Yiddish (, or , yidish/idish, literally "Jewish"; in older sources ייִדיש-טײַטש "Yiddish-Taitsh" (English: Judaeo-German)) is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with an extensive Germanic based vernacular fused with elements taken from Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as from Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized alphabet based on the Hebrew script.