In “Yiddish and English- A Century of Yiddish in America,” Sol Steinmetz set himself the task of describing the relationship between Yiddish and English and their influences on each other.
The author, who studied at Yeshiva University and at Columbia University, is a well-known linguist and lexicographer. He is the general editor of the World Book Dictionary and co-editor of the Second Barnhart Dictionary of New English. He has contributed to a variety of periodicals and is at present working on an etymological dictionary of American English and a dictionary of science.
I first came across his name some years ago when he contributed an article to The Jewish Press, discussing the Yiddish origin of the phrase “the bottom line,” which was then making its debut in the media.
In recent years I have seem him referred to — in very complimentary terms – by William Safire in his essays on language in the Sunday editions of the New York Times.
The first chapters of his new book– which was published by the University of Alabama Press — are devoted to a brief history of the Yiddish language and to “Yiddish in the United States.” Though the Yiddish daily press is no more and the influential Yiddish theater has ceased to exist, in Steinmetz’ view, the prospects for the continuity of Yiddish in America are far from dim. Yiddish will remain, he writes, one of the six most important non-English mother tongues in the United States (after Spanish, German, Italian, French and Polish). “Moreover demographers project that in the year 2000 there will still be a million individuals in the United States who will give Yiddish as their mother tongue and among them will be 26,000 children from ultra-orthodox or Hassidic homes whose primary and perhaps only language will be Yiddish…”
In the chapter “The Americanization of Yiddish” Steinmetz describes the influence of American English on Yiddish. Yiddish, not only absorbed thousands of loan words from American English – the loan words usually taking Yiddish forms and becoming integrated into Yiddish patterns of declensions, conjugations and derivations – but its syntax was greatly influenced by American English.
Moreover many phrases and expressions – though seemingly all Yiddish — were in reality patterned on American English: e.g. makht a leben – make a living; es nemt tseit– it takes time.
Israel Zangwill’s widely read novels about the Jews of London’s East Side (Whitechapel) popularized in English a number of Yiddish words, such as shnorrer, schlemiel, gefilte fish and talis.
Successful American Jewish authors and humorists had a large share in the popularization of Yiddishism in the United States.
Yiddish contributed more words to American English than any other language spoken by an immigrant minority.
In the chapter “The Yiddish Influences on English,” the author discusses and illustrates the use of many Yiddish words which have been fully established in American English.
The influence of Yiddish on American English has continued without abatement.
Here is a list of Yiddish words which entered the American slang in the 1950’s and 1960’s: nash– nibble; bobkes– chicken feed, nothing; shmir– bribery , flattery; kvetch- complain; klutz (properly klotz) – clumsy person; tzimes– big deal, fuss; maven (properly mevyn)- expert, connoisseur; shtik– act, routine, bit; yold- dupe, fool; zaftik – plump; kvel– be delighted; heymish – homey, cozy; fonfe – to hem and haw; khazeray- filth, trashy food.
Other Yiddishisms that have become commmon in American English since the 1960s, adds Steinmetz, include nakhes – pride and joy; tzores – trouble, kokhlefl- busybody, meddler; ay-ay-ay- wonderful, terrific; tchatchke or tsatske- toy, trinket, gadget; mamzer – rascal, rogue.
Since the 1960s- probably as a result of American influence- Yiddishisms also have become more frequent in British publications.
Illustrating the use of the phrase “the whole megillah” a partial loan translation of the Yiddish de gantse megila– – Steinmetz cites a London as well as a New York periodical from 1966 and 1976 respectively.
In addition to Yiddish words, numerous Yiddish idioms and modes of expression are found in contemporary American English. Not seldom one hears or reads English sentences which show the influence of Yiddish syntax or of Yiddish morphological forms. Steinmetz quotes the headline of the New York Times editorial “This is responsibility” which turns an English declarative form into an interrogative. Value, shmalue; text, shmext – the deprecatory prefix shm is derived from Yiddish.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 8, 1986