A Semantic Study of Yiddish-Origin Lexemes in English Pro gradu Department of English University of Helsinki January 1993 David Landau Table of Contents 1. Introduction...................................................................................................................... 1 2. Languages in Contact....................................................................................................... 2 3. Jewish Languages ............................................................................................................ 4 3.1. A Short History of Yiddish....................................................................................... 6 3.2. Jewish English .......................................................................................................... 9 3.2.1. Jewish Settlement in the United States.............................................................. 9 3.2.2. Varieties of Jewish English ............................................................................. 10 3.2.3. Written Jewish English.................................................................................... 12 3.2.4. Borrowing from Jewish English into English.................................................. 13 4. A Semantic Study of Lexemes of Yiddish Origin in English........................................ 14 4.1. Primary Sources...................................................................................................... 14 4.2. Secondary Sources.................................................................................................. 17 4.3. Etymology and Orthography................................................................................... 19 4.4. Procedures of the Semantic Study .......................................................................... 24 4.5. Religio-Cultural Terms........................................................................................... 26 4.5.1. kosher, treyfe.................................................................................................... 26 4.5.2. shikse ................................................................................................................ 28 4.5.3. davn .................................................................................................................. 29 4.5.4. to sit shive........................................................................................................ 31 4.5.5. ghetto, shtetl..................................................................................................... 34 4.5.6. gefilte fish ........................................................................................................ 37 4.5.7. beygl ................................................................................................................. 38 4.5.8. Jewish Holidays ............................................................................................... 39 4.6. Words and Expressions for General Use ................................................................ 41 4.6.1. khutspe............................................................................................................. 41 4.6.2. shmooze ............................................................................................................ 47 4.6.3. bottom line, in short......................................................................................... 51 4.6.4. Enough already, shush ..................................................................................... 56 4.6.5. dybbuk, Golem................................................................................................. 59 4.6.6. shm-.................................................................................................................. 60 4.6.7. -nik ................................................................................................................... 62 4.6.8. boor .................................................................................................................. 66 4.7. Human Types.......................................................................................................... 69 4.7.1. meyvn, kibitzer ................................................................................................ 70 4.7.2. mentsh .............................................................................................................. 74 4.7.3. shlemiel et al. ................................................................................................... 75 4.7.4. meshuge ........................................................................................................... 79 4.7.5. shmok............................................................................................................... 80 4.7.6. shmate .............................................................................................................. 82 4.7.7. Miscellany........................................................................................................ 83 4.8. Show Business Cant ............................................................................................... 83 4.8.1. shtik .................................................................................................................. 84 4.8.2. shlep ................................................................................................................. 85 4.8.3. shlok ................................................................................................................. 86 4.8.4. shmaltz ............................................................................................................. 87 4.8.5. hokum ............................................................................................................... 87 4.9. Criminals' Argot...................................................................................................... 89 4.10. Summary............................................................................................................... 90 5. Conclusions.................................................................................................................... 93 Notes.................................................................................................................................. 94 References.......................................................................................................................... 95 Appendix............................................................................................................................ 99 1 1. Introduction Yiddish is a West Germanic language, a geographical 'outpost' to the east on the periphery of continental Germania (Lass 1987: 12). It emerged a millennium ago as a fusion language, with Hebrew, Aramaic, Romance, and Germanic components and later acquired also Slavic components. For a bit more than a century it has been in a close contact with English, following the massive movement of Jews from Eastern Europe to America at the end of the last century. This thesis deals with the result of this language contact upon English, with emphasis upon areas and uses not directly involved with Jewish life, in other words, upon those traits which have become integral part of the English language and are used and understood not only by Jews. I start with a brief study of languages in contact, following mostly the outlines laid down by Uriel Weinreich in his book Languages in Contact (1953). This chapter is followed by a brief history of Yiddish and the development of Jewish English. The main body of the study is a semantic study of words borrowed from Yiddish into English. I follow the descriptive patterns set by Stephen Ullmann in his Semantics: An Introduction to the Science of Meaning (1972). The semantic study mainly examines lexemes found in the international edition of Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune in their 1990-1992 issues. The emphasis is, thus, on lexemes which are presently in use. Following a discussion of matters of etymology and orthography I outline the procedures for the semantic study and continue with detailed discussion of the lexemes of Yiddish- origin. At the end of the examination I discuss common features of the context in which these lexemes appear and try to determine why English has domesticated these words. I conclude the thesis with general observations on this field of linguistic studies and suggestions for further topics to be examined as a continuation of this study. 2 2. Languages in Contact Uriel Weinreich (1953: 1) defines languages in contact as two or more languages used alternately by the same persons. Interference is the deviation from the norms of either languages in the speech of the individuals involved - bilinguals - as a result of this contact. One manifestation of linguistic interference is elements that are borrowed or transferred from one language to another. David L. Gold (1986a: 133) maintains that interference is a pejorative term which may have the sense of 'contaminate'. He suggests instead using the term influence , which is a neutral and objective word. Other terms used in this field are borrowing, transfer, switching, integration, domestication , etc. Weinreich studied interference in the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical domains. Phonetic interference arises when a bilingual reproduces a sound of one system according to the phonetic rules of another language. He does not deal with individual variation from