Jewish English is a cover term for varieties of the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
spoken by
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. They may include significant amounts of
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
and
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
taken from
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, and both
classical and
modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...
. These varieties can be classified into several types:
Yeshivish
Yeshivish (), also known as Yeshiva English, Yeshivisheh Shprach, or Yeshivisheh Reid, is a sociolect of English spoken by Yeshiva students and other Jews with a strong connection to the Orthodox Yeshiva world.
"Yeshivish" may also refer to n ...
,
Yinglish
Yiddish words used in the English language include both words that have been assimilated into Englishused by both Yiddish and English speakersand many that have not. An English sentence that uses either may be described by some as Yinglish (or H ...
, and
Heblish
Jewish English is a cover term for varieties of the English language spoken by Jews. They may include significant amounts of vocabulary and syntax taken from Yiddish, and both classical and modern Hebrew. These varieties can be classified int ...
, as well as more flexible mixtures of English and other
Jewish languages
Jewish languages are the various Language, languages and Dialect, dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following th ...
, which may contain features and other elements from languages other than Yiddish and Hebrew.
The classification "Jewish English" eliminates the need for concern with identifying the specific origin of the non-English components of any such variant. This offsets, for example, misperceptions that can result from failure to note the Hebrew origin of a word that may have become widely known in
Anglophone
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
contexts via Yiddish, and may be, therefore, simply regarded as Yiddish. (This problem is illustrated in the
list of English words of Yiddish origin
This is a list of words that have entered the English language from the Yiddish language, many of them by way of American English. There are differing approaches to the romanization of Yiddish orthography (which uses the Hebrew alphabet); thus ...
.)
Variants
Several terms for hybrid Jewish English are being used or have been suggested, such as Englibrew and Yeshivish (hybrid English used in ''yeshivas'', Jewish religious schools).
A set of terms refer to hybrids or mixtures of English and Yiddish rather than with Hebrew, and code-switching may be for representation of religious or cultural affiliation in speech, rather than language transfer reasons.
In the US these include: Yinglish, Yidgin English, Yidlish, Yiddiglish, Ameridish, Anglish, Heblish, Engdish, Engliddish, Engbrew, Englibrew, Jewish English, Jewish Dialect, Frumspeak, Yeshivish, Hebonics, Judeo-English.
[
]
Heblish
Heblish or Hebrish, less frequently Hebglish or Engbrew, all blends of the words "Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
" and "English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
", refer to any combination of the two languages, or to code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...
between the languages.
The term ''Heblish'' was recorded earliest in 1979, with ''Hebrish'' (1989) and ''Hebglish'' (1993) appearing later. Other less common terms are ''Hinglish'' (recorded from 1982) and ''Henglish'' (1983).[Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity. ''English World-Wide'', 39(1): 25. ]
See also
*Hebraization of English
The Hebraization of English (or Hebraicization) is the use of the Hebrew alphabet to write English. Because Hebrew uses an abjad, it can render English words in multiple ways. There are many uses for hebraization, which serve as a useful tool for ...
(or Hebraicization), the use of the Hebrew alphabet to write English
*Yiddish words used in English
Yiddish words used in the English language include both words that have been assimilated into Englishused by both Yiddish and English speakersand many that have not. An English sentence that uses either may be described by some as Yinglish (or H ...
*List of English words of Yiddish origin
This is a list of words that have entered the English language from the Yiddish language, many of them by way of American English. There are differing approaches to the romanization of Yiddish orthography (which uses the Hebrew alphabet); thus ...
References
Further reading
*Gold, David L. 1986. "An Introduction to Jewish English." Jewish Language Review. Vol. 6. pp. 94–120 dditions and corrections in vol. 7, 1987, p. 622, and Jewish Linguistic Studies, vol. 2, 1990, pp. 525–527
*Gold, David L. 1985. "Names for Jewish English and Some of Its Varieties." American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage. Vol. 60. No. 2. Summer. pp. 185–187.
External links
Jewish Language Research Website
Museum of the Jewish People
Code-switching
Hebrew language
Macaronic forms of English
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