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 acqui ...

of English 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 st ...

students and other

Jew 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""T ...

s with a strong connection to the Orthodox Yeshiva world. "Yeshivish" may also refer to non- Hasidic

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

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 st ...

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 An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

". The term appears to be a

portmanteau word A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsEnglish'', 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, 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 ...

, 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 communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

. 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 linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

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 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 plurilingualis ...

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 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 ...

") may be more appropriate.

Relation to other languages

English

The English 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 ve ...

Mishnaic Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew is the Hebrew of Talmudic texts. Mishnaic Hebrew can be sub-divided into Mishnaic Hebrew proper (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which was a spoken language, and Amoraic Hebrew (also c ...

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Jewish Babylonian Aramaic was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh centuries. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the se ...

, 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 H ...

. 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 YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

, 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; ...

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 opposing ...

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 most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, Antwerp,

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,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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 Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

pronunciation and various Yiddishisms within

spoken among

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 The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

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

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 HaShem ( Hebrew: ''hšm'', literally "''the name''"; often abbreviated to 'h′'' is a title used in Judaism to refer to God. It is also a given name and surname. Religious usage * In Judaism, '' HaShem'' (lit. 'the Name') is used to refer ...

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 or the

Judeo-Arabic languages Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encom ...

. 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. Hig ...

, 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

, 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: : ''But sometimes it's more— lickI don't know how to explain it.'' The "click" is often vocalized as "tsk." Yeshivish has some unique

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

s. 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 are often given plurals using standard English morphology. For instance, the plural of ''yeshiva'' is ''yeshivas'' rather than ''yeshivois'' as in

Ashkenazi Hebrew Ashkenazi Hebrew ( he, הגייה אשכנזית, Hagiyya Ashkenazit, yi, אַשכּנזישע הבֿרה, Ashkenazishe Havara) is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for Jewish liturgical use and Torah study by Ash ...

(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 ( he, מִנחַה, pronounced as ; sometimes spelled ''Minchah'' or ''Minḥa'') is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism. Etymology The name ''Mincha'', meaning "present", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacri ...

." 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 verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...

s, 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 in ...

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 (e ...

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 w ...

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 grou ...

, it's different.'' (with, among) A possible cause for this is that the Yiddish preposition "''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.

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