YIDDISH LANGUAGE BORROWINGS IN MODERN ENGLISH
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2017-10-107-111
Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jews, arose about ten centuries ago as a result of contact with various dialects of Medieval German. Of all the Germanic languages, Yiddish looks least Germanic: it uses a Hebrew alphabet and is read from right to left, and its grammar and lexicon have undergone considerable influence not only from Hebrew and Aramaic, but also from various Slavic languages. Between 1890 and 1920 millions of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe boarded ships for America. They were fleeing the tragic events that shook the Old World. So Yiddish language and culture began its journey on a new continent. Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia were among the cities where Yiddish theaters, newspapers, and book publishers thrived. A Yiddish vaudeville sprang up, featuring performers who could switch in the blink of an eye from dances and funny jokes to sentimental songs. The heart of the culture lay in New York, where Second Avenue acquired the nickname “the Yiddish Broadway.” Yiddish words were quick to enrich American English - words like bagel, bupkes, chutzpah, klutz, schlemiel, schlep, schmuck, tchotchke, etc. Many words and phrases from Yiddish you can encounter today in American books, magazines, newspapers; or hear on television or radio, in movies or nightclubs; or may overhear on the street in many cities in the United States. The borrowings from Yiddish include specific ethnic and religious terms, words of conversational speech, pejorative words and terms of Jewish cuisine.
Keywords: Yiddish, borrowings, English, religious terms, words of conversational speech, pejorative words, Jewish cuisine terms
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Issue: 10, 2017
Series of issue: Issue 10
Rubric: GERMANIC LANGUAGES
Pages: 107 — 111
Downloads: 1209