Unearthing Ancient Ashkenaz and the origin of Yiddish

The search for ancient Ashkenaz has been ongoing for over 1000 years. In the 11th century, Bible scholars determined that Ashkenaz stands for Germany based on the similarity between the names “Gomer” (Noah’s grandson and the father of Ashkenaz) and “Germany,” which became the acceptable location. To test this hypothesis, we sought to trace the origin of the Yiddish language, the native language of Ashkenazic Jews. The Yiddish language is over one thousand years old and incorporates German, Slavic, and Hebrew elements. The popular view is that Yiddish has a German origin, whereas the opposing view posits a Slavic origin with strong Iranian and weak Turkic substrata. To localize Yiddish, we attempted to find the biogeographical origin of Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jews using the Geographic Population Structure (GPS), which converts DNA to geographical data. Here, I present our results and a critical overview of research in the field. Some notes 1. The sound is a bit quiet. Please use speakers or headphones. It will be corrected for the next talk. 2. GPS Origins is available as a commercial tool to study origins. It is an expanded version of the original GPS tool used in this study, designed to infer the origins of your two parental lines and their migration routes. The tool is available here: https://homedna.com/product/gps-origins. If you took a DNA test, you can simply upload your file. 3. If you like this video, please subscribe to be notified of future videos that employ precise genetic tools to answer questions of origins. If you wish to get tested for Israelite, Jewish, or any other ancient ancestry, my ancient 🧬DNA tests for Israelite and Ashkenazic Jews ancestries are publicly available at: 🎥   • Ancient DNA Hub - Introductory video   🧬https://www.ancientdnahub.com/ These tests use solely ancient DNA and are unbiased by modern DNA. You can upload your raw autosomal DNA file from any provider and take your test of interest. If you never took a DNA test, you can order the GPS Origins DNA test kit I designed: 🎥   • GPS Origins DNA Test for Ancestry   🧬https://www.ancientdnahub.com/dna-swa... It was deisgned amplifies ancient DNA signals and is recommended in any case. Medieval Ashkenazic Jewish ancestry tests (Germany and England): 🧬 https://www.ancientdnahub.com/medieva... Kingdom of Judah: 🎥    • The Kingdom of Judah: What happened to the...   🧬 https://www.ancientdnahub.com/the-tri... The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel 🎥    • The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel - Where are ...   🧬 https://www.ancientdnahub.com/the-tri... Canaanites of Ancient Israel 🧬: https://www.ancientdnahub.com/Canaani... Dr. Eran Elhaik