`== tatysch or dyatsch? ==  Ajd and Olve, you seem to disagree on this, which is it?  Also, the second ``yod`` in Yiddish looked like question marks for me before, but Olve's edit fixed that.  Was there a reason you changed it back, Ajd?  |    : The Yiddish word for 'German' is daytsh, not taytsh—that's why I changed that back (though if I can be convinced that it was taytsh at the time in question, I'll accept it). The yod was a mistake; I'll fix that.    ::Well, you missed the same problem in the word ``daytsch``.  |    The traditional form used in connection with Yiddish is the T form. In connection with (mainly non-Jewish) German, D is often used, but then normally in the form daytshish (-er, -e). In older Western Yiddish, the pronunciation would often be tâtsch (with un-rounding, opening, first-component lengthening and subsequent monophthongisation of the historic diphthong), and the word would often be written as טאטש. Yiddish ``tsu taytshn`` (also with a Tet rather than Daled) comes from the same root and means to translate into Yiddish.  The reason I changed the ay digraph into two Yods was that the explicit ay digraph is a de facto deprecated form which is not displayed properly in most generally available Hebrew fonts.  (By the way: My qualifications for writing about Yiddish include a university degree in linguistics (including dialectography) and ethnomusicology in addition to years of studying comparative linguistics (with an emphasis on Germanic languages) on my own. An example of my work with Yiddish may be seen here: http://utne.nvg.org/j/jiddisch/ )     :Taitsh is the definite traditional form in Yiddish — and glyphs above the normal range for Hebrew are not supported by most Hebrew fonts. I am going to wait a little bit for additional input, and then go ahead with my edits unless someone can show compelling evidence countering those of my contributions which were removed by Ajd.     OK — I have checked Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English dictionary, and here is a summary of what it says: *דיַיטשיש = דיַיטש German *טיַיטש־חומש a Yiddish version of the Pentateuch *טיַיטשן interpret It is clear from this that the distinction between daytsh- meaning German and taytsh- meaning Yiddish is still valid. I will therefore change the Yiddish back to yidish-taytsh.     : This doesn't make anything clear at all. If daytsh means 'German', why shouldn't the form meaning 'Jewish German' be yidish daytsh? That is, daytsh means the language, and taytsh is a related word that means 'translation' or something like that. So shouldn't yidish taytsh be 'Jewish translation', not 'Jewish German'?  : Also, if most Hebrew fonts can't show a pasekh-tsvey-yudn, I'd say the fault is with them, not with us for using it, but....    ::I do not think it should be that unclear: The inherited Yiddish form is taytsh. The newer concept of German nationality is denoted by the loanword daytsh — a lightly Yiddishised form of German Deutsch. This word is also frequently found in the form daytshish. That taytsh and daytsh have different meanings is not any different from hotel and hospital having different meanings. The fact that Yiddish daytsh means specifically German as opposed to Yiddish can be illustrated by the word דייַטשמעריש daytshmerish — a word which means 'too much like German (said of modern words or phrases sporadically used in Yid. but not accepted by cultivated stylists'. (Weinreich 1968, p. 657) You ask: ``If daytsh means 'German', why shouldn't the form meaning 'Jewish German' be yidish daytsh?`` The answer to that is: It isn't  and part of the reason is that ``Jewish German`` is not exactly what the term means... It would be great if someone could come up with a better translation. As for the form ``Yidish Daytsh`` with a ``Daled``, part of its problem is in fact that it is to daytshmerish... ::Coming to think of it, Ladino is an interesting parallel: Ladino in its classical Judeo-Spanish, Spanish and Portuguese form denotes the translation of Hebrew a