What Yiddish is That?

Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series See all lectures » Admission: $10 YIVO members & students: $5 Free for Uriel Weinreich Summer Program students. Watch the video

Dovid Braun | Delivered in Yiddish.

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Varieties of Yiddish are distinguished – some in professional but some only in informal usage. We will identify what the following terms refer to and bust some myths where the terminology is misleading: Eastern vs. Western Yiddish, Modern Yiddish vs. Old and Middle Yiddish, Southeastern / Northeastern / Central Yiddish, Soviet Yiddish, Lithuanian (litvish) vs. Galician (galitsyaner) Yiddish, Russian vs. Polish Yiddish, Hungarian Yiddish, Hassidic Yiddish, Theater Language, Potato Yiddish, Daytshmerish ("Germanized") Yiddish, Standard and Literary Yiddish, Broken Yiddish, Learned Yiddish, and YIVO Yiddish. 

About the Speaker

Dovid (David) Braun has taught all levels of Yiddish language at YIVO's intensive summer program since 1990 at Columbia University and New York University. He initiated and taught in the intensive summer programs of the Yiddish Book Center (Amherst, MA) and Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw, Poland). He has taught Yiddish language, Yiddish linguistics, and/or general linguistics as a faculty member of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he regularly participates in varied research projects involving Yiddish language and culture. He serves as co-president of the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center (Bronx, NY) which is now the only NYC area venue where public Yiddish cultural events are held on a regular basis.