意第绪语：第1单元语言点1-5

Language points语言点

1 Greetings问候

There are two main ways of saying hello in Yiddish.

The first, שלום עליכם, comes from Ioshn-koydesh (Hebrew-Aramaic) component, in which it literally means ‘peace upon you’. The response to this is שלום עליכם, literally ‘upon you peace’.

You can also say גוט מאָרגן, which literally means ‘good morning’ but can be used in the afternoon too. If someone greets you this way, you can respond either by repeating גוט מאָרגן or with גוט יאָר  gut yor (literally: good year). You can also say גוט מאָרגן, גוט יאָר, a combination of the two.

These greetings are equally common and can be used relatively interchangeably.

‘Goodbye’ is זיַיַ געזונט  zay gezunt (literally: be healthy) when speaking to one person or  זיַיַט געזונט zayt gezunt when speaking to more than one person.

2 Asking and answering how someone is询问和回答你好吗

‘How are you’ in Yiddish is וואָס מאַכסטו. This is composed of , literally ‘what’, and , which is a verb that literally means ‘are you doing’, but the whole expression is idiomatic and means only ‘how are you’.

The following are possible answers to ?וואָס מאַכסטו

Some of these responses have precise equivalents in English, e.g.  גוט(good) and  אין אָרדענונג(all right); however, many of them may sound a bit negative from an English-speaking perspective. In Yiddish-speaking culture, however, expressions like  פֿרעג נישט and  מע שלעפּט זיך are considered quite acceptable and are commonly heard in response to וואָס מאַכסטו.

Language points语言点

3 Pronouns代词

In this unit, we offer you all the forms of nominative personal pronouns.

There are two forms of singular you.

איר is the polite form used in first meet or showing respect. It resembles the plural you.

4 The present tense of the verb זיַיַן (to be) “是”的现在时态

The basic form of the verbs is called infinitive, all ending in ן-.

In Dialogue 2, several forms of זיַיַן are used. They differ in form in accordance to the subject. This is called ‘conjugation’ of a verb.

In this lesson, we offer you a list of all the forms זיַיַן of in present tense.

The plural have 2 alternative forms. They are equally acceptable. The only difference lies in the vowel should be ‘ai’ or ‘e’.

The 1st and 3rd person plural are identical. And this is true of all Yiddish verbs.

5 Indefinite articles: אַ אַן

Differed from Roman languages, in which the indefinite articles are also declensional showing gender and number etc., Yiddish indefinite articles differ only because of the phonetic reason.

Similar to English, אַ is used a noun beginning with a consonant. And אַן is before a vowel.

Compare:

איך בין אַ סטודענטקע.

I am a student.

דאָס איז אַן עפּל.

This is an apple.