Hi GA Community...

I need a translation for " I love you " from English to Yiddish.

Thanks.

Steph53

Dear Steph53,

I found these possible translations:

"Ich han dich lib."
"Ikh hob dikh lib."
"Ich libe dich."

The latter appears more like a slightly altered variant of the German
translation "Ich liebe dich"; but to me as a native speaker of German,
all three variations look plausible (the first two are closesly
related to the German expression "Ich hab' dich lieb", which means
basically the same as "I love you").

Search terms used:
"I love you"  yiddish
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22I+love+you%22++yiddish&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

Regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by steph53-ga on 11 Oct 2004 15:46 PDT

Hi Scriptor,

"Ich libe dich" sounds definately German. I can understand and speak (
a little ) German myself as I was born in Germany.

However, the translation was needed to say it to a Jewish person. Mabe
I'm wrong, but I had always thought the Jewish community had their own
dialect and /or language, as I've heard him say many words and
phrases, and they, in no way, sound anything close to German.....

I guess what I'm looking for is how does a Jewish person say "I love you" ?

Regards,

Steph53

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 11 Oct 2004 15:53 PDT

Well, that makes the whole thing a bit more complicated. Maybe you
would like to use Hebrew?

"Ani ohev otach." (male to female)
"Ani ohev otcha." (male to male)
"Ani ohevet otach." (female to female)
"Ani ohevet otcha." (female to male)

Does that look better? At least, it is very targeted.
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by steph53-ga on 12 Oct 2004 08:47 PDT

Hi Scriptor,

Sorry for the delay. I'm going to ask my friend whether he speaks
Yiddish or Hebrew before I rate your answer.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Steph53

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 12 Oct 2004 09:12 PDT

Dear Steph53,

In case that neither translation is useful for you, please do not rate
the answer. I will simply ask the editors to remove it, so you won't
have to pay for it and it will be open again for my colleagues.

Regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by steph53-ga on 14 Oct 2004 20:20 PDT

Hi Scriptor...

I just talked to my Jewish friend tonite & he told me he only knows *Yiddish*...
So just post your original comment as the answer.....

Thanks :)

Steph 53

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 15 Oct 2004 04:51 PDT

It's already done :)

Greetings,
Scriptor

Thanks!!!

Yes: That's good advice. Hebrew will be a better choice unless it's an
older person or someone really rooted in a Yiddish community.

Hi everyone!

Maybe I would be able to help...
You are surely right! Yiddish and Hebrew are deffinitely not the same.
And scriptor has answered your quetion correctly, wanting to say it to
a Jewish man... More Jews speak Hebrew, then Yiddish. Some claim that
Yiddish is a dieing language... It is mainly sppoken in the Chassidic
communities, and by the pre-war generation. But, Yiddish does have
many Germanian roots. The language itself has been created under Geman
influences, so naturally you get some German-like words. So in Yiddish
one says indeed `Ich Hob Dich Lieb`.

Hope this helps a drop,

Sincerely,
michael

Bear in mind that Yiddish is a mixture of several languages that
formed a new one in itself. However, German is the base of Yiddish.

This means that many words or complete phrases in Yiddish wil be
sometimes very similar or even exactly the same as in German.

I don't speak Yiddish, my wife does. The translations provided by
Scriptor sound to me very familiar. My wife tells me those phrases
every now and then....

Sam.