Ешивиш: Социолект английского языка ортодоксальных евреев

Sociolect of English spoken by Orthodox Jews in Yeshiva
sociolect of English

Yeshivish , also known as Yeshiva English, Yeshivisheh Shprach, or Yeshivisheh Reid, is a sociolect of English spoken by Yeshiva students and other Jews with a strong connection to the Orthodox Yeshiva world. "Yeshivish" may also refer to non Hasidic Haredi Jews. Sometimes it has an extra connotation of non Hasidic Haredi Jews educated in yeshiva and whose education made a noticeable specific cultural impact onto them. In the latter case the term has ambivalent (both positive and negative) connotations comparable to these of the term "academic". The term appears to be a portmanteau word of yeshiva and English, but it may simply be formed from yeshiva + the adjectival suffix ish.

Only a few serious studies have been written about Yeshivish. The first is a master's thesis by Steven Ray Goldfarb (University of Texas at El Paso, 1979) called "A Sampling of Lexical Items in Yeshiva English." The work lists, defines, and provides examples for nearly 250 Yeshivish words and phrases. The second, more comprehensive work is Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish by Chaim Weiser. Weiser (1995) maintains that Yeshivish is not a pidgin, creole, or an independent language, nor is it precisely a jargon. Baumel (2006) following Weiser notes that Yeshivish differs from English primarily in phonemic structure, lexical meaning, and syntax. Benor (2012) offers a detailed list of distinctive features used in Yeshivish. Katz describes it in Words on Fire: the Unfinished Story of Yiddish (2004) as a "new dialect of English", which is "taking over as the vernacular in everyday life in some circles in America and elsewhere". Heilman (2006) and others consider code switching a part of Yeshivish. Though Kaye (1991) would exclude English speakers in the context of a Yeshiva, studying the Talmud, from code switching where he considers the terms "Yiddish English" or "Yiddishized English" ("= Yinglish") may be more appropriate.

The English variant of Yeshivish consists of grammatical irregularities borrowed from Yiddish, and a vocabulary consisting of Yiddish, Mishnaic Hebrew, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, and sometimes Modern Hebrew. The speaker will use those terms instead of their English counterpart, either because of cultural affinity, or lack of the appropriate English term.

The Yiddish variant of Yeshivish is questionable as a definition in itself, since the grammar remains identical to that of Yiddish. It may be argued that the Yiddish variant of Yeshivish is a new phenomenon, and consists of fewer Germanic terms and more Aramaic and Rabbinical Hebrew. Yiddish as portrayed in academia concentrates on the secular and cultural variants of Yiddish, and may be attributed to the fact that YIVO, the forerunner of Yiddish as an academic study, was founded by Jewish secularists. The "Yeshivish" dialect of Yiddish has existed for quite a few centuries among Yeshiva educated Jews in Eastern and Central Europe. However, as a result of the Holocaust, World War II and immigration, the secular Yiddish speaking community is very small, and is far outnumbered by religious Yiddish speaking communities in New York City, Los Angeles, Antwerp, Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, London and others, making the Yeshivish variant the predominant contemporary Yiddish dialect.

The Yeshivish dialect of Hebrew consists of occasional Ashkenazic pronunciation and various Yiddishisms within Modern Hebrew spoken among Haredi communities in Israel. While many terms from the Talmud and Mishna exist in Modern Hebrew, their pronunciation is often in line with Modern Hebrew, whereas in the Yeshivish variant, they are pronounced in the traditional Ashkenazic way. Some Yiddishisms present in Yeshivish Hebrew are not distinct to the Yeshivish dialect and can be found in mainstream Modern Hebrew as well.

Yeshivish is primarily a male spoken dialect. Fathers and sons, particularly of teenage years and above, might speak Yeshivish, while mothers and daughters generally speak a milder variety of it, which generally features Yeshivish phonology but excludes many Talmudic words. This can be explained as much of the Yeshivish lexicon is learned in Yeshiva where the studying takes place using a specialist nomenclature. Familiarity with these terms develops and they are then re applied to other situations. There is a higher incidence of Yeshivish being spoken amongst Orthodox Jews that are regularly involved in Torah study, or belong to a community that promotes its study. Commonly used platitudes amongst Orthodox Jews are frequently expressed with their Yeshivish equivalent. Examples include using shkoyakh for "thank you", a contraction from the Hebrew יִישַׁר כּוֹחַ "Yishar Koach", which literally translates as "May your strength be firm" and is used to indicate to someone that they have done a good job, and Barukh HaShem (sometimes written as B"H, using the quotation mark used for abbreviations in Hebrew), meaning "Blessed is HaShem [The Name (of God)]". Yeshivish dialogue may include many expressions that refer to HaShem. Some observers predict that the English variant of Yeshivish may develop further to the point that it could become one of the historical Judeo hybrid languages like Yiddish, Judeo Spanish or the Judeo Arabic languages. Judeo hybrid languages were spoken dialects which mixed elements of the local vernacular, Hebrew, Aramaic and Jewish religious idioms. As Yiddish was to Middle High German, Yeshivish may be to Standard American English. However, the integration of modern day Jews with non Jews may keep their speech from diverging as far from the standard language as it did in the past.

The Yeshivish accent has similarities to various accents of Eastern European and New York backgrounds. One notable feature of Yeshivish is the frequency of occurrence of the phoneme /x/, common in many words of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Yiddish origin. /t/ may be released when in general American it would be flapped or unreleased. Final stops may devoice and pre nasal /æ/ may not raise.

Loan words are often given plurals using standard English morphology. For instance, the plural of yeshiva is yeshivas rather than yeshivois as in Ashkenazi Hebrew (although this is similar to the plural form in Yiddish). Hebrew nouns ending in us are pluralized with the suffix in rather than replacing us with uyois as in Ashkenazi Hebrew, e. g. shlichus > shlichusin 'mission' and mashmaus > mashmausin 'implication'. This likely comes from the Yiddish plural marker n although it could also have derived from Aramaic in. Loan verbs may also conjugate with standard English patterns. For example, Yiddish derived daven 'pray' may become davening or davened, e. g. "I already davened mincha." and "Quiet, I'm davening."