Yiddish is the traditional vernacular, or daily language, of Ashkenazic Jews. Ashkenazim are Jews originally from German-speaking lands in northwestern Europe, who developed their own religious customs as well as their own Jewish language. Today, the majority of world Jewry is of Ashkenazim descent, including the majority of American Jews.
Scholars generally consider Yiddish to be about 1,100 years old. They believe Yiddish to have its origins in the arrival of Jews from northern France and Italy to towns in the Rhine River valley— Aachen, Mainz, Worms, Speyer— during the 900s. These Jews became the first Ashkenazim and the first Yiddish speakers.
It is estimated that there are about a quarter of a million Yiddish speakers in the United States, about the same number in Israel, and another 100,000 in the rest of the world. There were however about 11,000,000 Yiddish speakers just prior to the Holocaust. While the war rendered Yiddish into a dying language, some scholars believe that the number of Yiddish speakers is actually starting to increase in the 21st century.
It is a common phenomenon for Jews to invent distinct Jewish dialects of the languages spoken in their host majority culture. The Jewish version of world languages sometimes differ by just a few words and in other cases, like Yiddish, a plethora of words including significant variations in grammar. Other than Yiddish, a few linguistic examples of this phenomenon include: Ladino {Judeo-Spanish}, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Italian, Jewish Neo-Aramaic and Jewish English.
Jewish English is often called “Yinglish.” A few examples would include the following phrases: “Oy I’m svitzing because I’ve been shleping all day” {“ah… I am sweating because I’ve been running around all day”} “You should have Nachas froom da kinder” {“May you experience pleasure and pride from your children”} “So tell me, Vas iz da Maiser” {Please tell me, what’s going on} “Let’s talk Tachlis” {Let’s speak about what we’re actually going to do.}
Yiddish was formed out of a fusion of German, Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is written with Hebrew characters. Yiddish originated in the Ashkenazi Jewish culture of the Rhineland in the 10th centaury c.e. and spread to Central and Eastern Europe and eventually to other continents. The oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish dates to 1272 and is a blessing in the Worms Mahzor, a Hebrew Holiday prayer book. {See Frakes, 2004 and Baumgarten/Frakes, 2005}
Yiddish was originally called Leshon Ashkenaz {the language of Ashkenaz}, or Taytsh, literally {translation}. Yiddish is affectionately called by Yiddish enthusiasts Mamma Leshon, {Mother tongue} . Yiddish, did not become the actual name of the language until the 18th century. Many American Yiddish speakers simply call it Jewish.
There are several dialects of Yiddish some of which include, Litvish (Lithuanian Yiddish} Poylish {Polish Yiddish} and Ukrainish {Ukrainian Yiddish}. Each dialect borrows a greater number of words from its respective host culture. Eastern European Yiddish dialect is currently the more popular dialect and borrows more words from Slavic languages than does Western European Yiddish. Prior to the Holocaust {the Nazi genocide of about Six Million Jews-- one third of the world Jewish population} Yiddish was spoken by religious and non religious Jews. Today however, it is primarily the Orthodox communities worldwide who are the custodians of the language. It is the Mamma Lashon {mother tongue} of most Hassidic communities where it is used and taught in Heder. {school}
Vernacular Yiddish flourished in the Yiddish Theatre. At its height, the geographical scope of the Yiddish Theatre was fairly broad. From the later part of the 19th century until just prior to World War II, professional Yiddish theatres could be found throughout the heavily Jewish areas of Eastern and East Central Europe, as well as in Berlin, London, Paris and to an even greater extent New York City. Broadway theatre evolved out of the Yiddish Theatre and it was the leaders of Yiddish Theatre themselves that gave birth to Broadway. {See The Essential Klezmer by Seth Rogovoy for documentation.}
The late 19th and early 20th century are widely considered the Golden Age of secular Yiddish literature. This coincides with the development of Modern Hebrew as a spoken and literary language, from which some words were also absorbed into Yiddish. There are three authors generally regarded as the founders of the modern Yiddish literary genre who were born in the 19th century, but their literary works continued to be read into the 20th and 21 centuries. The first was Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, whose pen name was Mendele Mocher Sforim. The second was Sholem Rabinovitsh, widely known as Sholem Aleichem, whose stories about Tevye the milkman inspired playwright Joseph Stein to write Fiddler on the Roof. The story was further popularized when it was produced as a film. The third founder of modern Yiddish was Isaac Leib Peretz.
There has been resurgence in Yiddish learning in recent times among many people with Jewish ancestry. The language which had lost many of its native speakers during WWII has been making somewhat of a comeback. In Poland, museums have begun to revive Yiddish education and culture through concerts and lectures. There are various Universities worldwide which now offer Yiddish programs based on the YIVO Yiddish curriculum. Many of these programs are held during the summer and are attended by Yiddish enthusiasts from around the world. One such school is located at the Vilnius University.
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