Yiddish language

Member of the west Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, deriving from 13th-14th-century Rhineland German and spoken by northern, central, and eastern European Jews, who have carried it to Israel, the USA, and many other parts of the world. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet and has many dialects reflecting European areas of residence, as well as many borrowed words from Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, and other languages encountered.

In the USA, Yiddish has had a powerful impact on English, best heard in the argot of New York City, in the film and stage communities, and in the national media. Such words as bagel, chutzpah, kibbitz, mench, nosh, schlemiel, schmaltz, and schmuck have entered the American language, but are less used in Britain. The novelist and short-story writer Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote in Yiddish.