On the basis of a phonological analysis of a tape recording in Eastern Yiddish made by a speaker from Lublin, the authors begin by establishing the contrasts to standard German. They go on to discuss the problems posed by the analysis of an idiolect, ranging from the question of specifically idiolectal realisation to the production of a 'normative' Eastern Yiddish variety for the Lublin area. The authors further examine the recording from the point of view of modern language contact research. Finally, they attempt to place this individual utterance in an ethnographic and above all a culture-historical context.