The Yiddish (or yidiche ) is a Germanic Langue near to the German , with a Hebrew contribution of vocabulary and Slavic, which was used as vernacular Language at the communities Ashkénaze S, Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe, of the Moyen-âge until the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis, during whom the majority of the Jewish population of Europe was exterminated.

Introduction

The word yidish or jidisch (API: ) (spelled yidich or yidiche according to the corrections of the French orthography) " means literally; juif" (yid/jid (sg.), yidn/jidn (pl.) = Jude, Juden = Jewish/Jewish, Jews/Jewish (substantives); yidish/jidisch (adjectival) - yidish daytsh/jidisch dajtsch = jüdisch Deutsch = Jewish). This language builds towards the XIIe century in the Jewish communities of the Rhineland (Magenza (Mainz), Cologne). At the 16th century, the Jewish communities of Western Europe massively migrate in Central Europe. The Yiddish experiences a new development by integrating phrases in Slavic Langues. This language layman quickly becomes the language of the women, not subjected to the religious studies. However, the literature Yiddish will spend time to appear. The movement hassidic (18th century), arguing on the sacrality of the Hebraic language, will give the departure of a literature of scholarship and fiction.

At the end of the 19th century, the fight for the development of the Yiddish will be undertaken with enthusiasm by the Jewish labor movement and, in particular, by the Bund. This language, spoken by the Jewish communities about Central and Eastern Europe, will be spread in other areas of the world, mainly with the the United States with the waves of immigration of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Another pole of the culture Yiddish is not to neglect. The communist revolution of 1917, then the creation of the the USSR in 1921 isolates certain communities, while allowing a major cultural development (one counted approximately 150 newspapers in Yiddish).

At the end of the years 1920, Stalin created with the Birobidjan (area being next to the Chinese border in the extreme south-east of the Siberia), a Jewish Area autumn whose official language is the Yiddish. Birobidjan always exists. One still teaches there the Yiddish in some schools. But there remain only approximately 4  there; 000 Jews, and the project was a failure.

The Yiddish was almost entirely destroyed in Europe at the same time as the Jewish world of before the Shoah. In the USSR between the years 1940 to 1950, the authorities intensified repression towards the speakers and the intellectuals of language Yiddish. In Israel, the Yiddish, majority language of the emigrants of Central and Eastern Europe ( Yiddischland ), was often regarded as an obstacle with the development of the Hebrew modern. The authorities testified as well as possible to the indifference and at worst to the hostility with regard to the culture Yiddish, considered as a heritage of the exile. It was maintained as a principal language in certain communities harédies of the diaspora as in Israel, thus with Kiryas Joel town of 13.000 inhabitants of the state of New York to the the United States, 90% of the population states to use the Yiddish like first language.

Cultural works

Nevertheless, a Yiddish literature of very great quality developed in Europe then in the United States, until the Second world war. Authors like Cholem Aleichem (the author of " Tévié the slag " who inspired celebrates it comedy " the violin on the roof "), or Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Prize of literature in 1978), is the most famous representatives. Poets (Aaron Nissenson), Playwright S and also of the Musicians and very many Chanteurs celebrated the Jewish culture in this coloured language, with the tasty expressions. There were many newspapers in language Yiddish, including one with Paris, which was one of oldest (written in Latin alphabet); Unzer Wort disappeared at the end of June 1996.

Writing

The Yiddish is written in Hebraic alphabet, even if it is not a consonant Langue (one adds Voyelles there) like the Hebrew . Its grammar rests on bases of German grammar and its vocabulary is composed of Germanic elements (80%), Semitic (10% - to read the Hebrew article ) and Slavic (approximately 5%). The Yiddish having accents and dialectal forms, it can exist notable differences between speakers according to the linguistic zones in which they are originating. The Yiddish also exists in Latin writing (Translittération) for the speakers who do not read the Hebraic writing.

Literature

• Dictionary of the words of Hebraic origin and araméenne of use in the language Yiddish . Comp. by Yitskhok Niborski. Paris: Bibl. Medem, 1997.
• Dictionary Yiddish-French . Comp. by Yitskhok Niborski and Bernard Vaisbrot with the assistance of Simon Neuberg. Paris: Bibl. Medem, 2002.

See too

• Linguistic
• Dictionary of the languages
• Languages by family
• Judeo-Spanish Jéddischdaitsch
• music Klezmer

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