Yiddish Diction in Singing

The standard for classical singers in the United States to be trained in the singing diction of the German, Italian, and English languages. This sung diction varies from the spoken diction for those languages and is therefore important for singers to study in classes dedicated to singing language pronunciation. Literature is also available for the instruction in the singing diction of numerous other languages including Latin, Spanish, Czech, Russian, and Hebrew. While there is a vast scope of languages represented by vocal diction guides, there is no available singing diction guide for Yiddish songs, despite the spectrum of classical vocal genres where there is Yiddish repertoire, including art songs, cantatas, operas, operettas, and stage plays. The goal of this document is to create a manual on how to pronounce Yiddish in singing by examining the rules of spoken Yiddish diction, by comparing and contrasting how other languages differ between their spoken and sung rules, and by listening to old and new recordings of Yiddish repertoire in an effort to make this repertoire more accessible to performers