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Apr 16, 2020 · The short answer is no. Hebrew (Biblical and Modern) is a Semitic language, while Yiddish is a Germanic language. Both use the Hebrew writing script, but when spoken the two sound very different and thus they’re completely different languages.
Yiddish and Hebrew Have Different Uses. Jews over the ages generally refrained from using Biblical Hebrew, the “Holy Tongue,” for day-to-day speech. Hebrew was therefore reserved for holy, spiritual speech such as prayer and Torah scholarship, while Yiddish became the language of regular conversation. 2. Read: Why Is Hebrew Called the Holy Tongue?
The most important differences between Yiddish and Hebrew are these: • Yiddish is a Germanic language, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages, while Hebrew is a Semitic language, belonging to the Afroasiatic family of languages.
Yiddish is almost wholly German in its linguistic structure and vocabulary, but it is written in Hebrew characters. Yiddish originated in the Rhineland cities of Germany in the early Middle Ages, though the first recognizable Yiddish texts date from the 14th century.
Yiddish first arose through an intricate fusion of two linguistic stocks: a Semitic component (containing postclassical Hebrew and Aramaic that the first settlers brought with them to Europe from the Middle East) and a grammatically and lexically more potent Germanic component (gleaned from a number of High German and Middle German dialects).
Because Yiddish and modern Hebrew are both partially based on biblical Hebrew, the two languages have many similarities. The most obvious similarity is the fact that they use the same written letters. However, the nikudos (vowels) used in the Hebrew language are often omitted in Yiddish.
Yiddish was, and is, written using Hebrew characters. Modern Yiddish. After about 1700, western Yiddish began a slow and inevitable decline, and the eastern dialect became the more important and widely spoken one.
