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error: ISO 639 code is required (help) Yiddish (Yid. ייִדיש, yidiš) is a Germanic language spoken by about three million people throughout the world, predominantly Ashkenazic Jews. The name Yiddish itself is Yiddish for "Jewish" (compare German jüdisch) and is likely an abbreviated rendition of yidish-taytsh (ייִדיש־טײַטש), or "Jewish German". Its earliest historical phase (13th-14th centuries), was formerly referred to as Judeo-German. This designation was rejected by Max Weinreich who pointed out that it overlooked the fact the Yiddish from its inception was an autonomous system analogous to other Jewish languages.

History

From German dialects to Old Yiddish

The Jewish presence in the lands of present-day Germany goes back at least to the time of the Roman Empire. By the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture had developed in Central Europe known as Ashkenazi, or Germanic Jewry. (Ashkenaz was the medieval Hebrew name for Germany, derived from a reference in Genesis 10.3.) The Medieval Jewish cultural areas did not coincide with the Christian principalities; thus Ashkenaz included Northern France, and bounded on the Sephardic area: the Sephardi, or Spanish Jews, who also inhabited southern France. Later, the Ashkenazi territory would spread into Eastern Europe as well.

The vernacular language of the earliest Jews in Germany is not known with certainty. Since many settlers came from northern France, it is quite likely that Romance based Jewish language of that region was carried over into Germany. It has left some traces in the modern Yiddish vocabulary, particularly in West Yiddish. Dovid Katz has also made a plausible argument that the first language of European Jews was Aramaic (Katz 2004). Aramaic was the vernacular of the Jews in Roman era Palestine and also in the great Jewish community of ancient and early medieval Mesopotamia. The widespread use of Aramaic among the large non-Jewish Syrian trading population of the Roman provinces, including those in Europe, would have reinforced the use of Aramaic among Jews engaged in trade. Jews also brought with them ancient paralinguistic patterns of gesture and intonation.

In Germany, the young Jewish community would have encountered the myriad German dialects from which standard Germany was destined to emerge many centuries later. Jews would soon have been speaking their own communal versions of these German dialects mixed with linguistic elements that they brought along with them. These dialects would have been heavily adapted to fit the needs of the very distinctive Jewish culture. Erica Timm has argued that Jews tend to cultivate some linguistic differences to assert their cultural autonomy. The Jews also had their own distinctive geography with a pattern of relationships among Jewish settlemants that was somewhat independent of that of their non-Jewish neighbors. This distinctive geography led to the consolidation of Yiddish dialects whose borders did not agree with the border of German dialects. In general, Yiddish dialects occupied much larger territories

The oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish is a blessing in a Hebrew prayer book from 1272 (described more extensively in Frakes 2004 and Baumgarten/Frakes 2005):


גוּט טַק אִים בְּטַגְֿא שְ וַיר דִּיש מַחֲזֹור אִין בֵּיתֿ הַכְּנֶסֶתֿ טְרַגְֿא

transliterated,

gut tak im betage se waer dis makhzour in bes hakhenes trage

and translated,

a good day to whomever carries this makhzour into the synagogue.

This brief rhyme is decoratively embedded in a purely Hebrew text (a reproduction of which is in Katz 2004). Nonetheless, it indicates the status of the Yiddish language as more or less standard Middle High German, but the words makhzour ('prayerbook for the High Holy Days') and bes hakhenes ('synagogue') are Hebrew.

In the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, songs and poems in Yiddish, and also macaronic pieces in Hebrew and German, began to be written. These were collected by the late 15th century by Menahem ben Naphtali Oldendorf. In the same period, a tradition seems to have emerged of Jewish singers singing for the Jewish community their own versions of German secular literature. The earliest Yiddish epic poem of this sort is the Dukus Horant which survives in the famous Cambridge Codex T.-S.10.K.22. This 14th-century manuscript was discovered in the genisa of a Cairo synagogue in 1896, and also contains a collection of narrative poems on themes from the Hebrew Bible and the Haggadah

Apart from the obvious use of Hebrew words for specifically Jewish artifacts, it is very difficult to decide how far this 15th century written Yiddish differs from the German of this period. A lot depends on how the phonetic values of the Hebrew characters are interpreted, especially with regard to the vowels. There seems, however, to be a consensus that by this period, Yiddish would have sounded distinctive to the average German, even when no Hebrew lexemes were used. In university faculties, the literature of this period is studied both in departments of Yiddish studies and in departments of Medieval German.

The 16th century witnessed an upswing in writings in what may now be referred to as Old Yiddish. The development of the printing press contributed significantly to the improved rate of survival of these writings. The most popular work of the 16th century was the 650-stanza Bovo-Bukh, composed by Elia Levita (1469-1549) in 1507–1508, which has gone through at least forty print editions, beginning in 1541. [Liptzin, 1972, 4-5] Levita, the earliest named Yiddish author, also wrote Paris un Vienne. Another Judeo-German retelling of a courtly novel which presumably also dates from the 15th century, though the manuscripts are from the 16th, is Widuwilt, also known as Kinig Artus Hof, an adaptation of the Middle High German romance Wigalois by Wirnt von Gravenberg. Another significant Old Yiddish writer is Avroham ben Schemuel Pikartei whose paraphrase on the Book of Job dates from 1557.

While Hebrew always remained the official language of Jewish prayer, the Hasidim mixed considerable Yiddish into their Hebrew, and were also responsible for a significant secondary religious literature written in Yiddish. For example, the tales about the Baal Shem Tov were written largely in Yiddish. In addition, even beyond the Hasidim, Ashkenazic Jewish women traditionally were not literate in Hebrew; women were the main audience of works like the Bovo-Bukh, but there was also a large body of Yiddish religious works written for (and often by) women, such as the Tseno-Ureno, the memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, and the tkhines. [Liptzin, 1972, 4-17]

The modern Haskalah

Use of the Western Yiddish dialect began to decline in the 18th century, as The Enlightenment and the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) led German Jews to view Yiddish as a "corrupt German". Between assimilation to German and the beginnings of the revival of Hebrew, Western Yiddish was largely squeezed out, surviving mainly as a language of "intimate family circles or of closely knit trade groups such as the cattle-dealers of the Eifel Mountains. [Liptzin, 1972, 2]

Farther east, where Jews were denied emancipation, Yiddish formed the basis of a secular Jewish culture, known as Yiddishkheit (literally: "Jewishness"). The late 19th century and early 20th century are widely considered the Golden Age of secular Yiddish literature; this period also coincides with the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, and the revival of Hebrew literature. Some Modern Hebrew words began to find their way into Yiddish, as well.

The three great founders of modern secular Yiddish literature were Mendele Mocher Sforim, Sholom Aleichem, and I.L. Peretz. Solomon Rabinowitz, better known as Sholom Aleichem (1859–1916), is known as one of the greatest Yiddish authors and humorists, the Yiddish equivalent of Mark Twain. A collection of his stories about Tevye the Milkman was later the basis of the Broadway musical and film Fiddler on the Roof.

The 20th century

At the start of the 20th century, Yiddish was emerging as a major Eastern European language. A rich literature was being published, Yiddish theater and Yiddish film were booming, and it had even achieved status as one of the official languages of the Belarusian SSR. Educational autonomy for Jews in several countries (notably Poland) after World War I led to an increase in formal Yiddish-language education, standardized pronunciation and spelling, and to the 1925 founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, later YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. [Liptzin, 1972, 3] Yiddish emerged as the national language of a large Jewish community in Eastern Europe that rejected Zionism and sought to obtain Jewish cultural autonomy in Europe. It also contended with Modern Hebrew as a literary language among Zionists.

On the eve of World War II, there were 10 million Yiddish speakers, overwhelmingly of the Eastern dialects. [Liptzin, 1972, 2] However, the Holocaust led to a dramatic, sudden decline in the use of Yiddish, as the extensive Jewish communities, both secular and religious, that used Yiddish in their day-to-day life were largely destroyed. Although millions of Yiddish speakers survived the war (including nearly all Yiddish speakers in the Americas), further assimilation in countries such as the United States and the status of Modern Hebrew as the official language of Israel led to a decline in the use of Eastern Yiddish similar to the earlier decline in Western Yiddish.

Ethnologue estimates that in 1991 there were 3 million speakers of Eastern Yiddish, but Western Yiddish, which had only "several tens of thousands" of speakers on the eve of the Holocaust, is now "nearly extinct".

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, much effort was invested in promoting the use of Yiddish during 1920s. Yiddish was then regarded as the language of "Jewish proletariat"; at the same time, Hebrew was considered a "bourgeois" language and its use was generally discouraged. After the Second World War, growing anti-Semitic tendencies in Soviet politics drove Yiddish from most spheres; few Yiddish publications survived (among them are the literary magazine Sovetish Heymland (1961-1991) and the newspaper Birobidzhaner Shtern).

United States

In the United States, the Yiddish language bound together Jews from many countries, whose national origin was often as important as their Jewish identity. Within some families, marrying across national origin lines was seen as equivalent to marrying out of the faith. The Forward, one of seven Yiddish New York daily newspapers, and other Yiddish newspapers served as a forum for Jews of all European backgrounds. [Melamed, 1925] American Yiddish music, derived from Klezmer, was another binding mechanism. Michel Gelbart, a very prolific composer, probably best known for "I Have A Little Dreydl," wrote music that was very Jewish and very American. Thriving Yiddish theatre in New York City and (to a lesser extent) elsewhere kept the language vital. Many "Yiddishisms," like "Italianisms" and "Spanishisms," continued to enter spoken New York English, often used by Jews and non-Jews alike without consciousness of the language of origin of the phrases. In the United States, most Yiddish speakers tended not to pass on the language to their children who assimilated and spoke English.

Largely because of the influence of Jewish entertainment figures in the United States, many Yiddish words have entered the American English lexicon. In 1968, the modern American writer Leo Rosten (1908–1997) published The Joys of Yiddish (ISBN 0743406516), an introduction to words of Yiddish origin used in the English of the United States. See also "Yinglish."

In 1978, the European-born secular Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, a resident of the United States, received the Nobel Prize in literature.

Israel

In Israel Yiddish was displaced by Modern Hebrew. In part this reflected the conflict between religious and secular forces. Many in the larger, secular group wanted a new national language to foster a cohesive identity, while traditionally religious Jews desired that Hebrew be respected as a holy language reserved for prayer and religious study. However, this conflict also reflected the opposing views among secular Jews worldwide, one side seeing Hebrew (and Zionism) and the other Yiddish (and Internationalism) as the means of defining emerging Jewish nationalism. Finally, the large post-1948 influx of Jewish refugees from Arab countries (to whom Yiddish was entirely foreign, but who already spoke a Semitic language in daily life to begin with) effectively made Hebrew the only practical option.

Many of the older immigrants to Israel from the former USSR (usually those above 50 years of age) speak or understand some degree of Yiddish.

In religious circles, it is the Ashkenazi Haredi Jews, particularly the Hasidic Jews and the Mitnagdim of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, who continue to teach, speak and use Yiddish, making it a language used intensely by hundreds of thousands of Haredi Jews today. The largest of these centers are in Bene Beraq and Jerusalem.

Yiddish media

There are more than 100 newspapers, magazines, newsletters and radio programs in yiddish language worldwide like "Allgemeines Journal" (USA), "Das Jüdische Wort" (Poland), "Letzte Neuigkeiten" (Israel) and "Birobidschaner Stern" (Russia). Many Web sites are maintained exclusively in Yiddish and there are numerous e-mail distribution lists about various facets of Yiddish language and culture. In addition, several Yiddish blogs have gained a measure of popularity among Yiddish writers and speakers.

Haredi Orthodox Jews

The major exception to the decline of spoken Yiddish can be found in the Haredi Jewish communities all over the world. In the United States, within some of New York State's close-knit religious communities Yiddish is spoken as a home and schooling language, especially in Brooklyn's Borough Park and Williamsburg and outside of the city in Monsey, Kiryas Joel, and New Square. (Over 88% of the population of Kiryas Joel is reported to speak Yiddish at home.[1]) Yiddish is also widely spoken in some smaller Haredi communities in other cities such as London and Montreal. Among most Haredim all over the world, Hebrew is generally reserved for prayer and religious studies, while Yiddish is reserved as a home and business language.

Haredi educational use of Yiddish

Hundreds of thousands of young children have been, and are still, taught to translate the texts of the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy into Yiddish. This process is called taytsching or "translating" (Yid. טיַיטשן taytshn). Most Ashkenazi yeshivas' highest level lectures in Talmud and Halakha are delivered in Yiddish by the Rosh yeshivas as well as ethical talks of mussar. Hasidic rebbes generally use only Yiddish to converse with their followers and to deliver their various Torah talks, classes, and lectures. The linguistic style and vocabulary of Yiddish have influenced the manner in which many Orthodox Jews who attend yeshivas speak English; this usage is distinctive enough that it has been dubbed "Yeshivish".

Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language

The status of Yiddish as a Germanic language is occasionally challenged from two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, there are those who suggest that in its deep structure Yiddish is unrelated to German—that it is instead a Semitic or a Slavic. For example, the linguist Paul Wexler claims that Eastern Yiddish was originally a Slavic language, Sorbian, whose vocabulary was replaced with German words, and that a second round of relexification, this time replacing an East Slavic dialect with German words, occurred when this variety of Yiddish migrated eastwards to Ukraine. His claims are not widely accepted. There have even arguments proposed that Yiddish is somehow a Romance language, or even that it is a derivative of Basque.

At the other extreme there are those who suggest that Yiddish is merely a dialect of German, not different enough to be classed as a separate language. Yiddish and German share a large portion of their respective vocabularies, and a number of similar grammatical structures. Some German speakers are reportedly able to understand spoken Yiddish, considering it similar to German spoken by Slavs. These observations lead some observers to describe Yiddish as a German dialect rather than an independent language. See also the Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework to distinguish languages from dialects.

However, the consensus among linguists is that Yiddish and German are distinct Germanic languages, as:

  • The two languages are geographically and culturally distinct; [2]
  • Both languages have written standards, and even use different alphabets;
  • Some of the grammar of Yiddish differs substantially from that of German, having been influenced by contact with other (e.g. Slavic) languages;
  • 20 to 30 percent of Yiddish vocabulary is not shared with German, including a number of basic words;
  • The two languages are generally not mutually comprehensible (this is especially true for German speakers trying to understand Yiddish).

Of course, politics as well as linguistics has affected the long-widespread perception of Yiddish as a dialect rather than a language. Max Weinreich famously quoted a remark by an auditor in one of his lectures on this matter: "A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot": "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy." (facsimile excerpt at [3], discussed in detailed in Language-dialect aphorism.)

Yiddish and other languages

Yiddish eventually split into Western (German) Yiddish and Eastern Yiddish. The latter in turn split into North-Eastern (Litvish) Yiddish, Central/Mid-Eastern (Polish/Galician) Yiddish, and South-Eastern (Ukrainian, Bessarabian, Romanian) Yiddish. The Eastern Yiddish dialects and Modern Yiddish contain a great many words derived from Slavic languages.

Like Judæo-Arabic and pre-20th century Ladino (Judæo-Spanish), Yiddish is written using an adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet. However, Yiddish itself is not linguistically related to Hebrew, even though it absorbed thousands of Hebrew and Aramaic terms taken from the Tanakh, Mishna, Talmud, and Jewish tradition.

Curiously, Yiddish uses Latin derivatives for many of its words relating to religious rituals, apparently borrowing the terminology from Old French as spoken in Alsace. The presumed path of entry into Yiddish is that the famous rabbi Rashi (1040-1105), and his descendants and disciples the Tosafists, used hundreds of Old French words in their rabbinical writings. Study of Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch and the Talmud was widespread among medieval Jews; Rashi has also been used by modern scholars as a reliable source for thousands of Old French words. As an example, 'say grace after meals' is, in Yiddish, bentshn (בענטשן), which is cognate with the same term that gave English the word benediction; and Western-Europe dialects of Yiddish use the word orn, derived from Latin orare, to mean 'pray'; and some scholars believe that davnen (דאַװנען), the Eastern European Yiddish word for pray, has a Romance language origin. Other Yiddish words with Romance backgrounds include leyenen (לײענען) 'to read' and tsholnt (טשאָלנט) 'a Sabbath stew' (spelled cholent in English). Many of the Old French words incorporated into Yiddish happen also to have been similarly used by the Catholic Church.

In the native Germanic vocabulary of Yiddish, the differences between standard German and Yiddish pronunciations are mainly in the vowels and diphthongs. One example is that standard German long a, as in Vater 'father', corresponds to o in Yiddish (foter); standard German long e and long o are diphthongized in Yiddish to oy and ey. Like many German dialects, Yiddish lacks the standard German front rounded umlaut vowels ö and ü; they are replaced in Yiddish by e and i respectively. Diphthongs have also undergone divergent developments in standard German and Yiddish. Where standard German has merged the Middle High German diphthong ei and long vowel î to ei (pronounced [ai]), Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them as ey and ay respectively. Standard German au (as in kaufen 'buy') corresponds to Yiddish oy (as in koyfn); lastly, the German eu (pronounced [oi], as in deutsch 'German') corresponds to ay in Yiddish (as in daytsh).

Consonantal differences between standard German and Yiddish include the smoothing of the standard German affricate pf to plain f in Yiddish, and the fact that Yiddish (but not standard German) allows word-final voiced obstruents.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Yiddish are given in the following table:

  Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p  b   t  d       k  g  
Affricate       ts  dz tʃ  dʒ      
Nasal m   n   nʲ   (ŋ)  
Fricative   f  v   s  z ʃ  ʒ   x h
Approximant       r   j    
Lateral approximant     l   lʲ      

[ŋ] is not a phoneme but an allophone of /n/ which appears before /k/ and /g/. The lateral /l/ is generally velarized [ɫ] in contrast to the palatalized /lʲ/. The rhotic /r/ may be realized either as an alveolar trill [r] or as a uvular trill [ʀ].

As in the Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact (Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian), but unlike German, voiceless stops are unaspirated, and voiced stops are fully voiced. Moreover, Yiddish has regressive voicing assimilation, so that, for example, /zɔgt/ 'says' is pronounced [zɔkt] and /hakˈdɔmə/ 'foreword' is pronounced [hagˈdɔmə]. However, unlike both German and its nearest Slavic neighbors, final devoicing does not occur in Yiddish.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Yiddish are given in the following tables:

Monophthongs
  Front vowels
(unrounded) 		Central vowels
(unrounded) 		Back vowels
(rounded)
Close and
near-close 		i   ʊ
Mid and
open-mid 		ɛ ə ɔ
Open   a  
Diphthongs
Front nucleus Central nucleus Back nucleus
ɛj aj ɔj

In addition, the sonorant consonants /l/ and /n/ can function as syllable nuclei:

  • /ˈɛjzl̩/ 'donkey'
  • /ˈɔvn̩t/ 'evening'

[m] and [ŋ] appear as syllable nuclei as well, but only as allophones of /n/, after bilabial consonants and dorsal consonants, respectively.

The syllabic sonorants and [ə] are always unstressed. [ə] can be analyzed as the unstressed allophone of /ɛ/.

Orthography

Yiddish uses the basic Hebrew alphabet extended with several digraphs and letters modified with diacritical marks that are not used in the Hebrew language. Some letters that are consonants in Hebrew are used as vowels in Yiddish, providing an orthography that permits a fully phonetic representation of that language. This phonetic orthography is, however, not normally used for words of Aramaic or Hebrew origin, which are written as they are in the source languages (with the exception of some diacritics that are specific to Yiddish usage).

In the early twentieth century focused efforts were made at developing a uniform orthography. This action was initiated in Russia, leading to the abolition of the separate etymological orthography for words of Semitic origin in 1920. This was extended twelve years later to the elimination of the five separate final-form consonants (which appear in the following table on the left side of each of the paired letters, and were reintroduced in Soviet publishing in 1961). In parallel to the Soviet reform, YIVO developed a Standard Yiddish Orthography which has become the most frequently referenced such system in present-day use (SYO 1999), although alternative orthographies are frequently encountered in contemporary literary practice. One of the most common differences between the various systems is the way in which they use combining marks to indicate phonetic distinctions between what would otherwise be identical base characters.

The table below uses the Yiddish character repertoire as codified by YIVO. The indicated Romanized transliterations are used wherever appropriate throughout this article. Other transliteration systems are, however, regularly employed in a variety of contexts. As will be seen in the discussion of phonology in the preceding section, no single scheme can represent the full range of variant pronunciation in Yiddish. It is also rarely possible for a single transliteration to be phonetically appropriate to all languages using the target script.

The Yiddish alphabet is:

Symbol YIVO Transliteration IPA Transcription Name Notes
א (none) {none} shtumer alef Written before initial י and ו when they function as vowels. Neither pronounced nor transcribed.
אַ a a pasekh alef
אָ o ɔ komets alef
ב b b beys
בֿ v v veys Only used in words of Semitic origin
ג g g giml
ד d d daled
ה h h hey
ו u ʊ vov
וּ u ʊ melupm vov Only used when adjacent to ו or before י
ז z z zayen
ח kh x khes Only used in words of Semitic origin
ט t t tes
י y, i j, i yud y adjacent to vowels; i otherwise
יִ i i khirik yud Only used adjacent to another vowel
כּ k k kof Only used in words of Semitic origin
כ ך kh x khof, lange khof Lange khof is used at the end of a word
ל l l, ʎ lamed
מ ם m m mem, shlos mem Shlos mem is used at the end of a word
נ ן n n nun, lange nun Lange nun is used at the end of a word
ס s s samekh
ע e ɛ ayin
פּ p p pey Unlike fey, does not change form at the end of a word
פֿ ף f f fey, lange fey Lange fey is used at the end of a word
צ ץ ts ts tsadek, lange tsadek Lange tsadek is used at the end of a word
ק k k kuf
ר r ʀ reysh
ש sh ʃ shin
שׂ s s sin Only used in words of Semitic origin
תּ t t tof Only used in words of Semitic origin
ת s s sof Only used in words of Semitic origin

The YIVO orthography also employs six digraphs and one trigraph:

Shape YIVO Transliteration IPA name
װ v v tsvey vovn
זש zh ʒ zayen shin
דזש dzh dʒ daled zayen shin
טש tsh ʧ tes shin
ױ oy ɔj vov yud
ײ ey ɛj tsvey yudn
ײַ ay aj pasekh tsvey yudn

Typography

Yiddish is normally printed using a Hebrew square typeface. Prior to the early 19th century, however, it was more common to use an Ashkenazi semicursive typeface, colloquially named Vaybertaytsh, and also referred to as Masheyt (both terms having several variant forms). This is related to, but not the same as the Sephardi semicursive typeface known as Rashi. That term is sometimes used as a generic designation for what are also termed Rabbinic typefaces, but distinctions are made among at least five separate semicursive Hebrew scripts. [4], [5] (Adding to the confusion, the term Masheyt is also used both as an umbrella designation for them all, and as a specific synonym for Rashi.) The Sephardi variant bears the same relationship to Ladino as the Ashkenazi variant does to Yiddish, but remains in present-day use. The two are commonly termed Rashi and Masheyt, respectively, with no similarly abbreviated designations applied to the other semicursive forms. Regardless of any overlap in the descriptive terminologies applied to Yiddish typography, the commonplace earlier distinction between Hebrew and Yiddish typefaces in the presentation of Yiddish text was a significant attribute, not just of typographic practice, but of the language itself. This has been lost without counterpart in present-day usage and may deserve renewed attention.

Handwritten Yiddish is fully cursive (using a script that was also adopted for contemporary Hebrew) and Ashkenazi cursive typefaces are encountered both in print and as fonts for computerized text processing. Since Rashi is used in the presentation of certain Hebrew texts, fonts are available for it, also serving the purposes of the Ladino community. In principle, an Ashkenazi semicursive font could be made available for similar use in Yiddish, enabling the revival of a traditional aspect of the conceptualization and presentation of texts in that language.

Hebrew fonts do not always correctly support the combining marks that are specific to Yiddish. Some applications display an extraneous blank space following a Hebrew character with such a mark, and the mark may be displayed in that space rather than properly together with the base character. The makhzour blessing quoted above is likely to reveal this problem on systems prone to it. One freely available font that will function correctly in this and similar cases is Ezra SIL.

Morphology

See Yiddish morphology.

Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers

See related articles:
Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers
List of English words of Yiddish origin

Yiddish-derived idioms used in English, particularly in the United States:

  • "Oy Vey" (vey means "pain"; cf. German Oh weh; cognate of English woe)
  • "Chutzpah"
  • "Enough already"
  • "OK by me"
  • "I need this like a hole in the head"
  • "Tuchis" (rump)
  • "Tsu gezunt" (To [your]health! used as a response to a sneeze)
  • "schnorrer" (literally, "beggar"; freeloader, esp. at weddings)
  • "schmuck" (prize idiot, lit. jewel -> family jewels)
  • "babkes" (emphatically nothing)
  • "klutz" (clumsy person)
  • "gonif" (fraudster or thief)
  • "putz" (idiot; literally, "penis")

See also

Books

  • Baumgarten, Jean (transl. and ed. Jerold C. Frakes), Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, ISBN 0-19-927633-1.
  • Cohen, David (Rabbi), Yiddish: A Holy Language, Mesorah Publications, New York, 2004 (in Hebrew).
  • Estraikh, Gennady, Soviet Yiddish: Language Planning and Linguistic Development, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999, ISBN 0-19-818479-4.
  • Fishman, David E., The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2005, ISBN 0-8229-4272-0.
  • Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.), Never Say Die: A Thousand Years of Yiddish in Jewish Life and Letters, Mouton Publishers, The Hague, 1981, ISBN 90-279-7978-2 (in Yiddish and English).
  • Frakes, Jerold C., Early Yiddish Texts 1100-1750, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, ISBN 0-19-926614-X.
  • Jacobs, Neil G., Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, ISBN 0-521-77215-X.
  • Katz, Dovid, Grammar of the Yiddish Language, Duckworth, London, 1987, ISBN 0-7156-2161-0.
  • Katz, Dovid, Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish, Basic Books, New York, 2004, ISBN 0-465-03728-3.
  • Kriwaczek, Paul, Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2005, ISBN 0-297-82941-6.
  • Lansky, Aaron, Outwitting History: How a Young Man Rescued a Million Books and Saved a Vanishing Civilisation, Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, 2004, ISBN 1-565-12429-4.
  • Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
  • Schaechter, Mordkhe, The Standardized Yiddish Orthography: Rules of Yiddish Spelling, 6th ed., YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-914512-25-0 (in Yiddish and English).
  • Shandler, Jeffrey, Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006, ISBN 0-520-24416-8.
  • Weinreich, Uriel. College Yiddish: an Introduction to the Yiddish language and to Jewish Life and Culture, 6th revised ed., YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-914-51226-9 (in Yiddish and English).
  • Weinstein, Miriam, Yiddish: A Nation of Words, Ballentine Books, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-345-44730-1.
  • Wex, Michael, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-312-30741-1.
  • Wexler, Paul, Two-Tiered Relexification in Yiddish: Jews, Sorbs, Khazars, and the Kiev-Polessian Dialect, Berlin, New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 3-11-017258-5.

Periodicals and Newspapers

  • Jewish Daily Forward, pub. The Forward, NYC, since 1897. Yiddish edition now printed weekly and in an online edition.
  • Der Yiddisher Tam-Tam, pub. Maison de la Culture Yiddish, Paris, since 1994, also available in electronic format.
  • Yidishe Heftn, pub. Le Cercle Bernard Lazare, Paris, since 1996, sample cover, subscription info.
  • YIVO Bleter, pub. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, NYC, initial series from 1931, new series since 1991.

External links

Yiddish edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Wikibooks2

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