Yinglish-Schminglish   

 

In 1997 I started to see a nefarious plot to Yinglishize  my mother tongue  by members outside  my chosen tribe. That year when I was writing my weekly language column in The Gazette I phoned books editor, Bryan Demchinsky of Ukranian descent  to see if he had received a book I wanted to review. The book in question was entitled The Bible Code and it purported some mishugas that hidden inside the Torah were coded messages that predicted events such as the bombing in Oklahoma City in1995 and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin later that same year. Demchinsky told me he had perused the book  and that in his opinion “it looked like a bunch of dreck.” This surprised me, but not because I held a contrary view of the book. No, what stunned me was my goyishe editor’s knowledge of the word  dreck.

 

This process then proliferated  like a virus among Gazette staffers. In 1999, columnist  nishtayid Don MacPherson wrote  “Perhaps Bouchard was just trying to avoid unnecessary tsuris at the next meeting of the PQ national council.”Before the end of the century Gazette movie critic Brendan Kelly said  that even though actor Robert Carlyle  has a penchant for playing  monsters like Hitler  that at least Carlyle was a monster mensch.

 

So it was at this juncture that I realized that Yinglish was ubiquitous. In August of the new millennium  I caught the following in the Globe & Mail by Elzabeth Renzetti : “I know that she was once fat, on the precipice of obese, and  dreading sailing off into the floaty stage, the point in which the  zaftig give up all fashion sense and begin dressing like Mama Cass.”   And at about the same time Maureen Dowd wrote  in the New York Times that Vice President  Cheney and his aides “shoehorned all their meshugas about Saddam’s aluminum tubes, weapons labs and al Qaeda links into Powell’s UN speech.”  But wait, there’s more! In 2005 Time magazine featured this line  by  someone named  J.F.O. Mcallister on the upcoming marriage of Charles and  Camilla. “Last week there were a few signs of apathy in the sea of schmaltz about enduring love.” Also in 2005 Liam Lacey reviewed a  movie called Prime in the Globe & Mail. The headline was  “What a shemozzle” and the review said that Meryl Streep was presented as a stereotypical Jewish mother: “ She kvetches, plotzes. Gets verklempt and all those other Yiddish things”… .” The word shemozzle   is an example of how words morph.It’s more likelyto be used by Gentiles than by Jews.   It is thought to be be derived from the word mazel and is usually used to mean confusion or chaos. It was popularized by the Anglo Irish writer and comedian Spike Milligan in his comedic writings and WWII  memoirs.At this point Yinglish usage by goyim was so common that I stopped collecting them. It appeared that Jews no longer solely owned Yinglish. I could have sued these plunderers for cultural appropriation.

 

 But sometimes Yiddish is not only misused or fractured it is butchered in a very treyf manner.  Many years ago,  before the Canadian Alliance Party had been created then  Reform backbencher Lee Morrisson from Saskatchewan wanted to refer to  Human Resource Minister’s Jane Stewart’s  gall  but  he felt that the word gall  wasn’t  quite potent  enough. So he said “You got to admire the jutsper JUTSPER of the Minister of Human Resources.” Parliament sensed a linguistic travesty had been committed on the Yiddish language and convulsed into laughter. Then Herb Gray  a member of the Tribe of Israel) said he had two words to describe Morrison’s question; “Gornisht and absolute narishkayt.” This again convulsed the distinguished members notwithstanding hardly anybody knew what Grey had said. This caused Speaker Gib Parent to say, “Order please, I have no way of knowing whether these words are unparliamentary

Montreal Jewry has retained many Yiddish aspects to our speech patterns and sometimes it even affects our grammar.  My daughter Jennifer was apprised of her sub-standard English during her first year at Yale University. Jennifer was enjoying a nosh with her dormmates, some of whom were Jewish and she exclaimed   “This cake is so good, you want? ”  This plea was greeted with consternation  by her roomies. Notwithstanding that Jennifer was  majoring at the time in linguistics, she was informed by her fellow student that this  sentence didn’t correspond to the elementary grammar drummed into them their whole lives. After all, there was no direct object, Her friends probably thought she should have said “You want some?”or You want some cake?”

 

This conversational style, though, in quite common among Montreal anglophones who are Jewish. If asked by someone whether a particular object was available in Montreal, A Jewish person might answer; “You could find. ”  If asked whether the dessert is included in the price of a meal, the answer might be, “It comes with.”  This lack of a direct object follows the grammatical structure of  manyYiddish  expressions ( es kumt mit). In addition, it is common to respond to a question with another question which is oft peppered by an implied or stated complaint.   Hence the seemingly innocuous question “How are you? ” could  elicit, “How should I be with my knees? ”

 

It is difficult to escape one’s roots.  When I was in business I had a  non-Jewish business associate from Massachusetts with whom I became quite friendly and we would often shoot the breeze over the phone.  Often, in response to some wry comment  he made, I answered him by saying  “go know.”  After years of using this expression finally one day he said to me in an exasperated fashion. “Howie, you keep saying ‘go know’ to me. What the ef  do you mean? ”  I was surprised that he didn’t know what I meant and when I got home  I checked in my Joys of Yiddish  by Leo Rosten the expression Go Know which stated, “Yinglish. From the Yiddish expression Gey vays (meaning, “go know.”) ”   It said the expression could mean “How could I know?”, “How could you expect me to know?”  or “How could anyone know?”.    Probably if I had said “Go figure,”  my friend would have known what I meant. Who knows?

 

It’s important to remember that a word in one language doesn’t have to mean the same in another language. Mensch in German just means man or human being; in Yiddish it epitomizes good behaviour. In Yiddish,“ chutzpah” only has a negative meaning, that of “brazen effrontery or impudence.”  In English, however, “chutzpah” is a more prolific word, usually defined as “outrageous nerve” but this definition is invariably coupled with an explanation.  Two of the favorite chutzpah examples are:

- Someone who kills both parents and pleads for mercy before the judge because he is an    orphan and reporting your landlord for building-code violations when you’re six months behind in the rent.

 

When the word “chutzpah”, is used in a political sense, the meaning is usually not complimentary and is used to describe “extreme gall.”  James Reston of the New York Times assessing the sexual antics of presidential candidate Senator Gary Hart in 1987 said, “Mr. Hart’s  chutzpa has hit a new level of political arrogance.” We must remember, however, that he was referencing a pre-Clintonesque not to mention the pre-Trump era.

Interestingly in the Talmud over 1500 years ago the term chutzpah gets grudging approval. In one tractate it says that “’impudence (or chutzpah) against Heaven is of avail.’

 

While the Inuits may have many words for snow we have many words for a more important  and prevalent category: losers. Observe   “schmo”, “schmuck”, “nudnik” and meshugenne  schmendrick schmeggegge  schlimazel , schnorrer and  nebbish to name but a  few. There are nuances of meanings to describe these  unfortunate characters. It is said that a shlemiel trips, and knocks down the shlemazl and the nebbish repairs the schlimazl’s glasses.

 

Altho we associate Yinglish terms largely  with North American vernacular, their usage is more widespread thansolely our continent. We see the word nosh being used in England in the 1870s but with the idea of it being a meal not a snack which came into NA usage in the 1940s. In fact a former girlfriend whose mother  lives in Yorkshire and is  over 90 used it in this manner   The term “shicker”  is also listed in the OED as an Australian and New Zealand colloquialism.   Until the last 30 years the term shicker was the most commonly used term for a drunk Down Under. I suppose these terms came into British English vernacular in the 19th century when it was common for Jewish merchants to rub shoulders with people in East London. You will  also find some distinct spelling of Jewish words in British Eng. For example gefilte as in gefilte fish is rendered in the OED as gefulte  GEFULTE with an umlaut over the U.

 

Some of the most basic English words have a particular Yiddish sense.  The OED mentions that as of 1903, the word “already” had been “Yiddishized” when  placed “in final position to denote emphasis, exasperation, etc.” A good example of this is the expression “enough already.” Its more concise than saying I’ve had it and I wont take it anymore.“Need”  also is used in a Yiddish sense to imply something is unnecessary, as in the expression “Who needs it?”   Non-Montreal anglophones laugh when I tell them  “I’m going to make an order.”  meaning  grocery shopping. Interestingly this  usage of “make” is found in French as well as English and  I discovered that it is also prevalent in New Orleans  where Eng is also influenced by French.

 

Over 30 years ago I  lobbied for the inclusion of the word  “nakhes” usually  spelled NACHES into the OED  bc the word had a distinct meaning that wasn’t expressed by any word in English  Perhaps, my lobbying effort ,  wasn’t in vain b/c it  was added to the OED  in 1992  with the spelling  following definition: “Among Jews, a sense of pleasure or pride at the achievements of one’s children.”  I suspect, however, that people from all ethnic groups also share this emotion.

 

The television program, Saturday Night Live, however, in the 1990s made popular the usage of two unlikely Yiddish candidates. In a segment entitled Coffee Talk, Canadian Mike Myers played the character  Linda Richman who was prone to using the words shpilkes, “nervous energy” and farklempt,”all choked up.”

 

There are some disputed terms that etymologists aren’t sure if the English word comes from Yiddish. The word kibosh, “to forbid with unmistakeable consequences , is first cited by Dickens in 1836. It could be from Yiddish via German keibe-carrion; or French cabocher=to cut off; or Irish cie bas-cap of death. The OED  entry for glitch says etymology unknown but it prob comes from the Yid glitsh-slip from the Old German glitan-to glide. Another disputed term is the slang word copasetic-all right. Some say it comes from the Heb Kol ba seder-all in order but the word derived out of Black English. Still it is possible that some Jewish storekeeper in the South said kol ba seder and this was picked up by Black customers-We’ll never really know for sure.

So why are there so many Yiddish terms in Eng? I suspect that unlike naches many Yiddish words get absorbed into English, not because they introduce a new concept in English but because they’re fun to say.  After all, the  derogatory words for people such as , “schlemiel”, “schmo”, “schmuck”, “nudnik” and “meshugenne” roll off the tongue with glee.

 

While it is easy to spot many Yiddishisms from their initial sound  -sh,  in some cases, the Yiddish connection isn’t so obvious and s/t Yiddish isn’t the source Take mishmash – it sounds Yiddish but the OED traces the word mishmash back to the Danish misk-mask and shows the word entering the English language in 1452.  It was, however, early 20th century New York Jews who popularized this vivid word possibly because they found the double -sh sound particularly appealing.  Another word commonly thought to come from Yiddish is “finagle,” maybe because it rhymes with bagel. It actually comes from an archaic English word “fainaigue” which means to cheat.

 

Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto published in 1892 is the champion tome in the OED for  Yiddish words that have filtered into our language. Here is a partial list of some of the words whose first citation  derives from this work : “chutzpah ”  “koppel” (skullcap), “kreplach”  “Litvak”  “lokshen” “meshummad” (apostate), the interjections “nu” and “oy,”  “potch” “rebbitzin” , “schnorrer” , “sheitel” “shicker” , “shidduch”, “shiksa” , “schlemiel” , “tzimmes” and  “Yiddishkeit”

 

Some  literary lights are highlighted by having the first  OED citation for words thought to come from Yiddish. As mentioned earlier Dickens receives the first citation for “kibosh” from his work Sketches by Boz :  And as mentioned before we’re not sure of the word’s origin.

 

There is, however, no doubt to the Yiddish pedigree of the duo of “schlep” and “dreck” which are first cited in James Joyce’s Ulysses  in 1922: “She trudges, schlepps, trains, drags her load” and  “Farewell. Fare thee well. Dreck. ”

Not surprisingly many Jewish authors are honoured by receiving the first citation of a word borrowed from Yiddish.  Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s  Complaint gives us two naughty words, “shtup”  and “schlong.” Not to be undone,  Saul Bellow’s Herzog provides us with three first citations:   “Heimisch” “kvetch  and “schmegeggy”  My late cousin Mordecai  Richler’s novel Cocksure is the first cited work for the word “schmaltz” “and receives the second recorded citation  for “schmutz”

 

A fairly recent word puzzle in the NYT shows how prevalent     Jewish related terms are in English. I wouldn’t be  surprisethewd if some of you occasionally do the word game Spelling Bee found daily in the NYT. Here are some of the Jewish related words that appear regularly. Hora , tallit, cabala, torah ( it can be noncapitalized when it means instruction) latke, gelt, golem and yenta  and it allows 2 spellings (y-e-n-t-e and y-e-n-t-a) chutzpah  putz, and chuppah with the last 3 appearing in the March 18^th puzzle. I’ve never seen the word kvetch appear because of the letter combinations but I’m sure it would be an allowed word. You will notice here that I haven’t included any of the many words that contain an S because spelling bee almost never allows word with an S because of how easy it allows pluralized words. There is definitely a preference for Jewish related words in this puzzle because many other words aren’t accepted that are found in most dictionaries such as telly for tv, nappy,  the British term for a diaper, kitting a British term for supplying and the Arabic terms wadi that refers to a dry riverbed, ravine or valley found in deserts and muezzin, the person who calls Muslim to prayer. By secr

 

The English language is in a constant state of flux and many words over time acquire new meanings. Recently, my daughter sent me a NYT article that showed that the term “goyslop” had become popularized among adolescents to refer to low quality food.  Before reading the article she had heard my grandson Judah use the expression. The NYT article gives an example of its usage: “If your friend goes to McDonalds and gets two burgers and a shake, that’s so goyslop.” I did some research on the term’s use by teenagers and found that it can also refer to unoriginal or overly commercial TV shows or movies. What is also remarkable is the fact that this term was adapted by right-wing anti-Semites who see the world as being controlled by secretive Jewish cabals and that the very existence of “goy” is proof of their supremacist plot  to poison the minds of Gentiles. In fact, there exists a neo-Nazi group called the Goyim Defense League and a fringe crowfunding platform called GoyFundMe. Very few teenagers who use the term “goyslop” are aware of the term’s anti-Semitic origin.

 

Since 2000 starting with the letter M, the OED started a new edition and added many new words and it is astonishing how many of them are words familiar to English speakers with a passing knowledge of Yiddish and Hebrew. Here are the new M Jewish words: “maariv” “macher” , “ “Megillah” “melamed”   “meshuggener” “mezuza “mieskeit” “mincha” “mishpocha” “Mizrachi”  and  “mohel.”  The OED  also  updating  definitions of  certain  words already catalogued as is the  case with the word “mamzer.”  The old definition merely defines  it as “a bastard,” whereas the revised entry elucidates that it is “a person conceived in a forbidden sexual union, especially as defined by rabbinical tradition.”
 

In any case, don’t you find it fitting that a language like Yiddish that wantonly  “sleeps around” the way that English does, should have “mamzer” in its midst?

 

Thank You for listening.