There is significantphonological variation among the variousYiddish dialects. The description that follows is of a modern Standard Yiddish that was devised during the early 20th century and is frequently encountered in pedagogical contexts.

• /m,p,b/ arebilabial, whereas/f,v/ arelabiodental.^[1]
• The/l–ʎ/ contrast has collapsed in some speakers.^[1]
• The palatalized coronals/nʲ,tsʲ,dzʲ,tʃʲ,dʒʲ,sʲ,zʲ/ appear only in Slavic loanwords.^[1] The phonemic status of these palatalised consonants, as well as any other affricates, is unclear.
• /k,ɡ/ and[ŋ] arevelar, whereas/j,ʎ/ arepalatal.^[1]
  • [ŋ] is an allophone of/n/ after/k,ɡ/, and it can only be syllabic[ŋ̍].^[1]
  • [ɣ] is an allophone of/χ/ before/b,d,ɡ,v,z,ʒ/.^[2]
• The phonetic realization of/χ/ and/nʲ/ is unclear:
  • In the case of/χ/,Kleine (2003) puts it in the "velar" column, but consistently uses a symbol denoting a voicelessuvular fricative ⟨χ⟩ to transcribe it. It is thus safe to assume that/χ/ is phonetically uvular[χ].
  • In the case of/nʲ/,Kleine (2003) puts it in the "palatalized" column. This can mean that it is either palatalized alveolar[nʲ] or alveolo-palatal[ɲ̟]./ʎ/ may actually also be alveolo-palatal[ʎ̟], rather than just palatal.
• The rhotic/r/ can be either alveolar or uvular, either a trill[r~ʀ] or, more commonly, a flap/tap[ɾ~ʀ̆].^[1]
• The glottal stop[ʔ] appears only as an intervocalic separator.^[1]

As in theSlavic languages with which Yiddish was long incontact (Russian,Belarusian,Polish, andUkrainian), but unlike German,voiceless stops have little to noaspiration; unlike many such languages, voiced stops are not devoiced in final position.^[1] Moreover, Yiddish has regressivevoicingassimilation, so that, for example,זאָגט/zɔɡt/ ('says') is pronounced[zɔkt] andהקדמה/hakˈdɔmɜ/ ('foreword') is pronounced[haɡˈdɔmɜ].

Thevowel phonemes of Standard Yiddish are:

• /ɪ,ʊ/ are typicallynear-close[ɪ,ʊ] respectively, but the height of/ɪ/ may vary freely between a higher and lower allophone.^[3]
• /ɜ/ appears only inunstressed syllables.^[3]

• The last two diphthongs may be realized as[aɛ] and[ɔɜ], respectively.^[3]

In addition, thesonorants/l/ and/n/ can function assyllable nuclei:

• אײזל/ˈɛɪzl̩/ 'donkey'
• אָװנט/ˈɔvn̩t/ 'evening'

[m] and[ŋ] appear as syllable nuclei as well, but only as allophones of/n/, after bilabial consonants anddorsal consonants, respectively.

The syllabic sonorants are always unstressed.

Stressed vowels in theYiddish dialects may be understood by considering their common origins in the Proto-Yiddish sound system. Yiddish linguistic scholarship uses a system developed byMax Weinreich in 1960 to indicate the descendentdiaphonemes of the Proto-Yiddish stressed vowels.^[4]

Each Proto-Yiddish vowel is given a unique two-digit identifier, and its reflexes use it as a subscript, for example Southeasterno₁₁ is the vowel /o/, descended from Proto-Yiddish */a/.^[4] The first digit indicates Proto-Yiddishquality (1-=*[a], 2-=*[e], 3-=*[i], 4-=*[o], 5-=*[u]), and the second refers toquantity or diphthongization (−1=short, −2=long, −3=short but lengthened early in the history of Yiddish, −4=diphthong, −5=special length occurring only in Proto-Yiddish vowel 25).^[4]

Vowels 23, 33, 43 and 53 have the same reflexes as 22, 32, 42 and 52 in all Yiddish dialects, but they developed distinct values inMiddle High German; Katz (1987) argues that they should be collapsed with the −2 series, leaving only 13 in the −3 series.^[5]

In vocabulary of Germanic origin, the differences between Standard German and Yiddish pronunciation are mainly in thevowels anddiphthongs. All varieties of Yiddish lack the Germanfront rounded vowels/œ,øː/ and/ʏ,yː/, having merged them with/ɛ,e:/ and/ɪ,i:/, respectively.

Diphthongs have also undergone divergent developments in German and Yiddish. Where Standard German has merged theMiddle High German diphthongei and long vowelî to/aɪ/, Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them; and likewise, the Standard German/ɔʏ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthongöu and the long voweliu, which in Yiddish have merged with their unrounded counterpartsei andî, respectively. Lastly, the Standard German/aʊ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthongou and the long vowelû, but in Yiddish, they have not merged. Although Standard Yiddish does not distinguish between those two diphthongs and renders both as/ɔɪ/, the distinction becomes apparent when the two diphthongs undergoGermanic umlaut, such as in forming plurals:

Thevowel length distinctions of German do not exist in the Northeastern (Lithuanian) varieties of Yiddish, which form the phonetic basis for Standard Yiddish. In those varieties, the vowel qualities in most long/short vowel pairs diverged and so the phonemic distinction has remained.

Yiddish has some coincidental resemblances toDutch in vowel phonology, which extend even to orthography, such as Dutchij versus Yiddishtsvey judn, both pronounced /ɛɪ/; and Dutchui (pronounced /œy/) versus Yiddishvov yud (/ɔj/). For example, the Yiddish "to be" is זײַן, which orthographically matches Dutchzijn more than Germansein, or Yiddish הױז, "house", versus Dutchhuis (pluralhuizen). Along with the pronunciation of Dutchg as /ɣ/, Yiddish is said to sound closer to Dutch than to German because of that even though its structure is closer to High German.^{[citation needed]}

There are consonantal differences between German and Yiddish. Yiddishdeaffricates the Middle High Germanvoiceless labiodental affricate/pf/ to/f/ initially (as inפֿונטfunt, but this pronunciation is also quasi-standard throughout northern and central Germany); /pf/ surfaces as anunshifted/p/ medially or finally (as inעפּל/ɛpl/ andקאָפּ/kɔp/). Additionally, final voiced stops appear in Standard Yiddish but not Northern Standard German.

The pronunciation of vowels in Yiddish words ofHebrew origin is similar toAshkenazi Hebrew but not identical. The most prominent difference iskamatz gadol in closed syllables being pronounced same aspatah in Yiddish but the same as any otherkamatz in Ashkenazi Hebrew. Also, Hebrew features no reduction of unstressed vowels and so the given nameJochebedיוֹכֶבֶֿד would be/jɔɪˈχɛvɛd/ in Ashkenazi Hebrew but/ˈjɔχvɜd/ in Standard Yiddish.

Patah in open syllable, as well ashataf patah, are unpredictably split between A₁ and A₂:קַדַּחַת, נַחַת/kaˈdɔχɜs,ˈnaχɜs/;חֲלוֹם, חֲתֻנָּה/ˈχɔlɜm,ˈχasɜnɜ/.

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