Yeshivish
Encyclopedia
Yeshivish , refers to a sociolect
of English
spoken by yeshiva
students and other Jews with a strong connection to the Orthodox
yeshiva world.
, creole
, or an independent language
, nor is it precisely a jargon
. He refers to it instead, with tongue-in-cheek, as a shprach, a Yiddish word meaning "language" or "rapport."
Linguist and Yiddishist Dovid Katz describes it in "Words on Fire: the Unfinished Story of Yiddish" as a "new dialect
of English," which is "taking over as the vernacular
in everyday life in some ... circles in America and elsewhere."
. The speaker will use those terms in the stead of their English counterpart, either because of cultural affinity, or lack of the appropriate English term.
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 Secular Jews who themselves were unlikely to be educated in Yeshivas and also removed by one or more generations from Yeshiva-educated speakers (see Yiddishisten),
However, 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, World War II
and immigration, the secular-speaking Yiddish community is very small, and is far outnumbered by Religious Yiddish-Speaking communities in New York
, Antwerp, Jerusalem, B'nei Beraq and others, making the predominant contemporary Yiddish Dialect that of the Yeshivish variant.
spoken among Haredi communities in Israel
. While many terms from the Talmud and Mishna exist in Modern Hebrew, their pronunciation is in line with Modern Hebrew, whereas in the Yeshivish Variant, they maintain their Ashkenazic variant.
Although there may also be Yiddishisms present in Yeshivish Hebrew, these are not distinct to the Yeshivish Dialect and can be found in mainstream Modern Hebrew as well.
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, Ladino or Judeo-Arabic. The 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
, 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.
in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In many sentences however, the grammatical and lexical features of the speaker's native language is 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
, for example:
Nezek in its original context refers to the Talmudic notion of tort
law, l'basoif means "eventually", 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."
Note in the above example that 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, but it may be argued that there is less preference for oines in Yeshivish due to its meaning in Modern Hebrew of rape
.
/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.
A hesitation click is used, borrowed from Israeli Hebrew:
Yeshivish has some unique interjection
s. For instance Oh! and Psshhhh! may be used as praise markers.
(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."
There are a number of phrasal verb
s calqued 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:
Prepositions are often dropped:
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
spoken by yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
students and other Jews with a strong connection to the Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
yeshiva world.
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 maintains that Yeshivish is not a pidginPidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
, creole
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
, or an independent language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, nor is it precisely a jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
. He refers to it instead, with tongue-in-cheek, as a shprach, a Yiddish word meaning "language" or "rapport."
Linguist and Yiddishist Dovid Katz describes it in "Words on Fire: the Unfinished Story of Yiddish" as a "new dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of English," which is "taking over as the vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
in everyday life in some ... circles in America and elsewhere."
English
The English variant of Yeshivish consists of grammatical irregularities borrowed from Yiddish, and a vocabulary consisting of Yiddish, Rabbinic Hebrew, Talmudic Aramaic, and sometimes Modern HebrewModern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
. The speaker will use those terms in the stead 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 less GermanicGermanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
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
YIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
, the forerunner of Yiddish as an academic study, was founded by Secular Jews who themselves were unlikely to be educated in Yeshivas and also removed by one or more generations from Yeshiva-educated speakers (see Yiddishisten),
However, 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, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and immigration, the secular-speaking Yiddish community is very small, and is far outnumbered by Religious Yiddish-Speaking communities in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Antwerp, Jerusalem, B'nei Beraq and others, making the predominant contemporary Yiddish Dialect that of the Yeshivish variant.
Hebrew
The Yeshivish dialect of Hebrew consists of occasional Ashkenazic pronunciation and various Yiddishisms within Modern HebrewModern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
spoken among Haredi communities in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. While many terms from the Talmud and Mishna exist in Modern Hebrew, their pronunciation is in line with Modern Hebrew, whereas in the Yeshivish Variant, they maintain their Ashkenazic variant.
Although there may also be Yiddishisms present in Yeshivish Hebrew, these are not distinct to the Yeshivish Dialect and can be found in mainstream Modern Hebrew as well.
Frequency of usage
Yeshivish is primarily a male spoken dialect. Fathers and sons might speak Yeshivish, particularly of teenage years and above, while mothers and daughters generally do not, or they speak a milder variety of it.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, Ladino or Judeo-Arabic. The 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
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
, 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.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary and grammatical structure of Yeshivish is drawn primarily from the speaker's native language (see above), although it includes scholarly jargon, primarily from the Talmud and AcharonimAcharonim
Acharonim is a term used in Jewish law and history, to signify the leading rabbis and poskim living from roughly the 16th century to the present....
in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In many sentences however, the grammatical and lexical features of the speaker's native language is 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
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
, for example:
He caused a lot of nezek, but l'basoif was moideh b'miktzas and claimed he was shoigeg
Nezek in its original context refers to the Talmudic notion of tort
Tort
A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...
law, l'basoif means "eventually", 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."
Note in the above example that 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, but it may be argued that there is less preference for oines in Yeshivish due to its meaning in Modern Hebrew of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
.
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 [x], 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:
- But sometimes it's more - [click] I don't know how to explain it.
Yeshivish has some unique interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
s. For instance Oh! and Psshhhh! may be used as praise markers.
Morphology
Loan words are often given plurals using standard English morphology. For instance, the plural of yeshiva is yeshivas rather than yeshivois as in Ashkenazi HebrewAshkenazi Hebrew
Ashkenazi Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish, German, and various Slavic languages...
(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
Mincha
Mincha, מנחה is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism.-Etymology:The name "Mincha" is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice.-Origin:...
." and "Quiet, I'm davening."
Syntax and semantics
Some verbs, particularly those of Hebrew origin, are often treated as participles, and inflected by English auxiliary verbs, in the same way that periphrastic verbs are constructed in Yiddish. For example:- He was takeh moideh that he was wrong.
- 'He admitted that he was takeh (indeed, actually) 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 eruvEruvAn Eruv is a ritual enclosure around most Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Jewish homes or communities. In such communities, an Eruv is seen to enable the carrying of objects out of doors on the Jewish Sabbath that would otherwise be forbidden by Torah law...
is usable.' - We'll always be puts soimech – 'to rely' – into the first-person plural future tense
- 'We'll always rely upon Rabbi So-and-So's ruling that the eruv
There are a number of phrasal verb
Phrasal verb
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal...
s calqued 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 ChabadChabadChabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
, it's different. (with, among)
Prepositions are often dropped:
- Her bus gets in 10:15.
- I'm already frum [religious] 20 years.