Yes, it's Yiddish. This is one of half a dozen versions. And NOT to be confused with Ciribiribin -- that's Italian, also recorded by many including Frank Sinatra. Bernardi was also famed as Tevye in the Broadway FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Look up Mickey Katz or Aaron Lebedeff for more of this style.
@MasterEled Wow, you clearly do not speak Yiddish if you can make an ignorant statement like that. From a grammatical perspective, Yiddish is Germanic with a heavy Slavic influence. From a vocabularly perspective, depending upon the context, the lexicon is 60% Germanic, 20-30% Slavic, 10-20% Hebrew/Aramaic, and a smidgeon Romantic. From an idiomatic perspective, the least educated Yiddish speaker knows more about Judaism than most other Jews.
@pinkdoobie Considering most Jews know absolutely nothing about Judaism beyond matzo ball soup that is not very impressive. I am sorry if you consider my fluency in Yiddish inferior to yours, but just for fun see if you can come up with 10 Slavic based words in 60 seconds besides for "blech." And unless mathematical rules have changed recently 60% is a majority. Just a little helpful tip, the lexicon is more than 60% Germanic, the pronunciation and grammatical rules have more Slavic influence
@MasterEled Bupkis, nebekh, paskudnyak, pisk, yagede, smetene, tshemodan, samovar, tschaynik, shpilkes, nosh, tsherepakhe. Not to mention suffixes like -nyu, -nik, and -ke. Furthermore, a majority similarity is insufficient to say that a languages is "basically" another language "with a few minor exceptions." And if it were true, then linguists would not be having such a debate over where in Germany Yiddish originated.
@MasterEled Why are you writing German? The "ch" of nicht is a different sound that the "sh" of nisht. And most dialects would say "zent" and not "zayt" (the exception being Litvish, though that would also explain the "meshuge" instead of the more common "meshige").
@pinkdoobie I am writing it like German because I maintain my prior opinions on it, and Yiddish is incomprehensible, typically consisting of words with like 6 vavs in a row. Galitzianer is not more common, it is just more ethnic, anyone not from Chassidish or Hungarian roots, descent, or education would not speak like a Galitzianer.
@pinkdoobie Before you refute this, I was being sardonic about Yiddish being incomprehensible to some extent, although the extent that it does not follow Hebrew grammatical rules OR Aramaic further illustrates its adaptation for languages other than these two.
I don't speak or understand Yiddish and I'm not Jewish, but I've got ears and this was great to listen to, thanks!
nosleep62 1 month ago
Yes, it's Yiddish. This is one of half a dozen versions. And NOT to be confused with Ciribiribin -- that's Italian, also recorded by many including Frank Sinatra. Bernardi was also famed as Tevye in the Broadway FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Look up Mickey Katz or Aaron Lebedeff for more of this style.
nre4d 8 months ago
@newyorknightss There is very little "Jewish" about it, it is basically archaic German with a few minor exceptions.
MasterEled 8 months ago
@MasterEled Wow, you clearly do not speak Yiddish if you can make an ignorant statement like that. From a grammatical perspective, Yiddish is Germanic with a heavy Slavic influence. From a vocabularly perspective, depending upon the context, the lexicon is 60% Germanic, 20-30% Slavic, 10-20% Hebrew/Aramaic, and a smidgeon Romantic. From an idiomatic perspective, the least educated Yiddish speaker knows more about Judaism than most other Jews.
pinkdoobie 7 months ago
@pinkdoobie Considering most Jews know absolutely nothing about Judaism beyond matzo ball soup that is not very impressive. I am sorry if you consider my fluency in Yiddish inferior to yours, but just for fun see if you can come up with 10 Slavic based words in 60 seconds besides for "blech." And unless mathematical rules have changed recently 60% is a majority. Just a little helpful tip, the lexicon is more than 60% Germanic, the pronunciation and grammatical rules have more Slavic influence
MasterEled 7 months ago
@MasterEled Bupkis, nebekh, paskudnyak, pisk, yagede, smetene, tshemodan, samovar, tschaynik, shpilkes, nosh, tsherepakhe. Not to mention suffixes like -nyu, -nik, and -ke. Furthermore, a majority similarity is insufficient to say that a languages is "basically" another language "with a few minor exceptions." And if it were true, then linguists would not be having such a debate over where in Germany Yiddish originated.
pinkdoobie 7 months ago
@pinkdoobie As for Hebrew/Aramaic, I would say more like 5-10%. Seit nicht meshugge.
MasterEled 7 months ago
@MasterEled Why are you writing German? The "ch" of nicht is a different sound that the "sh" of nisht. And most dialects would say "zent" and not "zayt" (the exception being Litvish, though that would also explain the "meshuge" instead of the more common "meshige").
pinkdoobie 7 months ago
@pinkdoobie I am writing it like German because I maintain my prior opinions on it, and Yiddish is incomprehensible, typically consisting of words with like 6 vavs in a row. Galitzianer is not more common, it is just more ethnic, anyone not from Chassidish or Hungarian roots, descent, or education would not speak like a Galitzianer.
MasterEled 7 months ago
@pinkdoobie Before you refute this, I was being sardonic about Yiddish being incomprehensible to some extent, although the extent that it does not follow Hebrew grammatical rules OR Aramaic further illustrates its adaptation for languages other than these two.
MasterEled 7 months ago
@newyorknightss I think it is Yiddish.
meliante2 1 year ago
Where can someone get this album? His singing voice sounds much more charming and lively than \on most of the English recordings I've heard of him.
FeygeleGoy 1 year ago
Das Lied ist wunderbar vorgetragen.
Telemekel100 2 years ago 2
He was in a 70s sitcom called Arnie.
ShmuelEhrlich 3 years ago
it's yiddish :)
schnuffibossi 3 years ago
Great done, Herschel!
Gives a real taste of the old Shtetls...
alikisfinest 3 years ago