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How Wikipedia rewrote the Yiddish dialects article

Q: How has Wikipedia's Yiddish dialects article changed?

Wikipedia's first sentence called it "subsets of the major regional branches of the yiddish language". Today it says "varieties of the yiddish language and are divided according to the region in europe where each developed its di". We saved the article's opening at 5 moments between 2010 and 2025, and every claim links the exact revision.

The opening as it read in 2010

Yiddish dialects are subsets of the major regional branches of the Yiddish language: Western Yiddish and Eastern Yiddish. Eastern Yiddish, the branch almost exclusively encountered in the contemporary speech community, includes three major dialects: Northeastern or Litvish (spoken in the Baltic States , Belarus , and adjacent areas), Central or Poylish (spoken in Poland , Galicia , areas of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire , including Transylvania and other areas of Central Europe ), and Southeastern or Ukrainish (spoken in most of the Ukraine and Romania ). Western Yiddish included three dialects: Northwestern (spoken in Northern Germany and the Netherlands), Midwestern (spoken in central Germany), and Southwestern (spoken in southern Germany, France, and neighboring regions extending into Northern Italy). These have a number of clearly distinguished regional varieties, such as Judeo-Alsatian , plus many local subvarieties. General references to the "Yiddish language" without qualification are normally taken to apply to Eastern Yiddish, unless the subject under consideration is Yiddish literature prior to the 19th century, in which case the focus is more likely to be on Western Yiddish. Some authors use the term "Southeastern Yiddish" as a collective designation for both Poylish and Ukrainish while still applying the term Northeastern Yiddish to Litvish . The single most populous dialect is Poylish , which together with Ukrainish is used by as many as three quarters of all Yiddish speakers.¹

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 366769089.

The opening as it stood in 2015 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Yiddish dialects are variants of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish should be divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. From Eastern Yiddish, Northeastern dialects were dominant in 20th-century Yiddish culture and academia, while Southern dialects of Yiddish are now the most commonly spoken, preserved by many Hasidic communities.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 667318643.

The opening as it stood in 2020

Varieties of the Yiddish language Yiddish dialects are variants of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish should be divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. From Eastern Yiddish, Northeastern dialects were dominant in 20th-century Yiddish culture and academia, while Southern dialects of Yiddish are now the most commonly spoken, preserved by many Hasidic communities.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964199906.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023

Varieties of the Yiddish language Yiddish dialects are variants of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish is divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. While the Western dialects mostly died out in the 19th-century due to Jewish language assimilation into mainstream culture, the Eastern dialects were very vital until most of Eastern European Jewry was wiped out by the Shoah . The Northeastern dialects of Eastern Yiddish were dominant in 20th-century Yiddish culture and academia, but in the 21st-century, since Yiddish is largely dying out everywhere due to language assimilation, the Southern dialects of Yiddish that are preserved by many Hasidic communities, have become the most commonly spoken form of Yiddish.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1149888039.

The opening as it stood in 2025

Varieties of the Yiddish language Yiddish dialects are varieties of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish is divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. While the Western dialects mostly died out in the 19th-century due to Jewish language assimilation into mainstream culture, the Eastern dialects were very vital until most of Eastern European Jewry was wiped out by the Shoah , called the Khurbn in Yiddish. The Northeastern dialects of Eastern Yiddish were dominant in 20th-century Yiddish culture and academia, but in the 21st-century, the Southern dialects of Yiddish that are preserved by many Hasidic communities have become the most commonly spoken form of Yiddish.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1289102164. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.

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