Yiddish language (redirected from Yiddish (language))

Yiddish language (yĭd`ĭsh), a member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages; German language).

Although it is not a national language, Yiddish is spoken as a first language by approximately 5 million Jews all over the world, especially in Argentina, Canada, France, Israel, Mexico, Romania, the United States, and the republics of the former USSR. Before the annihilation of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, it was the tongue of more than 11 million people. Growing out of a blend of a number of medieval German dialects, Yiddish arose c.1100 in the ghettos of Central Europe. From there it was taken to Eastern Europe by Jews who began to leave German-speaking areas in the 14th cent. as a result of persecution. By the 18th cent. Yiddish was almost universal among the Jews of Eastern Europe. It has generally accompanied Eastern European Jews in their migrations to other parts of the world.

Phonetically, Yiddish is closer to Middle High German than is modern German. Although the vocabulary of Yiddish is basically Germanic, it has been enlarged by borrowings from Hebrew, Aramaic, some Slavic and Romance languages, and English. Written from right to left like Hebrew, Yiddish also uses the Hebrew alphabet with certain modifications. In 1925 the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO) was established in Vilnius, Lithuania. It served as an academy to oversee the development of the language. Later its headquarters were transferred to New York City, where in time it became the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research. Coping with the problem of dialects, this institute has done much to bring about the standardization of Yiddish.

In the eyes of many, Yiddish has significance both as the language of an important literature as well as a unique expression of the Jewish people. It is widely thought that modern Yiddish literature began in 1864 with the publication of Das Kleyne Mentshele (The Little Man) by Mendele mocher sforim. Among the best-known writers in Yiddish literature are Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, Isaac Meier Dik, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, the first writer in the language to be awarded (1978) the Nobel Prize in Literature. Thousands of Yiddish works are housed at the Yiddish Book Center at Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass.

Bibliography

See M. I. Herzog et al., ed., The Field of Yiddish: Studies in Language, Folklore, and Literature (1969); M. Weinreich, History of the Yiddish Language (1980); D. Katz, Grammar of the Yiddish Language (1987); D. G. Roskies, A Bridge of Longing: The Lost Art of Yiddish Storytelling (1995).

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Yiddish language

Language of Ashkenazic Jews and their descendants (see Ashkenazi), written in the Hebrew alphabet. Yiddish developed from southeastern dialects of Middle High German carried into central and eastern Europe beginning in the 12th century; it has been strongly influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic, from which it draws 12–20% of its lexicon. The isolation of eastern European speakers from High German and their exposure to Slavic languages, particularly Polish and Ukrainian, led to a primary distinction between West and East Yiddish dialects. From the late 18th century most Jews remaining in central Europe gave up Yiddish in favour of German; it has now virtually died out. East Yiddish dialects differ markedly in realization of vowels; there are central, northeastern, and southeastern dialects. A flourishing literary language in the 19th and early 20th century, Yiddish declined dramatically due to suppression, massive migration, assimilation, and Nazi genocide. The language nevertheless continues to flourish among the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim in numerous countries and among secular students of Yiddish at leading universities, including Columbia University (New York), Hebrew University (Jerusalem), McGill University (Montreal), the University of Oxford, and the University of Paris. Yiddish is spoken by three million people worldwide.