Consonants

Common Consonants

Letter		Transcription	Sound (IPA)
Final Form	Regular	Transcription	Sound (IPA)
	א	none (shtumer alef)	silent
	ב	b	b
	ג	g	g
	ד	d	d
	ה	h	h
	װ	v	v
	ז	z	z
	ח	kh, ch, x	χ
	ט	t	t
	י	y, j	j
	י	i	ɪ, i:
ך	כ	kh, ch, x	χ
	ל	l	l, ʎ
ם	מ	m	m
	נ	n	n
ן		n m	n, ŋ, m
	ס	s	s
	פ	p	p
ף	פֿ	f	f
ץ	צ	ts, tz, c	t͡s
	ק	k ck (final, optional)	k
	ר	r	ʀ̆
	ש	sh, sch, š	ʃ (s by older Litviks)

Semitic Consonants

Letter	Transcription	Sound (IPA)
בֿ	v	v
כּ	k	k
שׂ	s	s
תּ	t	t
ת	s	s

Complex Consonants

Letters	Transcription	Sound (IPA)	English Example
זש	zh, ž	ʒ	genre
דזש	dzh, dž (dsch in German)	d͡ʒ	jet
טש	tsh, tsch, ch, tch, č	t͡ʃ	chat

Consonant Letters, Transcriptions and their Sounds

The representations and pronunciations of the consonants are mostly the same as their Hebrew counterparts, although there are a few points worth noting.

A few of the characters only appear in words that have Hebrew or Aramaic origins (Semitic Consonants).
There are three additional sounds that don't exist in Biblical Hebrew but these are familiar to English speakers. The additional sounds are represented using combinations of two or three adjacent consonants (Complex Consonants).
Like Modern Hebrew, vav only represents a v sound when it's written twice װ, although unlike Modern Hebrew yod isn't doubled when it represents a y. See for descriptions of the two vowel sounds that are represented by double yod.
ע represents a vowel in Yiddish, not a consonant.
Yiddish is an Ashkenazi language but the rest of this web site emphasizes Sephardi and Mizrachi Hebrew pronunciations, so I remind the reader of the following differences.
- ק ,ט and צ are not pronounced heavy like Arabic ق ,ط and ص but light like כּ ,תּ and t͡s. ‎
- ת is pronounced like s and not like t or th.

Vowels

Yiddish spelling wasn't standardized until the early 20th Century. In particular, usage of ה to mark a long vowel is not consistent. There was a movement in the late 19th Century called daytshmerish, which altered Yiddish spellings to make them adhere closer to German. These changes were reversed in the 20th Century.

	Northern	Southern		Standard
Language Branch	Eastern Yiddish			German
	Litvish (Northern)	Ukrainish (Southeastern)	Poylish (Mideastern)	Standard
Countries	Lithuania, Belarus,	Ukraine, Moldova	Poland, Hungary	Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Letters	Latvia, Russia			Pronunciation	Letters
אַ	a	ɔ	a	a	a
אָ	ɔ	ʊ	ʊ	ɔ	o
אה	ɔ	ʊ	u:	a:	a, aa, ah
י	j			j	j
	ɪ		ɪ	ɪ	i
			ɪ	ʏ	ü, y
יִ יה			i:	i:	i, ie, ieh, ih
יִ יה			i:	y:	ü, üh, y
יי	ɛɪ		aɪ	e:	ä, äh, e, ee, eh,
יי	ɛɪ		aɪ	aɪ	ai, ay, ei, ey
ײַ	aɪ		a:	aɪ	ai, ay, ei, ey
ײַ	aɪ		a:	ɔʏ	äu, eu
וי	ɛɪ	ɔɜ		aʊ	o, oh, oo
וי	ɛɪ	ɔɜ		o:	o, oh, oo
ו	ʊ	ɪ	ɪ	ʊ	u
וה	ʊ	ɪ	i:	u:	u, uh
עה	ɛ	ɪ	ɛɪ	ɛ:	ä, äh
ע	ɛ	ɛ		ɛ	ä, e
ע	ɜ (unstressed)			ə	e

These lists are only approximate. The boundaries do not fall along modern national borders and in reality there was a gradual transition from one set of vowels to another.

Vowel (IPA)	Yiddish Transcriptions
a	a
a:	a, aa, ah
aɪ	ay, ai, aj
ɛ	e
ɜ	e
ɛɪ	ey, ei, ej
ɪ	i
i:	i
ɔ	o
ɔɜ	oy, oi, oj
ʊ	u
u:	u

Yiddish