Mendele: Yiddish literature and language --------------------------------------------------- Contents of Vol. 1 no. 5 May 28, 1991 1) Yiddish in English (Noyekh Miller) 1)------------------------------------------------- Date: May 27,1991 From: Noyekh Miller (nmiller@trincc.bitnet) Subject: Yiddish in English Ellen Prince's instances of English in Yiddish prompt these examples of the reverse. They're taken from Sol Steinmetz (Yiddish and English: A Century of Yid- dish in America, University of Alabama, 1986). Steinmetz devotes a chapter to 'Jewish English', the basic point of which is this: Whereas the ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic Jews have retained Yiddish as their primary lan- guage.., the Modern Orthodox have become by and large English speakers, though many of them are in varying degrees Yiddish-English bilinguals. But while English is their pri- mary language, and often the only language they use (especially if they are American born), their form of English is to a greater or lesser degree influenced by, and often heavily dependent on forms and expressions of Eastern European origin. (p.83) He quotes Joshua Fishman: JE in the USA, as used in Yeshiva circles (and is gaining currency in other circles with which the latter intersect), has incor- porated numerous word-by-word calques of Yiddish paraphrastic constructions common both in learned and in popular discourse: e.g., zay zikh mekhaven--be me mekhavn, 'Should I be you mekhavn?' These are expres- sions learned by students from their talmud instructors. These students now study talmud in English translation. The instructors seem to be transposing their fully routinized Yiddish translation into their Yiddish trans- lation. Among the many words and phrases Steinmetz mentions, I found these particularly interesting. I also wonder a) how many of these words show up in the English spoken by Forverts readers and b) how many show up even in the _Yiddish_ spoken by Forverts readers. be meshadekh, zivig, hesped, be maspid, limudey koydesh, harabonis, zal, make a moytsi, make a lekhayim, say torah, write tnoyim, khap shirayim. Some examples: Whatever the reason one wants to be with a Boro Park family--for a simcha, for a shid- duch, for companionship, for chinuch, for chizuck,...the Committee and its 90 baalei battim welcome you (Jewish Journal, Dec. 12, 1975, p.22). Since we had only one Sefer Torah it was agreed that the Ashkenazim would leyn first ...and we leyned after the roll call (Jewish Life, July 1973, pp.45-46). And my favorite: We must practice Ahavoh not Sinoh; we must build Yiddishkeit, not destroy it. If a non-frum boy moves into your neighborhood.. be mekarev him (Darkenu, July 1975, p.7).