Yeshivish (), also known as Yeshiva English, Yeshivisheh Shprach, or Yeshivisheh Reid, is a
sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
of
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 ...
spoken by
Yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
students and other
Jews with a strong connection to the
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
Yeshiva world.
"Yeshivish" may also refer to non-
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
Haredi Jews. Sometimes it has an extra connotation of non-Hasidic Haredi Jews educated in
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
and whose education made a noticeable specific cultural impact onto them. In the latter case the term has ambivalent (both positive and negative) connotations comparable to these of the term "
academic".
The term appears to be a
portmanteau word of ''yeshiva'' 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 ...
'', however, it may simply be formed from ''yeshiva'' + the adjectival suffix ''-ish''.
Research
Only a few serious studies have been written about Yeshivish. The first is a master's thesis by Steven Ray Goldfarb (University of Texas at El Paso, 1979) called "A Sampling of Lexical Items in Yeshiva English." The work lists, defines, and provides examples for nearly 250 Yeshivish words and phrases. The second, more comprehensive work is ''Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish'' by Chaim Weiser. Weiser (1995) maintains that Yeshivish is not a
pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
,
creole, or an independent
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, nor is it precisely a
jargon
Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The conte ...
. Baumel (2006) following Weiser notes that Yeshivish differs from English primarily in phonemic structure, lexical meaning, and syntax.
Benor (2012) offers a detailed list of distinctive features used in Yeshivish. Katz describes it in ''Words on Fire: the Unfinished Story of Yiddish'' (2004) as a "new
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
of English", which is "taking over as the
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
in everyday life in some ... circles in America and elsewhere". Heilman (2006) and others consider
code-switching a part of Yeshivish. Though Kaye (1991) would exclude English speakers in the context of a Yeshiva, studying the Talmud, from code-switching where he considers the terms "Yiddish English" or "Yiddishized English" ("=
Yinglish") may be more appropriate.
Relation to other languages
English
The
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 ...
variant of Yeshivish consists of grammatical irregularities borrowed from Yiddish, and a vocabulary consisting of
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 ...
,
Mishnaic Hebrew,
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, and sometimes
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 ...
. The speaker will use those terms instead of their English counterpart, either because of cultural affinity, or lack of the appropriate English term.
Yiddish
The Yiddish variant of Yeshivish is questionable as a definition in itself, since the grammar remains identical to that of Yiddish. It may be argued that the Yiddish variant of Yeshivish is a new phenomenon, and consists of fewer
Germanic terms and more Aramaic and Rabbinical Hebrew.
Yiddish as portrayed in academia concentrates on the secular and cultural variants of Yiddish, and may be attributed to the fact that
YIVO, the forerunner of Yiddish as an academic study, was founded by
Jewish secularists.
The "Yeshivish" dialect of Yiddish has existed for quite a few centuries among Yeshiva-educated Jews in Eastern and Central Europe. However, as a result of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and immigration, the secular Yiddish-speaking community is very small, and is far outnumbered by religious Yiddish-speaking communities in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
,
Bnei Brak
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an are ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and others, making the Yeshivish variant the predominant contemporary Yiddish dialect.
Hebrew
The Yeshivish dialect of
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 ...
consists of occasional
Ashkenazic pronunciation and various
Yiddishisms within
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 ...
spoken among
Haredi communities in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. While many terms from the Talmud and
Mishna exist in Modern Hebrew, their pronunciation is often in line with Modern Hebrew, whereas in the Yeshivish variant, they are pronounced in the traditional Ashkenazic way.
Some Yiddishisms present in Yeshivish Hebrew are not distinct to the Yeshivish dialect and can be found in mainstream Modern Hebrew as well.
Patterns of usage
Yeshivish is primarily a male-spoken dialect. Fathers and sons, particularly of teenage years and above, might speak Yeshivish, while mothers and daughters generally speak a milder variety of it, which generally features Yeshivish phonology but excludes many Talmudic words. This can be explained as much of the Yeshivish lexicon is learned in
Yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
where the studying takes place using a specialist nomenclature. Familiarity with these terms develops and they are then re-applied to other situations. There is a higher incidence of Yeshivish being spoken amongst Orthodox Jews that are regularly involved in Torah study, or belong to a community that promotes its study.
Commonly used platitudes amongst Orthodox Jews are frequently expressed with their Yeshivish equivalent. Examples include using ''shkoyakh'' for "thank you",
a contraction from the Hebrew "Yishar Koach", which literally translates as "May your strength be firm" and is used to indicate to someone that they have done a good job, and ''Barukh HaShem'' (sometimes written as B"H, using the quotation mark used for abbreviations in Hebrew), meaning "Blessed is
HaShem he Name (of God). Yeshivish dialogue may include many expressions that refer to HaShem.
Some observers predict that the English variant of Yeshivish may develop further to the point that it could become one of the historical Judeo-hybrid languages like Yiddish,
Judeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: , Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the Ottoman Empir ...
or the
Judeo-Arabic languages. Judeo-hybrid languages were spoken dialects which mixed elements of the local vernacular, Hebrew, Aramaic and Jewish religious idioms. As Yiddish was to
Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...
, Yeshivish may be to Standard American English. However, the integration of modern-day Jews with non-Jews may keep their speech from diverging as far from the standard language as it did in the past.
Distinct features
Vocabulary
The vocabulary and grammatical structure of Yeshivish are drawn primarily from the speaker's native language (see above), although the vocabulary includes scholarly jargon, primarily from the Talmud and
Acharonim
In Jewish law and history, ''Acharonim'' (; he, אחרונים ''Aḥaronim''; sing. , ''Aḥaron''; lit. "last ones") are the leading rabbis and poskim (Jewish legal decisors) living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifi ...
in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In many sentences, however, the grammatical and lexical features of the speaker's native language are slight and sometimes even lacking altogether.
A distinguishing feature of Yeshivish is that its speakers knowingly apply highly technical and literal written language to a colloquial language and in common day usage, similar to
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 ...
, for example:
He was ''goirem'' ''Asach'' ''nezek'', but ''basoif'' was ''moideh b'miktzas'' and ''tayned'' he was ''shoigeg''
''Goirem'' means to cause.
''Tayned'' means to claim.
''Asach'' means "a lot" (in Yiddish).
''Nezek'' in its original context refers to the Talmudic notion of
tort
A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...
law.
''Basoif'' means "eventually" (more precisely, "at the end").
''Moideh b'miktzas'' refers to partial confession of a defendant.
And ''shoigeg'' in its original context means an incident which was caused unwillingly, but was a result of partial negligence.
Despite its heavy borrowing of technical and legal terms, the above sentence would be understood clearly by speakers of Yeshivish as "He did a lot of damage, and eventually admitted that he did it, although he claimed it was inadvertent."
In the above example, ''shoigeg'' does not have the same meaning in Yeshivish as it does in its original context, wherein it implies negligence. ''Oines'' would be the correct technical term.
Phonology
The Yeshivish
accent has similarities to various accents of Eastern European and New York backgrounds. One notable feature of Yeshivish is the frequency of occurrence of the phoneme
common in many words of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Yiddish origin.
/t/ may be released when in general American it would be flapped or unreleased. Final stops may devoice and pre-nasal /æ/ may not raise.
Discourse and prosody
Yeshivish may use a "chanting intonation" for reading and discussing Jewish texts. A number of other distinctive intonations are also used: for instance, a high-falling pitch boundary for a dramatic point.
A hesitation click is used, borrowed from
Israeli Hebrew
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli (b ...
:
: ''But sometimes it's more—
lick
Lick may refer to:
* Licking, the action of passing the tongue over a surface
Places
* Lick (crater), a crater on the Moon named after James Lick
* 1951 Lick, an asteroid named after James Lick
* Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio, United State ...
I don't know how to explain it.''
The "click" is often vocalized as "tsk."
Yeshivish has some unique
interjections. For instance ''Oh!'', ''Ooh-aah!'' and ''Psshhhh!'' may be used as praise markers. Extensive hand motions, in particular thumb dipping in the style of talmudic discourse as well as the "fist twist," which is a loosely closed fist raised at or above eye level and twisted back and forth to indicate uncertainty or doubt, are common.
Grammar
Morphology
Loan words
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
are often given plurals using standard English morphology. For instance, the plural of ''yeshiva'' is ''yeshivas'' rather than ''yeshivois'' as in
Ashkenazi Hebrew (although this is similar to the plural form in Yiddish). Hebrew nouns ending in ''-us'' are pluralized with the suffix ''-in'' rather than replacing ''-us'' with ''-uyois'' as in Ashkenazi Hebrew, e.g. ''shlichus > shlichusin'' 'mission' and ''mashmaus > mashmausin'' 'implication'. This likely comes from the Yiddish plural marker ''-n'' although it could also have derived from Aramaic ''-in''.
Loan verbs may also conjugate with standard English patterns. For example, Yiddish derived ''daven'' 'pray' may become ''davening'' or ''davened'', e.g. "I already davened
mincha." and "Quiet, I'm davening."
Syntax and semantics
Some verbs, particularly those of Hebrew origin, are often treated as
participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s, and inflected by English
auxiliary verbs, in the same way that
periphrastic
In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
verbs are constructed in Yiddish. For example:
:''He was moideh that he was wrong.''
::'He admitted that he was wrong.'
::''He was'' puts ''moideh'' – "to admit" – into the third-person singular past tense
:''We'll always be soimech on Rav Plony's p'sak that the eruv is kosher.''
::'We'll always rely upon Rabbi So-and-So's ruling that the
eruv
An eruv (; he, עירוב, , also transliterated as eiruv or erub, plural: eruvin or eruvim) is a ritual halakhic enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities which are normally prohibited on Shabbat (due to the prohibition of ''ho ...
is usable.'
::''We'll always be'' puts ''soimech'' – 'to rely' – into the first-person plural future tense
There are a number of
phrasal verb
In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: ''turn down'', ''run into'' or ''sit up''), sometimes combined with a preposition (ex ...
s
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
d from Yiddish, for instance ''bring down'' and ''tell over'' 'recount, retell (a story)'.
Modals may be used differently than in standard English, e.g. ''I want that you should get her number''.
There are a number of differences between the use of prepositions in Yeshivish and standard English:
The preposition ''by'' has a wide array of meanings in Yeshivish:
:''Are you eating by Rabbi Fischer?'' (at the house of)
:''By
Chabad
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...
, it's different.'' (with, among)
A possible cause for this is that the Yiddish
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
"''bei''" is defined as at, beside or by. The similar-sounding English preposition ''by'' has come to encompass these meanings.
Prepositions are often dropped:
:''Her bus gets in 10:15.''
:''I'm already frum
eligious20 years.
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 ...
*
Klezmer-loshn Klezmer-loshn (קלעזמער-לשון ''klezmer-loshn'', Yiddish for ''Musician's Tongue'') is an extinct derivative of the Yiddish language. It was a kind of argot, or cant used by travelling Jewish musicians, known as klezmorim (klezmers), in E ...
*
Yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
*
Yiddish words used in English
References
Bibliography
Yeshivish, the language of Talmud Study*
*
External links
DafYomi.org with extensive lectures on Talmud in Yeshivish English
{{English dialects by continent
Orthodox Judaism
Yiddish
Yiddish words and phrases
Dialects of English
Language varieties and styles
Sociolinguistics
Macaronic language