Help:IPA/Yiddish

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 Template:IPA 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)^[1] 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^[2]	נ‎ when followed by ג‎ or ק‎	finger, drink	n in the combinations ng, nk
p	פּ‎ (pey with dagesh)	spin, tip	p
r^[3];ʁ	ר‎ (reysh)	American atom or French rouge/Northumbrian burr	r
s	ס‎ (samekh) שׂ‎ (sin, i.e. shin with a sin dot)^[1] ת‎ (sof, i.e. tof with no dagesh)^[1]	see, pass	s
ʃ	ש‎ (shin)	she, leash	sh
t	ט‎ (tes) תּ‎ (tof with dagesh)^[1]	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)^[1] וו‎ (tsvey vovn)	voice	v
χ	ח‎ (khes)^[1] 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

Vowels
Full vowels (monophthongs)
IPA	Letter(s)	English examples	Romanization
a	אַ‎ (pasekh alef)	father	a
ɛ	ע‎ (ayin)	bed	e
ɪ	י‎ (yud)	bid	i
ɔ	אָ‎ (komets alef)	boss	o
ʊ	ו‎ (vov)	foot	u
Diphthongs
aɪ	ײַ‎ (pasekh tsvey yudn)	fine, why	ay
ɛɪ	יי‎ (tsvey yudn)	day, pain	ey
ɔɪ	וי‎ (vov yud)	loin, boy	oy
Reduced vowels
ə	ע‎ or none	sofa	e
l̩	ל‎	bottle	l
n̩	נ ן‎	button	n

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'

Notes

Bibliography

Kleine, Ane (2003), "Standard Yiddish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 261–265, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001385

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