This page describes how IPA is used to transcribe Yiddish words at Wikipedia. It follows the pronunciation of "Standard Yiddish" (or "YIVO Yiddish"), as described in such works as Uriel Weinreich's College Yiddish and Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
See Yiddish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Yiddish.
Consonants
|
IPA |
Letter(s) |
English examples |
Romanization
|
b
|
ב (beys)
|
but
|
b
|
d
|
ד (daled)
|
do
|
d
|
dʒ
|
דזש (daled zayen shin)
|
joy
|
dzh
|
f
|
פֿ ף (fey, i.e. pey with rafe on nonfinal form)
|
fool, leaf
|
f
|
ɡ
|
ג (giml)
|
go
|
g
|
h
|
ה (hey)
|
hen
|
h
|
j
|
י (yud)
|
yes
|
y
|
k
|
כּ (kof with dagesh)
ק (kuf)
|
skin, thick
|
k
|
l
|
ל (lamed)
|
bell
|
l
|
ʎ
|
ל
|
Similar to million; Italian figlio
|
l
|
m
|
מ ם (mem)
|
man, tam
|
m
|
n
|
נ ן (nun)
|
no, tin
|
n
|
ŋ
|
נ when followed by
ג or
ק
|
finger, drink
|
n in the combinations ng, nk
|
p
|
פּ (pey with dagesh)
|
spin, tip
|
p
|
r;ʁ
|
ר (reysh)
|
American atom or French rouge/Northumbrian burr
|
r
|
s
|
ס (samekh)
שׂ (sin, i.e. shin with a sin dot)
ת (sof, i.e. tof with no dagesh)
|
see, pass
|
s
|
ʃ
|
ש (shin)
|
she, leash
|
sh
|
t
|
ט (tes)
תּ (tof with dagesh)
|
sting, bet
|
t
|
t͡s
|
צ ץ (tsadek)
|
tsunami, sits
|
ts
|
tʃ
|
טש (tes shin)
|
chair, teach
|
tsh
|
v
|
בֿ (veys, i.e. beys with rafe)
וו (tsvey vovn)
|
voice
|
v
|
χ
|
ח (khes)
כ ך (khof, i.e. kof with no dagesh)
|
Like Scottish loch but with the tongue further back; French proche
|
kh
|
z
|
ז (zayen)
|
zoo
|
z
|
ʒ
|
זש (zayen shin)
|
pleasure
|
zh
|
|
|
Other symbols used in transcription of Yiddish
|
IPA |
Explanation
|
ˈ
|
Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), e.g. אײזל [ˈɛɪzl̩] 'donkey'
|
ˌ
|
Secondary stress, e.g. מאַמע־לשון [ˈmaməˌlɔʃn̩] 'Yiddish as mother tongue'
|
-
Only in words of Semitic origin.
-
Not a separate phoneme of Yiddish, but an allophone of /n/ before /ɡ, k/
-
The rhotic /r/ is a phonetically variable consonant. It may be either alveolar or uvular, but it is more commonly a flap/tap [ɾ ~ ʀ̆] than a trill [r ~ ʀ] (Kleine (2003:263)).
Bibliography
See also
-
Category:Pages with Yiddish IPA (52)