Indo-European · ISO 639-3 ydd
Eastern Yiddish Language
Eastern Yiddish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 1.5 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Hebrew script.
Where Eastern Yiddish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Eastern Yiddish
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- High German
- Middle German
- East Middle German
- Schlesisch-Wilmesau
- Eastern Yiddish
Writing system
Hebrew script
Related languages
About the Eastern Yiddish language
Eastern Yiddish is spoken by about 1.5 million people, which makes it the 384th most spoken language in the world — just behind Makhuwa-Shirima (1.5 million) and ahead of Sebat Bet Gurage (1.5 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Schlesisch-Wilmesau group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Eastern Yiddish spoken?
Eastern Yiddish is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Israel (1.5 million).
Eastern Yiddish is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Eastern Yiddish is written in the Hebrew script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Upper Saxon, Hunsrik, Limburgan, Pfaelzisch, Luxembourgish, German and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 ydd.
Frequently asked questions about Eastern Yiddish
How many people speak Eastern Yiddish?
Where is Eastern Yiddish spoken?
What language family does Eastern Yiddish belong to?
Is Eastern Yiddish an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.