Overview

Yiddish arrived in America as the mother tongue of millions of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe. Gradually it infiltrated the majority language and """"Jewish English"""" was created, with words such as """"kosher"""" and """"chutzpah."""" Yiddish had first developed from language sharing as Jews of northern France and northern Italy migrated into the German-speaking region of the Rhine Valley in the Middle Ages. The author traces the development of such words as """"bonhomme"""" from the old French meaning """"good man"""" to the Yiddish of """"bonim"""", or """"shul"""" for synagogue derived from the German """"schuol"""", meaning """"school,"""" which had come originally from the Latin """"schola"""".

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9780817311032

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Reviews

A wonderfully readable book for both a general audience and immigrant historians. -CHOICE This is a marvelous book....It is so enjoyable, so readable, so informative, so entertaining, and so well written that the reader is sorry when he comes to the last page. -Verbatim

Author Information

Sol Steinmetz is a lexicographer and general editor of the World Book Dictionary and coeditor of the Second Barnhart Dictionary of New English.

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