken variety.

Bohemian Ăn Yidiș (Southeastern)

Ănt Yădăș

Historically non-Hasidic; today mainly spoken in our timeline's Israel

• NZ-ish chain vowel shift:
  1. /ɪ/ > /ə/ > /a/ > /e/ > /ei/ > /ai/
  2. ie, üe, ua > /i y u/; ea, oa > /iə uə/
     • often transcribed "ii üü uu ie ua"

Retains historical slender r as ș

Baltic Ăn Yidiș (Northern)

called "'n Iđiș" or Nithish

A (historically Hasidic) Haredi dialect spoken in the Baltic. It's the predominant European Ăn Yidiș dialect.

• /ə/-/o/ merger
• Cayzăn /əm ən əl ər/ correspond to syllabic /m l n r/; the singular definite article is always pronounced /n/
• /e o eə oə/ are [E O ew oj]
• d z ģ /t t͡s t͡ʃ/ are [ð z ʒ] after a vowel
• Proto-Ăn Yidiș unstressed אָ becomes /u/ in most envs
  • קאַוווֹל gavul 'to receive' (Cayzăn קאַוואל gavăl)
  • מתּנה mátunu > mátinu 'gift' (Cayzăn mátănă)
  • כּלה calu 'bride, daughter IL' and כּאַלא cală (< MIr caile) 'girl, lass' are still separate words in this lect
• /hl hr/ resulting from syllabic-resonantification become voiceless L/R: ת'שעהר çehr /tʃe(voiceless r)/ 'four', Standard ת'שעהאר çehăr.

Alpine Ăn Yidiș

Conservative phonology, not spoken very much today; preserves fortis resonants more than other dialects

אָן on 'in him' /O:n/ or /oun/ has a different vowel than ל'אָן łon 'full' /ɫon/; ołn is now the prevailing pronunciation for this word, even when speaking Ăn Căyzon, due to the influence of Ballmer Ăn Yidiș which descends from this dialect.

c̦ ģ remain palatal stops in some of these dialects, or they become retroflex stops. ș ł retain their Proto-Ăn Yidiș values.

Ballmer (Baltimore) Ăn Yidiș

Ăn Yidiș/Ballmer

Cualand Ăn Yidiș

Main page: Verse:Irta/Cualand#Cualand Ăn Yidiș

Grammar

Ăn Yidiș grammar is similar to Irish or Scottish Gaelic grammar but somewhat simplified, similar in some ways to how our Modern Hebrew is a simplification of Biblical Hebrew.

Verbs

Ăn Yidiș has lost most older finite verb forms, and only the verbal noun, the passive participle, and the imperative survive in most contexts. The imperative is on the way out in modern Ăn Yidiș and is being replaced by ă(g) + VN! or ney + VN! which marks aspect but not number, unlike the old imperative.

תּאָ מי א ל׳אַסאך א כֿאנ'אל' חנוּכּה תּאצש אנאף

To mi ă łasăch ă chăņăł Chanică tăģ ănăf.

be.PRES 1SG PRES to_light.VN DEF candle Hanukkah of tonight

I'm lighting tonight's Hanukkah candle.

The passive participle has a suffix -ță or -thă (manifesting as aspiration of the final plosive of the stem):

תּאָ נא הילא כּאנ'אל'ן ל'אַסצא אן-עת-שאַ.

To nă hilă căņăłn łasță ănéșă. (or ăníșă)

All the candles are now lit.

Clitic complex

The auxiliary בּי bi

"To thu" should become "tu"

The auxiliary בּי bi is used with predicates that are

• verbs,
• existentials,
• adjectives,
• adjuncts.

It forms part of the clause-initial clitic complex and begins an independent clause. (בּי bi is the imperative and the infinitive form of the auxiliary.)

Ăn Yidiș has innovated the tense-aspect system (pres, past/conditional, fut, jussive‚ imperative) x (imperfective, perfective) using the form of בּי bi and the preverbal aspect marker. The auxiliary marks tense and the preverbal aspect marker marks other aspectual information such as perfectivity.

The negative particle כֿא chă (from the Old Irish preverb nícon·, like Scottish Gaelic cha(n)) becomes כֿנ- chn- before a vowel: כֿא תּעל chă tel 'doesn't like', כֿנאפשר chnefșăr 'can't'.

Note that mă năch 'if not (real)' or dăn năch 'if not (irreal)' is used where Irish would use mura. The two senses of the Irish conjunction nach (NEG.COMP or NEG.REL) are also distinguished: gu năch (complementizer) and ă năch (relativizer).

The present tense forms of bi with pronouns are: to mi, tu, te, ti, to șņi/tņi, tiv, tied, tăr. With nouns to X is used.

The past tense forms of bi with pronouns: vă mi, vă thu, ve, vi, vă șņi, viv, vied, vă thăr

The future/habitual tense forms of bi with pronouns: bi mi, bi thu, bi e, bi i, bi șni, bi iv, bi ied, bi thăr

• t' e ă(g) = present progressive (to becomes t' before a vowel)
• t' e ņey = past perfective
• v' e ă(g) = past imperfective or present conditional
• v' e ņey = pluperfect or past conditional
• bi e ă(g) = future and present habitual/timeless
• bi e ney = future perfective
• răv e ă(g) = jussive impfv. ('may he.../let him...')
• răv e ney = jussive pfv.

• To is most often used for the constructions: t' e ăg ih = he eats; he is eating and t' e ney ih = he ate/has eaten.
  • pres. interr. vel e... = does he...?
  • pres. neg. chnel e... = he does not...
  • pres. neg. interr. năch el e... = doesn't he...?
    • Negative interrogatives are also used to say that something is an obvious fact or to express surprise, like in both Scottish Gaelic and Hebrew.
  • pres. comp. gu vel/gvel e... = (says/believes/hopes...) that he...
  • pres. comp. neg. gu năch el e... = (says/believes/hopes...) that he does not/did not...
  • pres. rel. (direct relative) o h-e... = that he... (אַ a triggers h-prothesis, it's from *āh < *a tha)
  • pres. rel. (direct relative) o h-... = that is...
  • pres. rel. neg. (head != subject) ă năch el e... = that is not...
  • pres. rel. neg. (head == subject) ă năch el ... = that he does not...
  • real cond. mă t' e... = if he...
  • real cond. neg. mă năch el e... if he doesn't...
  • ireal conditional: dăm b'e
  • irreral cond. neg. dăn năch rǎv e...
• Future: bi e ăg ih = he will eat
  • ăm bi șe... = will he...?
  • chă bhi șe... = he will not...
  • năch bi șe... = won't he...?
  • ă/gum bis șe... = REL/COMP he will...
• Past: v'e ăg ih = he was eating/he would eat
  • ă răv e... = was he...?/would he?
  • chă răv e... = he was not.../he would not...
  • năch răv e... = was he not...?/would he not...?
    • gu răv e' = COMP he was
• "if": mă to (pres aff), mă năch el (pres neg), mă vă (past aff), mă năch răv (past neg), mă bis (fut aff), mă nach bis (fut neg)
  • afíli mă to/mă năch = even if
  • דאָז doz 'then' can be used for the apodosis.
• ih! = Eat! (2sg)
• ihiv! = Eat! (2pl)
• nǎ h-ih(iv)! = Don't eat!

Hebrew verbs are usually borrowed in their verbal noun forms but some dialects usually borrow the participle.

When the corresponding tag question is used in reply to a statement, it means 'I know, right?'/'It really is the case!'

A: T'e chu mah ăr minăch. 'He's so good at explaining things.'

B: Năch el! 'I know, right?'

Copula

Due to Hebrew influence, Ăn Yidiș is closer to being zero-copula than Irish is; the copula *iš was fused, dropped or reanalyzed as part of the pronoun in some cases. Unlike in Irish, the copula is just syntactic; it's used for nominal sentences whereas adjunct, adjective and verb predicates use the auxiliary בּי bi.

Inflection

The following forms are used when the predicate is definite. The interrogative forms below also serve as tag questions for copular sentences:

כנע אך פיעך אחד א ה-אָן, אַן ע.

Chne ăch fiech echăd ă h-ołn, an e?
/χan e əχ fiəχ 'ehəd ə hown, an 'e/
NEG.COP anything_but raven one 3SG.M, Q 3SG.M
It's just one raven, isn't it?

(3)

(Both clauses have falling intonation, as in Scottish Gaelic!)

• present affirmative: mișă tusă șe și șņi șivșă șied
  • also used for "yes" (for a copula sentence)
• present affirmative, in cleft constructions: mișă tusă șeșăn șișă șņi șivșă șiedsăn
• present interrogative: ă mișă, ăn tusă, ăn e, ăn i, ă șņi, ăn ivșă, ăn ied
• present negative: chamșă, chadsă, chne, chni, cha șņi, chavșă, chnied
  • also used for "no" (for a copula sentence)
• present neg. interrogative: năch + mișă tusă e i șņi ivșă ied
• past affirmative: bă mhișă, bă thusă, b'e, b'i, bă șņi, b'ivșă, b'ied
  • also used for "yes" (for a copula sentence)
• past interrogative: ăm + past aff. (ămbă mhișă etc.)
• past negative: cha(m) bă mhișă, etc.
  • also used for "no" (for a copula sentence)
• past neg. interrogative: năch + past aff.
• future uses bi e măr + complementizer present copula
• real "if" pres: măș, mă năch (rather than a cognate of Irish mura)
• real "if" past: mă bă, mă năch bă
• irreal "if": dăm bă, dăn năch bă
• relative present aff. אש ăș, rel. pres. neg. א נאך ă năch
• complementizer pres. aff. קוֹן gun, pres. neg. קוֹ נאך gu năch

When the predicate is indefinite ("is-a"), the construction "șe PRED ă t'in (def noun phrase)" is used, where șe/și/șied inflects according to the above rules:

כֿנעל שי נ׳עי איהּ כּעראכּאן-שינט, כּי שע וועגאַן א בֿ' אינצי

Chnel și ņey ih cerăcăn-Șind, ci șe vegán ă v' inți.

She did not eat turkeys, because she was a vegan.

When the predicate is definite ("is-the"):

• 1st and 2nd person: mișă PRED = I am PRED
• 3rd person: șe PRED e TOPIC (or și...i, or șied...ied, as appropriate for the topic noun phrase) = TOPIC is PRED, or șe PRED e = he is PRED

Bare copula

Ăn Yidiș also uses the so-called bare copula (אוֹגד רוּשת׳שא ughăd rüșc̦ă), deriving from an omitted iš without a following pronoun, mainly for fixed expressions like

• efșăr lă X 'X can'
  • b'efșăr lă X 'X could (both past and conditional)'
• tel lă X 'X likes'
  • bă thel lă X 'X would like' (also 'X liked')

Bare-copula questions are answered in the following way:

Say the question is אן אפשר לא יואל שעין׳ Ăn efșăr lă Yuil șeyņ? 'Can Yuil (Yoel) sing?'. Then the 'yes' and 'no' answers are:

• אפשר Efșăr. 'Yes (he can).'
• כֿנאפשר Chnefșăr. 'No (he can't).'

The tag questions work as follows:

• כֿנאפשר לא יואל שעין׳, אן אפשר Chnefșăr lă Yuil șeyņ, ăn efșăr? 'Yuil can't sing, can he?'
• אפשר לא יואל שעין׳, נאך אפשר Efșăr lă Yuil șeyņ, năch efșăr? 'Yuil can sing, can't he?'

Only the present affirmative form differs from the usual copula. The interrogative particle ăn changes to ăm before a labial, and chan becomes cha before a vowel.

Nouns

Like modern Irish, Standard An Yidiș has masculine and feminine genders. Hebrew words may not have the same gender as in Hebrew. Declension is simplified compared to Irish and Scottish Gaelic:

• The nominative is used the most often, including as prepositional objects; the Old Irish accusative and prepositional cases are lost.
• The inherited genitive is only used to mark definite objects of verbs, similarly to Hebrew et, and almost never possessors. (They're even used, un-etymologically, for objects of imperatives, except possibly in poetry.) The genitive is no longer productive in head-initial compounds.
• The inherited vocative survives only for Zie 'God', and the vocative form is used only when some element comes before it: אוי זֿעי oy Zhey! /oj ˈjej/ 'O God', מא-זֿעי (oy) mă-Zhey! '(fixed expression) oh my God'. To call family members, forms such as מא-מֿאָר mă-mhor! 'my mother!' are used.
  • The vocative particle אוי oy always lenites, however, unless the following noun is an inalienably possessed noun. (It's a contraction of the Hebrew particle oy + the Gaelic vocative particle *a (+lenition).)

Possession is expressed with the construction ăn X tăģ Y (lit. the X of Y), for example אן כּאַתּ אַק׳ מא־מֿאַכּ ăn cat tăģ mă-mhac 'my son's cat'. The Irish- and Biblical Hebrew-like genitive construction X ăn Y is poetic; using the old genitive for Y in the latter construction is optional.

Concatenation exists but is more derivational, analogous to compounding in English. In native head-initial concatenations, the second element of a compound is treated as an adjective for mutation purposes:

• ła-bșehă (m) 'birthday' (ła 'day' is masculine)
• călă-fherhiņă (f) 'rainforest' (călă 'forest' is feminine).

Native plurals are more regular, marked with mostly -ăn, or less commonly

• umlaut, final palatalization: fer > fiș
• -ăch > -ih

Hebrew words often form plurals in unstressed -im /im/ or -ăs /əs/ but native Celtic words may use them too and not all Hebrew words use the Hebrew plural. Hebrew nouns beginning with m- are almost always loaned as masculine (to avoid mutation after the unmarked singular definite article); as an exception, משפּחה mișpóchă 'family' is feminine. Both native and Semitic t-words are feminine by default, from the reanalyzed native feminine s-words and the tendency for Hebrew t- to form abstract nouns.

Definite article

For masculine nouns when not accusative:

• Nouns beginning with a vowel take אנט ănd: אנט אישצשא ănd ișģă = the water
• before a labial (p b f m v), אם ăm:
  • אם פּתי ăm pesi 'the fool'
  • אם בּיעג ăm biegh 'the food'
  • אם פיאך ăm fiăch 'the raven'
  • אם ווֹנעטאר ăm vunedăr 'the (romantic) admirer'
  • אם מצווה ăm mițvă 'the (religious) commandment'
• before ņ, אן׳ ăņ:
  • אן׳ נ׳י ăņ ņi 'the thing'
• before a historical liquid (r ș l ł), א ă (some dialects treat these as "sun letters", hence ăl lenăv etc.):
  • א לענאוו ă lenăv 'the child'
  • א ל׳אַ ă ła 'the day'
  • א רוח ă rüăch 'the spirit'
  • א ר׳אָל׳תּא ă șołtă 'the star'
• otherwise אן ăn:
  • אן כּוֹן ăn cun 'the dog'
  • אן קאוואר ăn găvăr 'the goat'
  • אן צשאָנארט ăn c̦onărd 'the leader'
  • אן צשאָל׳ ăn ģoł 'the game'
  • אן תּלמיד ăn talmid 'the pupil' (אן תּלמוד ăn Talmid 'the Talmud' is homophonous)
  • אן טאָן ăn don 'the (Ăn Yidiș) folk song'
  • אן צעך ăn țech 'the house'
  • אן זקן ăn zogăn 'the old man'
  • אן נס ăn neys 'the miracle'
  • אן ייִדאך ăn Yidăch 'the Jew'
  • אן התר ăn heysir 'the heter (special permission given by a rabbi)'
  • אן חתן ăn chosăn 'the bridegroom; the son-in-law'
  • אן סאיאל׳ ăn săyăł 'the world'
  • אן שמן ăn șemăn 'the oil'

For feminine nouns when not accusative and masculine nouns when accusative:

• Nouns beginning with a lenitable consonant (except d, z, t and ț) lenite, and the following rule is applied to the lenited form:
  • א ă before historical liquids, and non-sibilant fricatives (/j/ doesn't count as a fricative): א מֿענשיל ă mhenșil = the wife, א פֿר'עקארץ ă fhșegărț = the answer
  • אן ăn otherwise: אן זֿשעלֿאך ăn ģhełăch = the moon, אן אות ăn us = the letter (character)
• Feminine nouns beginning in d z t ț don't lenite: אן תּוֹרה ăn Tură 'the Torah'.
  • Note: Nouns that were feminine in Old Irish and began with s- have all become t-/ț- words in Proto-Ăn Yidiș, except s(stop)- and sm- words (since those didn't lenite), pluralia tantum and obvious derivations from other s-words: אן תּאַווין׳ ăn Taviņ '(poetic) November' (from an tSamhain). Newer words such as Hebrew loans are not subject to this.

For plural non-accusative nouns and feminine definite accusatives take נא nă and h- is added before a noun beginning with a vowel.

• נא ציש nă țiș = the houses
• נא ל'אַאן nă łaăn = the days
• נא מנאָ nă mno = the wives
• נא ה-אותיות nă h-usyăs = the letters
• נא סוכּות nă sücăs = the sukkot
• נא ניסים nă nisim = the miracles

Plural definite accusatives take נאן năn (נאם năm before b p m f v and נאן׳ năņ before ņ), The noun itself doesn't inflect for the accusative.

• נאן ציש năn țiș
• נאן ל'אַאן năn łaăn
• נאם מנאָ năm mno
• נאן אותיות năn usyăs
• נאן סוכּות năn sücăs
• נאן ניסים năn nisim
• נאן׳ נ׳יאן năņ ņiăn

This can be summarized by the following table. [NOM SG], [DEF ACC SG] and [PLURAL] are principal parts.

Definite articles

Case	Masculine sg.	Feminine sg.	Plural
Non-accusative	(1) [NOM SG]	(2) [NOM SG]	nă (h-) [PLURAL]
Accusative	(2) [DEF ACC SG]	nă (h-) [DEF ACC SG]	năn/năm/năņ [PLURAL]

(1) See above on masculine non-accusative definite articles

(2) See above on feminine non-accusative definite articles

Declension

An Ăn Yidiș noun effectively has three principal parts: the singular indefinite form, the singular definite accusative form and the plural form. In the definite accusative plural the noun itself is the same as the indefinite plural.

A majority of native masculine nouns and most loans use -ă for the definite accusative singular. Native feminines tend to use palatalization + ă for the definite accusative singular. The plural has to be memorized, but -ăn is the most common non-Semitic plural.

Default native masculine

כּאָש coș (m.) 'cheese'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	כּאָש coș	כּאָשאן coșăn
Definite	אן כּאָש ăn coș	נא כּאָשאן nă coșăn
Definite acc.	א כֿאָשא ă choșă	נאן כּאָשאן năn coșăn

Default native feminine

כּנאָוו cnov (f.) 'bone'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	כּנאָוו cnov	כּנאָוואן cnovăn
Definite	א כֿנאָוו ă chnov	נא כּנאָוואן nă cnovăn
Definite acc.	נא כּנאָווא nă cnovă	נאן כּנאָוואן năn cnovăn

כּלהאק calăg (f.) 'woman'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	כּלהאק calăg	כּלהאקאן calăgăn
Definite	א כֿלהאק ă chalăg	נא כּלהאקאן nă calăgăn
Definite acc.	נא כּלהיצשא nă caliģă	נאן כּלהאקאן năn calăgăn

Hebrew loan declension

עד eyd (m.) 'witness'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	עד eyd	עדים eydim
Definite	אנט עד ănd eyd	נא ה-עדים nă h-eydim
Definite acc.	אן עדא ăn eydă	נאן עדים năn eydim

משפּחה mișpóchă (f.) 'family' (the p is aspirated!)
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	משפּחה mișpóchă	משפּחות mișpóchăs
Definite	א מֿשפּחה ă mhișpóchă	נא משפּחות nă mișpóchăs
Definite acc.	נא משפּחה nă mișpóchă	נאם משפּחות năm mișpóchăs

1st declension masculines

These nouns often get -(palatalization) in the definite accusative:

מאַכּ mac (m.) 'son'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	מאַכּ mac	מיצש mic̦
Definite	אם מאַכּ ăm mac	נא מיצש nă mic̦
Definite acc.	א מֿיצש ă mhic̦	נאם מיצש năm mic̦

*-amh-stems

Middle Irish -amh/-amhan nouns either

• if feminine, the -amh is deleted and the plural is -țăn (tał, talțăn 'earth' from Old Irish talaṁ)
• if masculine, they change to -un, -unăn nouns in the default masculine declension (bșehun, bșehunăn 'judge' from OIr britheṁ)
  • Western dialects bŗehun, bŗehună (ŗ = Czech ř)
  • Ballmer Ăn Yidiș: bșeyhín, bșeyhínăn (the Bamăriș cognate of Irish -ín has a different plural: -in, -iniņ)
  • Nidiș-Yidiș: bșihü, bșihun

תּאַל׳ tał (f.) 'earth'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	תּאַל׳ tał	תּאַלצאן talțăn
Definite	אן תּאַל׳ ăn tał	נא תּאלצאן nă talțăn
Def. acc.	נא תּאַל׳וֹן nă tałun	נאן תּאַלצאן năn talțăn

bșehun (m.) 'judge'
State/case	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	bșehun	bșehunăn
Definite	ăm bșehun	nă bșehunăn
Definite acc.	ă bhșehună	năm bșehunăn

Adjectives

As in Irish, predicate adjectives are unmarked. The standard language has definite accusative adjective forms.

Adjectives always have -ă in the plural, except

• adjectives ending in ie ua üe form their plurals with -hă
• the plural of -ăch is unchanged (unlike the case with -ăch nouns).
• the plural of adjectives with unstressed -i is unchanged (unlike nouns with unstressed -i which always pluralize as -im, even native nouns);
• the plural of ołiņ 'lovely' is oylă, same as the feminine definite accusative singular ~ the comparative.

Not counting the plural, most Ăn Yidiș adjectives have two principal parts:

1. The lemma form is the predicative form. The masculine nominative singular is identical to the predicative, and the plural is usually formed from the base form.
2. The feminine definite accusative singular is usually formed with -ă or palatalization + -ă for adjectives whose stems end in consonants, and -yă for stems ending in a stressed vowel (לוֹא lua 'fast' → לוֹאיא luayă). In most cases, the comparative is formally identical to it. Adjectives of Hebrew and Aramaic origin don't palatalize in this form: מיאוס mies 'bad' -> מיאוסא miesă, misă
3. Irregular adjectives may have a comparative distinct from the feminine definite accusative singular: for example beg 'small' with feminine def. acc. sg. biģă and comparative łü.

The mutation of attributive adjectives is summarized in the following table:

Adjective mutation

Case	Masculine sg.	Feminine sg.	Plural
Non-(definite accusative)	no mutation	lenition	h-prothesis
Definite accusative	lenition	h-prothesis	no mutation

Ină (which lenites) for predicate adjectives is used after longer noun phrases:

תּאָ אן סטוֹא תּאצש א כֿרינ׳א מֿאָראַל'תּא אינא פֿאַטא.

To ăn sdua tăģ ă chriņă mhoráłtă ină fhadă.

The arc of the moral universe is long.

Gu (with h-prothesis) is used to form adverbs from adjectives: gu mah 'well' from mah 'good'. It's also used in front of predicative adjectives to indicate that the adjective is a current, often temporary state, e.g.

• gu mah 'well, in good health'
• T'i gu teh 'It's hot'

Using adjectives before subjects used with a naked copula is flowery and can be used to evoke either Biblical Hebrew or older Irish.

נאס-פיאָר א חכמה נא כּלי-מלחמה

Năs-fyor ă chochmă nă cley-milchomă.

Better is wisdom than weapons of war. (טוֹבָה חָכְמָה מִכְּלֵי קְרָב)

Comparison

chu ADJ ri NOUN is used for 'as ADJ as NOUN'.

Comparatives are formed by adding נאס năs 'more' and אס ăs 'most' before the comparative form of the adjective, which is identical to the feminine definite accusative singular in most cases: פוֹאר, נאס-פוֹארא, אס-פוֹארא fuar, năs-fuară, ăs-fuară 'cold, colder, coldest'. The word נא nă is used for 'than'.

There is no tense change for comparatives, unlike in Irish where níos mó 'bigger' changes to ní ba mó in the past tense.

• מוֹר - נאס-מוֹא - אס-מוֹא mur - năs-mua - ăs-mua = big - bigger - biggest
• beg - năs-łü 'small'
• mah - năs-fyor 'good'

Pronouns

Pronouns are similar to those in Scottish Gaelic. Iv is used as a polite 2nd person pronoun (the same way as Yiddish ir; e.g. iv is used for speaking to a rabbi). Hu is used when speaking to nonhumans (including God).

Morphology

Ăn Yidiș pronouns have three forms (not counting emphatic forms):

• subject/topic pronouns: מי הוֹ ע אי שנ׳י איוו איעט mi hu e i șņi iv ied; האר hăr 'impersonal pronoun'
  • These pronouns follow a finite form of the auxiliary bi: Bhă mi ă cadăl. 'I was sleeping.'
  • In modern Ăn Yidiș, the 3sg gender neutral pronoun is most commonly ied or e. In older or traditionalist settings, e is preferred for a grammatically singular non-specific referent (e.g. ņech săm bih 'everyone').
  • Șņi is coincidentally the same as the expected reflex of Old Irish sní, but it's actually from Middle Irish sinne 'we (emphatic)'.
  • In insults, the 2nd person pronoun follows the noun: חזיר הוֹ Chazăr thu! 'You pig!'
• copular pronouns (the forms used as copulas; cleft constructions use the emphatic forms); see the section on the copula
  • Șe ăm pșivrav tăģ ăm bală giņi. 'He's the chief rabbi of our town.'
  • Șeșăn ăm pșivrav. = 'It's him who's the chief rabbi.'
• prefixed pronouns: מא-, טא-, א-, א-(ה)-, אָר(ן)-, וואר(ן)-, א(ן)- mă^L, dă^L, ă^L, ă-(h)-, or(n)-, văr(n)-, ă(n)- inalienable possession
• Direct object pronouns are also prefixed (they were historically possessive pronouns, like inalienable pronouns), but they fuse with the words ă(g), ņey and the infinitive marker ă:
  • ă(g) 'imperfective marker' suppletes: năm^L, năd^L, n(ă)^L, nă-h-, năr(n), nur(n), năn/năm/năņ
    • Forms with emphatic object pronouns: usually năm-ghărtăch mișă, năd-ghărtăch thusă, nă-ghărtăch eșăn, nă-gărtăch ișă, năr-gărtăch șņin, nur-gărtăch ivșă, năn-gărtăch iedsăn 'injuring me, ...'. The emphatic pronouns tend to immediately follow the verbal noun, unlike independent direct object pronouns in Irish and Scottish Gaelic which come at the end of a clause.
    • Poetic emphatic forms: năm-ghărtăch-să, năd-ghărtăch-să, nă-ghărtăch-șăn, nă-gărtăch-șă, năr-gărtăch-ņín, nur-gărtăch-șă, năn-gărtăch-săn
  • ņey 'perfect marker' also suppletes: ărăm^L-, ărăd^L-, ăr^L-, ăr-h-, ărnăr(n)-, ărnur(n)-, ărnăn-/ărnăm-/ărnăņ-
  • ă^L 'infinitive marker': ăm^L, ăd^L, d- (before vowel or fh)/ă^L (otherwise), ă-h-, ăr(n), ur(n), ăn-/ăm-/ăņ- (The infinitive marker ă^L comes from older do 'to')
  • Bi șņi năn-ih băméșăch ăm Purim. 'We eat them during Purim.' (etym. "we be in their eating")
• suffixed pronouns, on prepositions

Object pronoun markers in Irta/Judeo-Mandarin: Examples

→ Person		1sg	2sg	3sg m.	3sg f.	1pl	2pl	3pl
progressive	verb in V-	năm-ih	năd-ih	n-ih	nă-h-ih	nărn-ih	nurn-ih	năn-ih
	verb in C-	năm-chur	năd-chur	nă-chur	nă-cur	năr-cur	nur-cur	năn-cur
perfect	verb in V-	ărăm-ih	ărăd-ih	ăr-ih	ăr-h-ih	ărnărn-ih	ărnurn-ih	ărnăn-ih
	verb in C-	ărăm-chur	ărăd-chur	ăr-chur	ăr-cur	ărnăr-cur	ărnur-cur	ărnăn-cur
infinitive and imperative	verb in V-	ăm-ih	ăd-ih	d-ih	ă-h-ih	ărn-ih	urn-ih	ăn-ih
	verb in f-	ăm-fhec̦	ăd-fhec̦	d-fhec̦	ă-fec̦	ăr-fec̦	ur-fec̦	ăm-fec̦
	otherwise	ăm-chur	ăd-chur	ă-chur	ă-cur	ăr-cur	ur-cur	ăn-cur

All of these forms have emphatic counterparts: mișă, t(h)usă, (ș)eșăn, (ș)ișă, șņeyn/șņin (from *sinne fhéin), (ș)ivșă, (ș)iedsăn. These are essentially the "default" independent forms and are always used when stressing a pronoun is required. These are used to address someone: Tusă!/Ivșă! 'You!'. Expressions for 'only', 'except' and 'also' also require emphatic pronouns: אן אף תּוֹסא, בּרוֹתּוֹס Ăn af tusă, Brutus? 'Et tu, Brute?'

Emphatic suffixes for prepositions with pronominal suffixes: -să -să -șăn -șă -ín -șă -săn: e.g. for ăģ 'of, at' we have gumsă, gădsă, ģeșăn, c̦ișă, giņín, givșă, cusăn. In poetry, ^LNOUN-șăn, (h-)NOUN-șă, NOUN-săn may be used for 'his, her, their' (with or without a preceding ă sg. or ăn/ăm/ăņ pl.).

Another common way to emphasize a pronoun is to use feyn after it (e.g. מישא פעין mișă feyn 'I myself', אן קיום פעין תּעק׳ ăn giyăm feyn teģ 'his very existence'). When a pronoun is emphasized with feyn it is required to be in the emphatic form.

Possessive pronouns

For possession, the ă lyor tam construction is standard for most nouns except family members and body parts where possessive prefixes are used (cf. Modern Hebrew also usually uses הספר שלי ha-sefer šeli instead of ספרי sifri). Nouns that take possessive prefixes cannot take a definite article and must take a possessive prefix when definite. In addition, ־אַר -ar 'father' and ־מאָר -mor 'mother' cannot occur as indefinite nouns and obligatorily take possessive prefix forms.

Double-marking possessives, e.g. וו אהרן א-טֿשאָר תּאצש משה V' Ăharăn ă-dhșor tăģ Mușă. 'Aaron was Moses' brother' (lit. his brother of Moses) are used for nouns where possessive suffixes are still used. Possessive prefixes are considered Filichdiș for other nouns.

• mă-dhșor /məʁˈʒor/ 'my brother'; m-ar /mar/ 'my father'
• dă-dhșor /təʁˈʒor/ 'thy brother'; d-ar /tar/ 'thy father'
• ă-dhșor /əʁˈʒor/ 'his brother'; ar /ar/ 'his father'
• ă-dșor /ətˈʒor/ 'her brother'; ă-h-ar /əˈhar/ 'her father'
• orn-dșor /orntˈʒor/ 'our brother'; orn-ar /oɾˈnar/ 'our father'
• vărn-dșor /vərntˈʒor/ 'your brother'; vărn-ar /vəɾˈnar/ 'your father'
• ăn-dșor /əntˈʒor/ 'their brother'; ăn-ar /əˈnar/ 'their father'

List of inalienable nouns

Family:

• אַר ar = father (obligatorily possessed)
• מאָר mor = mother (obligatorily possessed)
• טר׳אָר dșor = brother
• טר׳עוואר dșevăr = sister
• mac = son
• inin = daughter
• cłan = (one's) children

Body parts:

• תּוּל tül = eye
• תּראָאן troan = nose
• בּעל' beł = mouth
• כּל'וֹאס cłuas = ear
• ל'אָוו łov = hand
• כּאס căs = leg
• תּראָי troy = foot
• כּ׳אָן c̦on = head

Interrogatives

Interrogatives require cleft constructions.

• de, deș 'what'
• çe, cu 'who'
• den NOUN 'what NOUN, which' (inflects and causes mutation like the definite article)
• cvéad 'how many'
• cmar (+ tă, vă) 'how'
• cărson (+ tă, vă) 'why'
• coț (+ vel, răv) 'where'
• cayņ (+ tă, vă) 'when'

Prepositions

Unlike Irish, Ăn Yidiș has lost relative pronoun-inflected forms of prepositions (all oblique relative clauses use the resumptive pronoun strategy as in Hebrew). 3rd person feminine singular forms end in -i like in Irish ('in her' is Ăn Yidiș inți, Scottish Gaelic innte, Irish inti) but 3rd person plural forms end in schwa like in Scottish Gaelic ('in them' is Ăn Yidiș untă, Scottish Gaelic annta, Irish iontu).

• ăģ/ăg 'at': gum, găd, ģe, c̦i, giņi, giv, că
  • ăģ becomes ăg before a coronal.
  • emphatic forms: gumsă, gădsă, ģeșăn, c̦ișă, giņín, givsă, cusăn
• tăģ/tăg 'of': tam, tad, teģ, tec̦i, teņi, tav, tacă
  • emphatic forms: tamsă, tadsă, teģsăn, tec̦ișă, teņín, tavsă, tacăsăn
  • the tăģ/tag alternation is similar to that of ăģ/ăg
  • comes from *atá a(i)g 'that is at'; cf. Hebrew šel 'of' from še-llă- 'that is to'
• dă^L, d' 'to, for': dum, did, do, di(hi), diņi, div, du(hă) (d- is deleted after a coronal obstruent)
• ză^L, z' 'off' (corresponding to ăr 'on'): zum, zid, ze, zi(hi), ziņi, ziv, zu(hă)
• u h- 'from' (corresp. to ăģ 'at'): uam, uad, ua, oyhi, uaņi, uav, uahă
• in 'in': unum, unăd, ołn (spelled אָן), inți, uniņi, univ, untă
  • in has the allomorphs in, ind, im, iņ, i with the same rules as the definite article ăn: im mițvă, ind ișģă, i chalăg ...
• ăr^L 'on': ărum, ărăd, eș, eșhi, ăriņi, ăriv, orhă
  • emphatic 3ms form is ersăn
• ăs 'out of' (corresponding to in 'in'): asum, asăd, as, ași, asiņi, asiv, asă
• ru^L 'before, in front of': ruam, ruad, rev, rempi, ruņi, ruv, rompă
• ri(n) 'with': rum, red, reș, rehi, riņi, riv, rehă
• lă h- 'with, by, for': lum, led, leș, lehi, liņi, liv, lohă
  • some contamination from Semitic l- should happen
• țimpum 'around' suppletes: umum, umăd, em, empi, umiņi, umiv, umpă
• fă^L 'under, among': fum, fud, fey, fihi, fuņi, fuv, fuhă
• In some dialects such as Ballmer Hasidic Ăn Yidiș, izăr 'between': edrum, edrăd, izăr, iziși, edriņi, edriv, izărhă. In the standard language, izăr is most often a pseudo-preposition (i.e. a preposition that can't take pronominal suffixes); the plural forms edriņi, edriv, izărhă are literary.

Combinations

in 'in', ri 'for, towards' and lă 'with' before a definite article become s-, riș, liș:

• סאן צעך săn țech 'in the house'
• To șied ă fișăch inș ă bhelă șo liș nă dină elă 'They live in this town with the other people'

u 'from' + ăn/ănd/ăm/ă -> un/und/um/u ă-

ăr 'on', izăr 'between' + ăn(d) -> ărn(d), izărn(d)

Syntax

Prepositions stick to every noun in a noun phrase, as in Hebrew and Irish:

To mi ņey gavăl nă fșegărțăn u mămhór is u mădhșór.

'I got the answers from my mother and brother.'

Compound prepositions

Compound prepositions don't take pronominal suffixes, unlike simple prepositions; they take either the disjunctive pronoun or a form of tăģ instead. For example, 'for me' is sün tam (cf. Scottish Gaelic air mo shon). They also never mutate the following word.

• izăr 'between' (+ disj.)
• sün 'for, for the sake of' (+ form of tăģ)
• ăr sgoh 'because of' (+ form of tăģ)
• ătur (+ disj.) (flowery or dialectal) 'towards, for sake of' (< ag tóir 'pursuing')

Some dialects such as the Baltic dialect do inflect pseudo-prepositions as if they were true prepositions: ăturm, ăturăd, ...

Adverbs

Directionals

same as Irish directionals

Numerals

Numerals are always followed by the singular form.

0 = efăs, ă h-efăs (number zero)

counting numbers: ă h-eyn, ă du, ă tși, ă c̦ehăr, ă cuģ, ă șie (some dialects ă șey or ă șeyș), ă șef, ă h-ăf, ă ney, ă zeș

11, 12, ... = ă h-eyn zeag, ă du zeag, ă tși zeag...

20, 30, 40, ... = fișăd, tșișăd, deyșăd, cuģăd, șeyșăd, șefăd, ăfăd, neyăd

21, 22, ... = fișăd să h-eyn, fișăd să du, ...

100, 200, ... = meyă, du mheyă, tși mheyă, ... (c̦ead is only used in fixed expressions)

1000 = mil, elăf

attributives: 2-6 lenites

Counting humans: yochid, du-iș, tșür, c̦ehrăr, cuģăr, șeyșăr, șefăr, ăfăr, năynăr, zeșăr

ordinals: tăsi, elă, tșiăv, c̦ehrăv, cuģăv, șeyșăv, ... or just ă N

There is no true attributive form for "one"; usually the singular form is used in isolation. The Hebrew numeral אחד echăd (regardless of gender) may be used after the noun means "just one X" when X is indefinite and "the (one and) only X" when X is definite. (Some dialects have echăv, reflecting an earlier Hebrew reading tradition where lenited daleth was [v].)

מאר יידי, בּי שנ׳י אק עבודה ז-ע אחד.

Măr Yidi, bi șņi ăg ăvúdă Z-e echăd.

As Jews, we worship only one G-d.

שישא א כּלהאק אחד אי, א בֿיס קראָ קוֹם עשי ריב.

Șișă ă chalăg echăd i, ă bhis gro gum eși riv.

She's the only woman who I'll ever love.

The predicative form which isn't very common ("is one", "is two" etc.) is the same as the attributive form, except unmarked.

Syntax

Ăn Yidiș syntax is auxiliary-subject-verb-object and head initial.

In transitive sentences, the direct object (if it's a noun) immediately follows the verbal noun:

To nă Yidi feymăch iensăch nă Tură ă h-ilă ła.

Jews have to study the Torah every day.

Noun phrase

The demonstratives, when pronominal, are שאַ, שין, שוֹט șa, șin, șud corresponding to the Irish demonstratives seo, sin, siúd. Adnominal demonstratives may use

• the native Gaelic syntax: אן עיהא שאַ ăn eyhă șa 'this night'
• the Hebrew syntax:
  • אן עיהא אן שאַ ăn eyhă ăn șa
  • עיהא שאַ eyhă șa
• the Arabic syntax (imported via Medieval Hebrew): שאַ אן עיהא șa ăn eyhă
  • This more commonly means 'this is the night'.

The first two syntaxes are roughly equally common and the last two are flowery and poetic.

Translating "be"

• "X is a NOUN": שי לשון כֿעלתּאך תּא סאן ייִדיש Și loșăn Cheltăch tă săn Yidiș = Ăn Yidiș is a Celtic language (lit. It's a Celtic language that is in Ăn Yidiș)
• "1p/2p is the NOUN": מישא א מֿענשיל אצש משה Mișă ă mhenșil ăģ Mușă = I am Mușă's (Moses') wife
• "3p is the NOUN": שי א מֿענשיל אצש משה אי Și ă mhenșil ăģ Mușă i = She is Mușă's wife
  • שי א מֿענשיל אצש משה אי רבקה Și _ă mhenșil ăģ Mușă_ i _Rivgă_ (or Și _Rivgă_ i _ă mhenșil ăģ Mușă_) = Rivgă is Mușă's wife
• Predicate adjectives or adjuncts use the verb בּי bi:
  • תּאָ רבקה אָרט To Rivgă ord 'Rivgă is tall'
  • תּאָ רבקה אינש אן חדר-קאַדאל To Rivgă inș ăn chedăr-cadăl 'Rivgă is in the bedroom'
• to become or serve as X is bi ină+lenition X: To mi ăg ieși bi ină chovir did 'I want to be your friend' (ină doesn't inflect for the subject unlike in Scottish Gaelic)

Infinitive phrases

The verbal noun preceded by ă (where ă lenites the VN unlike the imperfective marker ă(g)) is the default for verbs that are arguments of other verbs, like the German zu-infinitive. For example they have to be used with

• efșăr lum 'I can'
• tel lum 'I like'
• fyor lum 'I prefer'
• fuah/mies lum 'I hate' (mies lum is stronger)
• tosăch 'to begin'
• zerăch/cřichnăch 'to finish'
• to mi feymăch 'I have to'
• cdey 'in order to' (some word like cdey is mandatory to introduce purpose clauses)

Such verb phrases are of the form ă + VN + nominal direct object, or pronominal direct object form of ă + VN. For example: ă thorț mátănă dum 'to give me a gift' (NB: Irish would say bronntanas a thabhairt dom).

For example: Fyor lum ă chanțiņ Yidiș nă Ozăliș. 'I prefer speaking Ăn Yidiș to English.'

Indirect speech

Tense in indirect speech doesn't change to match the clause it's embedded in, like in German and unlike in English.

To quote questions in indirect speech, Ăn Yidiș directly carries over the interrogative auxiliary complex and doesn't use a special conjunction like English if or German ob (it just changes pronouns as necessary): To mi ņey faynăch do, vel fis ģe. 'I asked him if he knew.' (lit. "I asked him, does he know") This is also mandatory in Irtan Modern Hebrew: שאלתי אותו, האם הוא יודע/היודע הוא (whereas our Hebrew can use אם instead of האם).

Vocabulary

Ăn Yidiș vocabulary has the following lexical layers:

• Proto-Ăn Yidiș:
  • traces of Pre-Irish Romance and Azalic
  • Words inherited from MIr
  • Hebrew and Aramaic loans based on the Old Tsarfati reading
• Hebrew and Aramaic words borrowed based on the modern Tsarfati reading
• Galoyseg
• Riphean and Hivantish (esp. words for clothing)
• Thurish (much less compared to Hivantish)
• "Loazit" (international Latin/Greek/English vocab)
• Borrowings or cognatizations from Irish

Formal or literary writing uses more Celtic and Semitic words; words from other Indo-European languages spoken in Irta Eastern Europe are more colloquial or relate to everyday objects.

Religious terminology tends to avoid Middle Irish terms in favor of Hebrew/Aramaic terms, because Middle Irish religious terms were associated with Catholicism. For example:

• 'sin' is חטא cheyd (m) instead of **pecădh.
• The word zef (*deacht 'deity') shifted to meaning 'god, esp. non-monotheistic or Gentile'
• Newer religious terms (as well as Catholic terms) prefer direct Latin or Greek loans: for example, the word for 'religion' is itself relígyo rather than **cșezăv (Irish creideamh, literally 'belief', potentially problematic because Judaism is traditionally not as focused on faith as such to the same extent as Christianity). Transubsdanțyațyo is a typical borrowed Catholic terminology.

Modern Ăn Yidiș is more willing to borrow international vocabulary than Irish.

Derivation

• -ădăr occupations
• ־ית -is, pl. ־יות -iyăs or ־יתאן -isăn 'feminine occupational suffix'; today considered optional or dated for most occupations
  • not added to nouns in -ăch; you'd use constructions like כּלהק ייִדאך calăg Yidăch
• -nă, -năn 'feminine suffix' (Hivantish -nir < -nih2)
  • חברנא chovărnă 'girlfriend' from חבר chovăr '(boy)friend'
• -ăch, -ih: forms adjectives or "Gentilic nouns"
• -ăch (VN), -ih: verber (~ Irish -aigh, Scottish Gaelic -aich verbs)
  • mișpădăch, mișpadih = to judge
  • yarșăch, yarșih = to inherit
• -i: agentives, adjectives; often suffixed to VNs for '-ive'
  • cruthăchi = creative
• -in (m): diminutive
• -ăg (f): diminutive
• -ăn, -ónim (m): instrumental; diminutive; agentive (Hebrew influence)
  • אַמאטאן, אַמאטאָנים amădăn, amădónim 'fool' (~ Irish amadán)
• -il: adjective (~ Irish -úil)
• -ăfd/-fd (f): abstract noun
• -łon (f): place
• -וּת -is, plural -וּתאן -isăn (f): nominalizer (also replaced native *-us), spelled יס in native words
  • צניעוּת țni'is 'modesty' < צנוּע țonüe 'modest'
  • תּאישאכיס tăyșăchis '(tribal) chiefdom; Irish premiership'
• -lăn is a diminutive for animates (analyzed from culen 'puppy', cun 'dog')
• Pairs of s-/d- antonyms (PCel *su-/*dus-), for example sărăchă 'bright' and dărăchă 'dark'. Some non-Irish examples are:
  1. שׂכל seychăl (m) 'good sense, common sense; intelligence; tact', טעיכאלאך deychălăch 'stupid, lacking common sense' (influenced by native *saoi 'sage' and *daoi 'dullard', which are no longer used in Ăn Yidiș)
  2. סמאָאס smoas (pl) 'tears of joy', דמעות dmoas 'tears (from Hebrew)'
  3. שמחה simchă (f) 'good news, celebration (from Hebrew 'joy')', טימכא dimchă (f) 'mourning, tragedy'
  4. טאשצשעל׳ Dășģeł (m) (obsolete, pejorative) 'Christianity', from MIr soiscéul 'Gospel'
• -ol: older verbalizer
• (something from Hivantish) + -ăch, -ih: most productive verbalizer
• Greek y is borrowed as ü
• Classical os/us adjectives are borrowed with -ăch: מיסאָקוּנאך misógünăch (misogynos) 'misogynistic'.
• -iser: agentive, borrowed from Hivantish
• gü-^L: pseudo, borrowed from Old Irish gú-
• -ísmis, -ísmișă: (f) -ism
• words from Latin use close to Latin suffixes, e.g. declináțyo, declinațyónes 'declension'

Phrasebook

• Șolăm = Hello, goodbye
• Șolăm-ăléychăm = Hello
• Ăléychăm-șolăm = Hello (in response to șolăm-aléychăm)
• Byonăf led/liv = Thank you (lit. blessing with you)
  • Murăn tudă = Thank you very much
  • Mil tudă = A thousand thanks
  • Răvóvă tudă = (effusive) Ten thousand thanks; Irtan Hebrew actually says revava toda instead of toda raba
• Șe dă-bhehă/văr-behă = No problem (reply to Byonăf led/liv)
• De tă doł? / De tă nă-chłințiņ? / De t' ołn? 'What's up?'
• Borich-hăbó (to sg) / Brüchim-hăbóim (to pl) = Welcome
  • Brüchim-hănimțóim = reply to 'Welcome' (lit. blessed are those who are here)
• Dend enim t' ărăd? = What is your name?
• Șe Dovid ănd enim ărum = My name is David
• Vel ăn Ozăliș găd/giv? = Do you speak English?
  • To/Chnel 'Yes/No (to a question beginning with vel)'
    • Words corresponding to 'yes' and 'no' do exist (הן heyn and לאו lov) but are not used in everyday speech.
• T' ăn Yidiș gum = I speak Ăn Yidiș
• Chnel ăn Yidiș gum = I can't speak Ăn Yidiș
• Chnel mi ă ticșinț = I don't understand
• Ă canțin nis melă, și dă-thel/văr-tel = Please speak more slowly
• Ga/Gav mă-leșģeł = Excuse me (gav is the plural form)
• To m' ăg ieși canțin Yidiș, ăch chnefșăr lum. = I want to speak Ăn Yidiș, but I cannot.
• Blien mhah bhyoniță /bliən vah vjonitsə/ = Happy new year (Rosh Hashanah greeting)
• [holiday] mah/gorzăch = 'Happy [holiday]' (used for most holidays, Jewish or secular): e.g. Pesăch mah 'Happy Passover'; Yundăv mah = Happy holidays
• Bă thel lum... 'I would like'
  • Ăm bă thel led/liv = 'Would you like...'
    • Bă thel/Chă bă thel = 'Yes/No'
• Ăn efșăr lum / (more politely) Ăn șofăr dum... 'May I...'
  • Efșăr/Șofăr 'Yes'; Chnefșăr/Chă șofăr 'No'
• To gro gum ărăd = I love you
  • Vel gro găd ărum? = Do you love me?
• Chnel is 'dunno' (colloquial for chnel is gum)

Dates and time

• בּליען blien 'year'
  • אם בּליען ăm blien 'this year' (This is from the old accusative; "the year" would be ă bhlien.)
  • בּליען שא-כֿאַי blien șă-chay 'last year'
  • אן אהּ-בּליען 'next year'
• חודש choadăș 'month'
• ל׳אַ ła 'day'
  • אנ׳וֹג ăņúgh 'today'
  • אנ׳עי ăņéy 'yesterday'
  • אמאָראך ămórăch 'tomorrow'
• שעה șo 'hour'
• מיניט minid 'minute'
• סאכּוֹן săcún 'second'

• T'i șo = It's 1:00
• T'i XX minid ņey șo = It's 1:XX
• ... leh ņey șo = 1:30
• ... du șo = 2:00
• șo zeag = 11:00
• du șo zeag = 12:00
• ăr ă mhadiņ = in the morning
• ăr ăm fesgăr = in the afternoon
• ărn erăv = in the evening
• ărn eyșă = at night

Civil months

Civil months just use the Latin names:

• יאַנוֹר Yanur
• פעבּוֹר Febur
  • Poetic: אימל׳אכ Imłăc
• מאַרץ Marț
• אַפּריל Apríl or Ápril
  • Poetic: צשיבּלין׳ Ģibliņ
• מאַי May
  • Poetic: בּיאָל׳תּין׳ Byołtiņ
• יוֹן Yun
  • Poetic: מעהאוו Mehăv
• יוֹל Yul
  • Poetic: יוֹכאר Yuchăr
• אָקוֹסט Ogúsd
  • Poetic: ל׳וּנאסטאל׳ Łünăsdăł
• סעבּתּעמבּאר׳ Sebtémbăr
  • Poetic: סוֹלתּין׳ Sultiņ
• אָקתּאָבּאר Ogtóbăr
  • Poetic: טאָבאר Dovăr
• נאָוועמבּאר Novémbăr
  • Poetic: תּאַווין׳ Taviņ
• טעצשעמבּאר Dec̦émbăr
  • Poetic: טוּוול׳אף Düvłăf

Jewish months

E.g. T' ă Chanică ă tăsăch im 25 (fișăd 's ă cuģ) Cisliv. 'Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev.'

• Nisăn: Nissan
• Iyăr: Iyar
• Sivăn: Sivan
• Tamiz: Tammuz
• Ov: Av
• Elil: Elul
• Tișri: Tishrei
• (Măr)cheșvăn: (Mar)cheshvan
• Cisliv: Kislev
• Deyvis: Tevet
• Șvod: Shvat
• Adăr: Adar

Days of the week

Note: in Irta/Judeo-Mandarin a day is considered to begin at sunset or nightfall, as according to Jewish law.

• Sunday: צי־סוֹל zi-Sul
  • Sunday morning (around and after sunrise): מאַטין׳ סוֹל madiņ Sul
  • Sunday afternoon (before sunset): פעסקאר סוֹל fesgăr Sul
  • Sunday evening (after sunset): ערב לואן erăv Luan (!)
  • Sunday night: עיהא לוֹאן eyhă Luan (!)
• Monday: צי־לוֹאן zi-Luan
• Tuesday: צי־מאָרץ zi-Morț
• Wednesday: צי־כּ׳עאדין zi-C̦eadin
• Thursday: צי־זעאראדין zi-Zearădin
• Friday: צי־רוֹ־שבּת zi-Ru-Șabăs
• Saturday: צי־שבּת zi-Șabăs

Telling the time

• T'i tși șo. = It's 3:00.
• T'i du șo zeag = It's 12:00.

Colors

• צשאָל' ģoł = white
• קוֹוו, קוֹווא guv, guvă, also שחור, שחוֹרים șochăr, șăchúrim = black
• צעראק zerăg = red
• בּוֹי buy = yellow
• אוֹאנא uană = green
• קל'אַס głas = gray
• קאראם gărăm = blue
• בּאַנאש banăș = violet; purple
• טאָאן doan = brown

Sample texts

Quotes

כֿנעל איס קוֹם אך קוֹ נאך על איס קוֹם כּל.

Chnel is gum ăch gu năch el is gum col.

NEG.COP knowledge at-1SG except COMP NEG.COMP.COP knowledge at-1SG nothing

I only know that I know nothing.

(The word for 'nothing' actually comes from the same source as Scottish Gaelic càil, but is spelled like the Hebrew word כל (Tsarfati Hebrew pronunciation col) "every, all" which is used for "any" in negative sentences in Hebrew as well.)

Mă năch mișă son tamșă feyn, cu a son tamșă? Ăch mă năch el mi ăch son tamșă feyn, de mișă? Is mă năch ołn ăneșu, cin?

If I am not for me, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?

תּאָ נא ה-אילא חיות כּאוו-איענאן, אך תּא כּיז נא חיות נאס-כּאוו-איענאנא. (אס "אן תּוֹאהּ תּאצש נא חיות")

To nă h-ilă chayăs căv-íenăn, ăch to ciz nă chayăs năs-căv-íenănă. (ăs "Ăn Tuah tăģ nă Chayăs")

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. (from Animal Farm)

Genesis 1:1-5

The following is from the Yăhuaș translation, the most well-known Ăn Yidiș translation of the Tanakh. It's viewed as a literary work but doesn't have official religious status. The "Scottish Gaelic" text here is the Ăn Yidiș cognatized back into Scottish Gaelic.

	Ăn Yidiș	Romanization	IPA	Scottish Gaelic cognates	English (from the Ăn Yidiș)
1:1	נוֹאר תּא ציע נ׳עי תּאסאך א כֿרוֹהאך נא נ׳עווא איס נא תּאַל׳וֹן —	Nuar tă Zie ņey tăsăch ă chruhăch nă ņevă is nă tałun —	[nuər tʰə tsiə nej ˈtʰəsəχ ˈkʰrʊhəχ nə nevə ɪs nə tʰa(w)un]	**Nuair a tha Dia an dèidh toiseach a' chruthachadh na nèimh agus na talmhainn —	When God began creating the heaven and the earth —
1:2	וו אן תּאַל׳ קאַן פֿעראמאָל איס פאָל׳, איס ווא טאכאטיס א כּוֹטאך אן תּהוֹם, איס וו אן שבּיראט תּאק ציע א סנאָוו אשצשיען נא ה־אישצשאן —	v' ăn tał gan fherămăl is foł, is vă dăchădis ă cudăch ăn tăhum, is v' ăn șbirăd tăg Zie ă snov ășģien nă h-ișģăn —	[v‿ən tʰaw gan ˈerəmol ɪs ˈfow, ɪs və ˈtəχədɪs ə ˈkʰudəχ ən ˈtʰəhum, ɪs v‿ən ˈʃpɪrəd ək tsiə ə snov əʃˈtʃiən nə ˈhɪʃtʃən]	**bha an talamh gan fhoirmeil agus folamh, agus bha dorchadas ag còmhdach an תהום, agus bha an spiorad a th' aig Dia ag snàmh os cionn na huisgeachan —	the earth was unformed (lit. without forming) and empty, and darkness was covering the deep, and the spirit of God was floating above the waters —
1:3	תּאָ ציע נ׳עי ראָ: «ראוו סאָל׳אס נ׳עי בּי אָן!» איס תּאָ סאָל׳אס נ׳עי בּי אָן.	to Zie ņey ro: «Răv sołăs ņey bi ołn!» Is to sołăs ņey bi ołn.	[tʰo tsiə nej ro, rəv ˈsowəs nej bi own, ɪs to ˈsowəs nej bi own]	**tha Dia an dèidh ràdh: "Gu robh solas an dèidh bi ann!" Agus tha solas an dèidh bi ann.	God said: "Let there come to be light!" And there came to be light.
1:4	תּאָ ציע נ׳עי פעצש אן סאָל׳אש, קוֹ וועל ע מאַהּ; איס תּאָ ציע נ׳עי צעל׳אך איצארן סאָל׳אס איס אן טאכאטיס.	To Zie ņey fec̦ ăn sołăș, gu vel e mah; is to Zie ņey zełăch izărn sołăs is ăn dăchădis.	[tʰo tsiə nej fetʃʰ ən ˈsowəs kʊ vel e mah; ɪs tʰo tsiə nej ˈtsewəχ ˈɪdzərn ˈsowəs ɪs ən ˈtəχədɪs]	**Tha Dia an dèidh faic an tsolais, gu bheil e maith; agus tha Dia an dèidh dealachadh idir an tsolais agus an dorchadais.	God saw the light, that it is good; and God separated the light and the darkness.
1:5	תּאָ ציע נ׳עי תּאַקאר טען סאָל׳אס ל׳אַ, איס אן טאכאטיס תּ ע נ׳עי תּאַקאר טאָ עיהא. איס וו ערב אָן איס ווא מֿאַטין׳ אָן, ל׳אַ אחד.	To Zie ņey tagăr den sołăs ła, is ăn dăchădis t'e ņey tagăr do eyhă. Is v' erăv ołn is vă mhadiņ ołn, ła echăd.	[tʰo tsiə nej ˈtʰakər den ˈsowəs wa, ɪs ən ˈtəχətɪs tʰ‿e nej ˈtʰakər do ˈejhə. ɪs v‿ˈerəv own ɪs və ˈvadɪɲ own, wa ˈehəd]	**Tha Dia an dèidh tagairt dhon tsolas latha, agus an dorchadas tha e an dèidh tagairt dha oidhche. Agus bha ערב ann agus bha mhadainn ann, latha אחד.	God called the light day, and the darkness, He called it night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Ma Nishtana (from the Haggadah)

De o ņey achărăch ărn eyhă șa ună hilă eyhănăn elă?

What has changed on this night from all other nights?

That we don't dip vegetables even once on all other nights, but we do so twice tonight.

That we eat both chomăț (leavened bread) and mață on all other nights; but we eat only mață tonight.

That we eat all kinds of vegetables on all other nights; but tonight, it's bitter herbs that we eat.

That we eat while some of us sit and some of us recline on all other nights, but all of us recline tonight.

From "Dirge Without Music"

Fully vocalized Ăn Yidiș

קִינָה קאַן צשוֹל׳ (לאְ ה-עֶדְנָה סעֶיינתּ ווינסאְנתּ מילעֶיי)

כֿנעל מי נִכְֿנָע לעֶש אְן קל׳אַסאג אְצש כּרעין אְ תחוּשה קֿראָ סזעֶך טאְ נא קְבָֿרוֹת.

תּ-עֶ מאְר שאַ איס בּי עֶ מאְר שאַ, אָר וו עֶ מאְר שאַ, אוֹ זְמָנִים רוֹ כֿיוונאְ;

תּ-איעט אין אְ פאַל׳אוו איסצעֶך טאְן שאול, נאְ שכלים ה־עֶקני ה-אלאְ. ר׳י כְּתָֿרוֹת

אְק ליליאְן איס אְק ל׳אַוורישאְן אָ ה-איעט אְ פאַל׳אְוו; אַך כֿנעל מי נִכְֿנָע.

Transliteration

Gină gan c̦uł (lă hEdnă Seynt Vinsănt Miley)

Chnel mi nichnă leș ăn głasăgh năn creyn ă tchüșă ghro szech dă nă gvorăs.
T'e măr șa is bi e măr șa, or v'e măr șa, u zmanim ru chivnă;
T'ied ă fałăv isțech dăn șoal, nă skholim h-egni h-olă. și csorăs*
Tăg liliăn is tăg łavrișăn o h-ied ă fałăv; ăch chnel mi nichnă.

* Poetic license; the usual plural of cesăr 'crown' is csorim.

Retranslation

A Dirge Without Music (by Edna St. Vincent Millay)

I am not surrendered to the locking away of hearts feeling love into the graves.
It is like this, and it will be like this, for it was like this, from times before memory:
Into Sheol they leave, the wise and beautiful intellects. With crowns
Of lilies and of laurel they leave; but I am not surrendered.

Original

Dirge Without Music (by Edna St. Vincent Millay)

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Poetry

Anapests are the most common feet, rhymes work like in Modern Irish

Trivia

Writing Ăn Yidiș "etymologically" in Old Irish Latin orthography, called אן קֿוּ-קֿאָידעליש ăn Ghü-Ghóydeliș 'fake Old Irish', is sometimes used in secular Ăn Yidiș-speaking communities for comedic or aesthetic purposes. It sometimes appears in tandem with Filichdiș, a register of Ăn Yidiș with artificial archaisms. The etymology might be wrong even for native words.

Ăn Ghü-Ghóydeliș began as a joke in a heavily Old Irish-inspired conlang used in Aoife Ní Fhlaithbheartaigh's games set in Méich Bhaonnáiqh, then attained memetic status among Ăn Yidiș-speaking Zoomers. It is especially indispensable in the streaming community and Discord; it's a whole register or 'language' of slang terms, like our Twitch slang. Some words commonly spelled in Ghü-Ghóydeliș are now well known in Internet Ăn Yidiș.

It follows some well known Old Irish conventions like using ⁊ for is 'and' and in for the definite article. It uses dots for lenition when actual Old Irish manuscripts would not mark the lenition.

Some Hebrew loans in Ăn Yidiș in this orthography:

• seáilemm a·léchaimm שלום-עליכם șolăm ăléychăm (pretonic syllables are separated by an interpunct)
• cdoí/cdaí כּדי cdey 'in order to'
• tachless תּכלית tachlis 'main point; at the end of the day'
• mo·nórae מנוֹרה mănúră 'menorah' (final schwa usually becomes ae or e)
• náer/nóer נר neyr 'candle'
• toíḋer etc. תּיאור teyăr 'to describe'
• Sivan (Suiṁ(e)án), Cheshvan (Chaeisṁ(e)án) and Kislev (Cuissliṁ) are spelled with Old Irish lenited m, because the v comes from Akkadian m

Faux Old Irish Hebrew read as Old Irish is a common joke among classicists in Irta. There is also religious-literature-style satire of the Gü-Ghoydeliș phenomenon which contains many streaming/Discord culture references and which quotes fake Hebrew texts which are really in Old Irish transliterated into, or interpreted as, Hebrew.