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.