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Yiddish is natively spoken by about 500,000 people worldwide, primarily among Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the United States, Israel, and Europe. It is integral to Ashkenazi Jewish cultural identity, known for its literature (including works by Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer), Klezmer music, and culinary traditions. Written in the Hebrew script, Yiddish grammar features a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, extensive use of Germanic vocabulary mixed with Hebrew and Slavic loanwords, and a system of noun declensions and verb conjugations.
Stats
Language Family: Indo-European
Writing System: Hebrew
Writing System Type: Alphabet
Writing Direction: L to R
Tones / Pitch Accent: N
Morphology: Fusional
Cases: 3
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: 3
Number of Verb Tenses: 4
Word Order: SVO
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 6
Number of Consonants: 23
Areas Where Spoken
Israel (~ 2.6%) (~ 250,000)
United States of America (~ 0.08%) (~ 250,000)
Resources
Books
In addition to its Yiddish courses, YIVO offers online and in-person courses in English that teach about Yiddish culture, literature, and history. Including but not limited to: Introduction to Old Yiddish (in-person), Folksong, Demons, and the Evil Eye: Folklore of Ashkenaz (online), and Discovering Ashkenaz: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe (online). More are in development. This is the most extensive and expensive option.
Websites
Now you've probably gotten that ad on youtube or whatnot for Lingopie. "Watch tv to learn Italian" or something. Yiddishpop is similar and has a bunch of animations to teach you Yiddish in a similar method.