I am prompted to create this item because Yiddish words have been appearing
in various conferences, and I thought it would be a good idea to have a place
to discuss them. It would be most appropriate to point out that there is
a notable authority on the effects of Yiddish words on the English Language.
I am referring, of course, to "The Joys of Yiddish" by Leo Rosten.

Anyone interested in this topic would have to begin by obtaining that book.
(McGraw Hill 1968). 

I was specifically prompted to enter this item because of the word game item
(language 62, but also in IQ) in which the word "dybbuk" was used (admittedly,
by me).

A "dybbuk" is an evil spirit, usually the soul of a dead person that enters
a living person on whom the dead one had some claim. It can also be a demon.
When someone went mad, hysterical, or suffered an epileptic fit, Jews would cry
"A dybbuk has entered into him (or her)!" Jews do not have a very vivid
sense of the Devil, in the medieval Christian sense, as the incarnation of 
evil, the supreme, cunning temptor.

A dybbuk is the closest thing in Jewish folklore to a ghoul, vampire, incubus 
- a migrating spirit who has to find a living body to inhabit.

S. Z. Rapoport (1863-1920) writing under the name S. Ansky wrote a 
remarkable and compelling play called "The Dybbuk" that has been performed
around the world in many languages.

8 responses total.

thanks, srw.  I don't speak Yiddish because I can be remarkably dense at times.
When I was little, my parents would use Yiddish when they didn't want me to
know what they were saying.  Now, any sensible kid would have learned the
language.  I figured the conversation was private and walked away.  Oh, well.

Actually that's fairly common. Yiddish was spoken in my wifes's home when 
she was growing up. She never learned it, either. I was not exposed at home 
at all, and I never learned to speak it or understand it, but I am constantly 
delighted by Yiddish words and expressions.

I just added a noise to party based on Mark Myers' schtick on SNL of
"I'm verklempft..." and Popcorn (and I, and others, but she was the once
who suggested this route) wondered if it meant anything, or if it was 
mock Yiddish?  Anyone know?

(Mike, not Mark... why do I keep doing that?)

If verklempft were a word (and it may be) it would be more like
"farklempft" in Yiddish. Verklempft sounds German. I looked in my German-
English dictionary and it lists "klemmen" as vb. "to pinch", so it
might just mean "pinched" in German. If it was borrowed into 
Yiddish too, it didn't make "The Joys of Yiddish", but that's no
guarantee. In other words, "I don't know."

Actually, I grew up in ahome where Yiddish was spoken as often as English,
and itwas always "ferklempt" in our house.  The meaning was similar to
"fermished" (dooes that explain everything? :-).  I, also understood every
word and inflection of the yiddish spoken around me, but never could speak
the language.  I atill understand much of it when it is spoken (without
translating).  

sounds like the first might mean hungry, and the second, messed up, but I
had the bad form not to listen when my parents spoke Yiddish, since they
apparently didn't want me to know what they were discussing.

Of course there are large differences in Yiddish between countries.
In Amsterdam many words of what we call 'Bargoens' (rogue speech) are 
from Yid origin.
They have become common in daily speech for the native Amsterdammer.
words like:
Joet = ten guilder banknote; meier = 100 guilder bank note; 
etc.

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