Editing Yiddish (section)

== History ==

=== Origins ===
By the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture had formed in Central Europe.<ref name=kriwaczek>{{cite book |last=Kriwaczek |first=Paul |title=Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location= London |year=2005 |isbn=0-297-82941-6}}</ref>{{rp|151|q=As early evidence for Jewish presence in Germany mentions that [[Abraham ben Jacob]] (fl. 961) states that there were "Jews operating a salt mine in Halle in Germany" in his day.}} By the [[High Middle Ages|high medieval period]], their area of settlement, centered on the [[Rhineland]] ([[Mainz]]) and the [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]] (notably [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] and [[Speyer]]), came to be known as ''[[Ashkenaz]]'',<ref>{{bibleverse || Genesis|10:3|HE}}</ref> a term also used for [[Scythia]], and later of various areas of Eastern Europe and Anatolia. In the [[medieval Hebrew]] of [[Rashi]] (d. 1105), ''Ashkenaz'' becomes a term for Germany, and {{lang|he|אשכּנזי|rtl=yes}} ''[[Ashkenazi]]'' for the Jews settling in this area.<ref name=kriwaczek/>{{rp|Chapter 3, endnote 9}}{{request quotation|date=September 2021}}<!-- the book has endnotes, not footnotes. Endnote 9 refers to p. 47 and is on p. 329, but it consists only of a citation of Ben-Sasson, "A History of the Jewish People" (1976), so that it isn't clear what is being referenced here --><ref>"Thus in Rashi's (1040–1105) commentary on the Talmud, German expressions appear as ''leshon Ashkenaz''. Similarly when Rashi writes: "But in Ashkenaz I saw [...]"  he no doubt meant the communities of Mainz and Worms in which he had dwelt." {{cite EJ|title=Ashkenaz|volume=2|pages=569–571}}</ref>
Ashkenaz bordered on the area inhabited by another distinctive Jewish cultural group, the [[Sephardi Jews]], who ranged into [[southern France]]. Ashkenazi culture later spread into Eastern Europe with large-scale population migrations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ashkenazim|title=Judaism: Ashkenazism|first=Shira|last=Schoenberg|access-date=December 10, 2019}}</ref>

Nothing is known with certainty about the vernacular of the earliest Jews in Germany, but several theories have been put forward. As noted above, the first language of the Ashkenazim may have been [[Aramaic]], the vernacular of the Jews in [[Judaea (Roman province)|Roman-era Judea]] and ancient and early medieval [[Mesopotamia]]. The widespread use of Aramaic among the large non-Jewish [[Syrians|Syrian]] trading population of the Roman provinces, including those in Europe, would have reinforced the use of Aramaic among Jews engaged in trade. In Roman times, many of the Jews living in [[Rome]] and [[Southern Italy]] appear to have been [[Greek language|Greek]]-speakers, and this is reflected in some Ashkenazi personal names (such as ''Kalonymos'' and Yiddish ''Todres''). Hebrew, on the other hand, was regarded as a holy language reserved for ritual and spiritual purposes and not for common use.

The established view is that, as with other [[Jewish languages]], Jews speaking distinct languages learned new co-territorial vernaculars, which they then Judaized. In the case of Yiddish, this scenario sees it as emerging when speakers of [[Zarphatic language|Zarphatic]] (Judeo-French) and other Judeo-Romance languages began to acquire varieties of [[Middle High German]], and from these groups the Ashkenazi community took shape.<ref name=ELL>{{ELL2| |Yiddish}}</ref><ref name="Spolsky" >{{cite book |last= Spolsky |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Spolsky |title=The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Xk9AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |year=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-91714-8 |page= 183}}</ref> Exactly what German substrate underlies the earliest form of Yiddish is disputed. The Jewish community in the Rhineland would have encountered the Middle High German dialects from which the [[Rhenish Franconian languages|Rhenish German]] dialects of the modern period would emerge. Jewish communities of the high medieval period would have been speaking their own versions of these German dialects, mixed with linguistic elements that they themselves brought into the region, including many Hebrew and Aramaic words, but there is also Romance.<ref>Traces remain in the contemporary Yiddish vocabulary: for example, {{lang|yi|בענטשן|rtl=yes}} (''bentshn'', "to bless"), ultimately from the Latin ''{{lang|la|benedicere}}''; {{lang|yi|לייענען|rtl=yes}} (''leyenen'', "to read"), from the Old French ''lei(e)re''; and the personal names {{lang|yi|בונים|rtl=yes}} Bunim (related to French ''bon nom'', good name) and Yentl (Old French ''gentil'', "noble"). Western Yiddish includes additional words of ultimate Latin derivation (but still very few): for example, {{lang|yi|אָרן|rtl=yes}} ''orn'' (to pray), cf. Old French ''orer''. Beider, Alexander (2015). Origins of Yiddish Dialects. {{ISBN|978-0-19-873931-9}}, pp. 382–402.</ref>

In [[Max Weinreich]]'s model, Jewish speakers of [[Old French]] or [[Old Italian]] who were literate in either liturgical [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] or Aramaic, or both, migrated through Southern Europe to settle in the [[Rhine Valley]] in an area known as [[Lotharingia]] (later known in Yiddish as ''Loter'') extending over parts of Germany and France.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Max Weinreich|last=Weinreich|first=Max|title=History of the Yiddish Language|editor-first=Paul|editor-last= Glasser |publisher= Yale University Press/ YIVO Institute for Jewish Research|year=2008|page=336}}</ref> There, they encountered and were influenced by Jewish speakers of [[High German languages]] and several other German dialects. Both Weinreich and [[Solomon Birnbaum]] developed this model further in the mid-1950s.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Weinreich |editor1-first=Uriel |title=The Field of Yiddish |year=1954 |publisher=Linguistic Circle of New York |pages=63–101}}</ref> In Weinreich's view, this Old Yiddish substrate later bifurcated into two distinct versions of the language, Western and Eastern Yiddish.<ref name="Fleischer" >{{cite book |last1=Aptroot |first1=Marion |last2=Hansen |first2=Björn |title=Yiddish Language Structures |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8ynoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA108 |year=2014 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-033952-9 |page=108}}</ref> They retained the Semitic vocabulary and constructions needed for religious purposes and created a Judeo-German form of speech, sometimes not accepted as a fully autonomous language.
{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote=Yiddish was a rich, living language, the chattering tongue of an urban population. It had the limitations of its origins. There were few Yiddish words for animals and birds. It had virtually no military vocabulary. Such voids were filled by borrowing from [[German language|German]], [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[Russian language|Russian]]. Yiddish was particularly good at borrowing: from [[Arabic]], from [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], from [[Aramaic]] and from anything with which it intersected. On the other hand, it [[Yiddishisms|contributed]] to [[English language|English]] — [[American English|American]]. <small>[sic]</small> Its chief virtue lay in its internal subtlety, particularly in its characterization of human types and emotions. It was the language of street wisdom, of the clever underdog, of pathos, resignation and suffering, all of which it palliated by humor, intense irony and superstition. [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]], its greatest practitioner, pointed out that it is the only language never spoken by men in power.|3= –&nbsp;[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], ''A History of the Jews'' (1988)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Paul |title=A History of the Jews |date=1987 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-091533-9 |page=339 |edition=1st U.S. |url=https://www.pdfdrive.com/a-history-of-the-jews-e159156761.html |access-date=1 February 2023}}</ref>}}
Later linguistic research has refined the Weinreich model or provided alternative approaches to the language's origins, with points of contention being the characterization of its Germanic base, the source of its Hebrew/Aramaic [[Stratum (linguistics)|adstrata]], and the means and location of this fusion. Some theorists argue that the fusion occurred with a Bavarian dialect base.<ref name="Spolsky" /><ref name=jacobs2005/>{{rp|9–15}}
The two main candidates for the germinal matrix of Yiddish, the Rhineland and Bavaria, are not necessarily incompatible. There may have been parallel developments in the two regions, seeding the Western and Eastern dialects of Modern Yiddish. [[Dovid Katz]] proposes that Yiddish emerged from contact between speakers of High German and Aramaic-speaking Jews from the Middle East.<ref name=yivoyiddish>{{cite web |last= Katz | first= Dovid |title=Yiddish |url=http://yivo.org/downloads/Yiddish.pdf |work=[[YIVO]] |access-date= December 20, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322162722/http://yivo.org/downloads/Yiddish.pdf |archive-date=March 22, 2012}}</ref> The lines of development proposed by the different theories do not necessarily rule out the others (at least not entirely); an article in ''[[The Forward]]'' argues that "in the end, a new 'standard theory' of Yiddish's origins will probably be based on the work of Weinreich and his challengers alike."<ref>{{cite news |author1= Philologos |title=The Origins of Yiddish: Part Fir|url=http://forward.com/culture/202706/the-origins-of-yiddish-part-fir/ |work=The Forward |date=July 27, 2014}}</ref>

[[Paul Wexler (linguist)|Paul Wexler]] proposed a model in 1991 that took Yiddish, by which he means primarily eastern Yiddish,<ref name="Fleischer" /> not to be genetically grounded in a Germanic language at all, but rather as "[[Judeo-Sorbian]]" (a proposed [[West Slavic language]]) that had been [[relexification|relexified]] by High German.<ref name="Spolsky" /> In more recent work, Wexler has argued that Eastern Yiddish is unrelated genetically to Western Yiddish. Wexler's model has been met with little academic support, and strong critical challenges, especially among historical linguists.<ref name="Spolsky" /><ref name="Fleischer" />

=== Written evidence ===

[[File:Machzor.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The calligraphic segment in the [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] ''Machzor'' (a Hebrew prayer book). The Yiddish text is in red.]]
[[File:Süd-West-Jiddische Lebensbeschreibung.jpg|thumb|The South-West Yiddish account of the life of Seligmann Brunschwig von [[Durmenach|Dürmenach]] describes, among other things, the anti-Semitic events of the [[Revolutions of 1848|revolutionary year 1848]]. In the collection of the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]]. ]]
[[Yiddish orthography]] developed towards the end of the high medieval period. It is first recorded in 1272, with the oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish, a blessing found in the Worms ''[[machzor]]'' (a Hebrew prayer book).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/popups/viewmedia.aspx?id=1116 |title=Image |publisher=Yivoencyclopedia.org |access-date=August 7, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Frakes |first=Jerold C |title=Early Yiddish Texts 1100–1750 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-926614-X}}</ref><ref name=baumgarten/>

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ A Yiddish phrase transliterated and translated
|-
! scope="row" | Yiddish
| {{lang|yi|גוּט טַק אִים בְּטַגְֿא שְ וַיר דִּיש מַחֲזוֹר אִין בֵּיתֿ הַכְּנֶסֶתֿ טְרַגְֿא}}
|-
! scope="row" | Transliterated
| {{lang|yi-Latn|gut tak im betage se vaer dis makhazor in beis hakneses trage}}
|-
! scope="row" | Translated
| May a good day come to him who carries this prayer book into the synagogue.
|}

This brief rhyme is decoratively embedded in an otherwise purely Hebrew text.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.milon.co.il/general/general.php?term=%D7%91%D7%93%D7%A2%D7%AA%D7%95 |title=בדעתו |publisher=Milon.co.il |date=May 14, 2007 |access-date=August 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715192212/http://www.milon.co.il/general/general.php?term=%D7%91%D7%93%D7%A2%D7%AA%D7%95 |archive-date=July 15, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Nonetheless, it indicates that the Yiddish of that day was a more or less regular Middle High German written in the Hebrew alphabet into which Hebrew words&nbsp;– {{lang|he|מַחֲזוֹר}}, {{lang|he-Latn|[[machzor|makhzor]]}} (prayerbook for the [[High Holy Days]]) and {{lang|he|בֵּיתֿ הַכְּנֶסֶתֿ|rtl=yes}}, 'synagogue' (read in Yiddish as {{lang|yi-Latn|beis hakneses}})&nbsp;– had been included. The [[niqqud]] appears as though it might have been added by a second scribe, in which case it may need to be dated separately and may not be indicative of the pronunciation of the rhyme at the time of its initial annotation.

Over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, songs and poems in Yiddish, and [[macaronic language|macaronic]] pieces in Hebrew and German, began to appear. These were collected in the late 15th century by Menahem ben Naphtali Oldendorf.<ref>''Old Yiddish Literature from Its Origins to the Haskalah Period'' by Zinberg, Israel. KTAV, 1975. {{ISBN|0-87068-465-5}}.</ref> During the same period, a tradition seems to have emerged of the Jewish community's adapting its own versions of German secular literature. The earliest Yiddish epic poem of this sort is the ''[[Dukus Horant]]'', which survives in the famous Cambridge Codex T.-S.10.K.22. This 14th-century manuscript was discovered in the [[Cairo Geniza]] in 1896, and also contains a collection of narrative poems on themes from the [[Hebrew Bible]] and the [[Haggadah]].

=== Printing ===

The advent of the [[printing press]] in the 16th century enabled the large-scale production of works, at a cheaper cost, some of which have survived. One particularly popular work was [[Elia Levita]]'s ''[[Bovo-Bukh]]'' ({{lang|yi|בָּבָֿא-בּוך}}), composed around 1507–08 and printed several times, beginning in 1541 (under the title ''Bovo d'Antona''). Levita, the earliest named Yiddish author, may also have written {{lang|yi|פּאַריז און װיענע|rtl=yes}} ''Pariz un Viene'' (''Paris and [[Vienna]]''). Another Yiddish retelling of a chivalric romance, װידװילט ''Vidvilt'' (often referred to as "Widuwilt" by Germanizing scholars), presumably also dates from the 15th century, although the manuscripts are from the 16th. It is also known as ''Kinig Artus Hof'', an adaptation of the Middle High German romance ''Wigalois'' by [[Wirnt von Grafenberg]].<ref>''Speculum, A Journal of Medieval Studies'': [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7652280&fileId=S0038713400099498 Volume 78, Issue 01, January 2003, pp 210–212]</ref> Another significant writer is Avroham ben Schemuel Pikartei, who published a paraphrase on the [[Book of Job]] in 1557.

Women in the Ashkenazi community were traditionally not literate in Hebrew but did read and write Yiddish. A body of literature therefore developed for which women were a primary audience. This included secular works, such as the ''Bovo-Bukh'', and religious writing specifically for women, such as the {{lang|yi|צאנה וראינה|rtl=yes}} ''[[Tseno Ureno]]'' and the {{lang|yi|תחנות|rtl=yes}} ''[[Tkhine]]s''. One of the best-known early woman authors was [[Glückel of Hameln]], whose memoirs are still in print.

[[File:Page from Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary by Elijah Levita.jpg|thumb|A page from the ''Shemot Devarim'' ({{lit.|Names of Things}}), a Yiddish–Hebrew–Latin–German dictionary and thesaurus, published by Elia Levita in 1542]]

The segmentation of the Yiddish readership, between women who read {{lang|yi|מאַמע־לשון|rtl=yes}} ''mame-loshn'' but not {{lang|yi|לשון־קדש|rtl=yes}} ''loshn-koydesh'', and men who read both, was significant enough that distinctive [[typeface]]s were used for each. The name commonly given to the semicursive form used exclusively for Yiddish was {{lang|yi|ווײַבערטײַטש|rtl=yes}} (''[[vaybertaytsh]]'', 'women's ''taytsh''{{'}}, shown in the heading and fourth column in the ''[[Shemot Devarim]]''), with square Hebrew letters (shown in the third column) being reserved for text in that language and Aramaic. This distinction was retained in general typographic practice through to the early 19th century, with Yiddish books being set in ''vaybertaytsh'' (also termed {{lang|yi|מעשייט|rtl=yes}} ''mesheyt'' or {{lang|yi|מאַשקעט|rtl=yes}} ''mashket''—the construction is uncertain).<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Max Weinreich|last=Weinreich|first=Max|title=געשיכטע פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך|trans-title=History of the Yiddish language|location=New York|publisher=YIVO Institute for Jewish Research|year=1973|volume=1|page=280}} with explanation of symbol on p. xiv.</ref>

An additional distinctive semicursive typeface was, and still is, used for rabbinical commentary on religious texts when Hebrew and Yiddish appear on the same page. This is commonly termed [[Rashi script]], from the name of the most renowned early author, whose commentary is usually printed using this script. (Rashi is also the typeface normally used when the Sephardic counterpart to Yiddish, [[Judaeo-Spanish]] or ''Ladino'', is printed in Hebrew script.)

According to a study by the German media association Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH), more than 40 printed Yiddish newspapers and magazines were published worldwide in 2024, and the trend is rising.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH) |date=2024-09-22 |title=They still exist: Yiddish-language newspapers and magazines throughout the world |url=https://www.medienhilfe.org/still-exist-yiddish-language-newspapers-magazines-throughout-world/ |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=IMH |language=de-DE}}</ref>

=== Secularization ===
The Western Yiddish dialect—sometimes pejoratively labeled ''Mauscheldeutsch'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Bechtel |first=Delphine |editor1-last=Malkin |editor1-first=Jeanette R. |editor2-last=Rokem |editor2-first=Freddie |title=Jews and the making of modern German theatre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=geJnnySQ4rUC |access-date=October 28, 2011 |series=Studies in theatre history and culture |year=2010 |contribution=Yiddish Theatre and Its Impact on the German and Austrian Stage |publisher = University of Iowa Press |isbn=978-1-58729-868-4 |page=304 |quote=[...] audiences heard on the stage a continuum of hybrid language-levels between Yiddish and German that was sometimes combined with the traditional use of Mauscheldeutsch (surviving forms of Western Yiddish).}}</ref> i. e. "Moses German"<ref>{{cite book |first1=Celia |last1=Applegate |author1-link=Celia Applegate |first2=Pamela Maxine |last2=Potter |title=Music and German national identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roHbXnBqE1wC |access-date=October 28, 2011 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-02131-7 |page=310 |quote=[...] in 1787, over 10 percent of the Prague population was Jewish [...] which spoke German and, probably, ''Mauscheldeutsch'', a local Jewish-German dialect distinct from Yiddish (''Mauscheldeutsch'' = Moischele-Deutsch = 'Moses German').}}</ref>—declined in the 18th century, as the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and the ''[[Haskalah]]'' led to a view of Yiddish as a corrupt dialect. The 19th-century Prussian-Jewish historian [[Heinrich Graetz]], for example, wrote that "the language of the Jews [in Poland] ... degenerat[ed] into a ridiculous jargon, a mixture of German, Polish, and Talmudical elements, an unpleasant stammering, rendered still more repulsive by forced attempts at wit."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graetz |first1=Heinrich |last2=Löwy |first2=Bella |title=History of the Jews, vol. 6 |date=1891 |publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America |location=Philadelphia |page=641 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofje04grae/page/640/mode/2up |access-date=3 December 2023}}</ref>

A ''[[Maskil]]'' (one who takes part in the ''Haskalah'') would write about and promote acclimatization to the outside world.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-development-of-yiddish |title=History & Development of Yiddish |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |language=en |access-date=February 7, 2017}}</ref> Jewish children began attending secular schools where the primary language spoken and taught was German, not Yiddish.<ref name=":0" /><ref>[[L. L. Zamenhof|Zamenhof]], whose [[Mark Zamenhof|father]] was overtly assimilationist, expressed in his correspondence both a great fondness for his ''mama-loshen'' and (apart from [[Esperanto]], of course) a preference for [[Russian language|Russian]] over [[Polish language|Polish]] as a culture language.</ref>{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote=Yiddish grates on our ears and distorts. This jargon is incapable in fact of expressing sublime thoughts. It is our obligation to cast off these old rags, a heritage of the dark Middle Ages.|3= –&nbsp;[[Osip Rabinovich|Osip Aronovich Rabinovich]], in an article titled "Russia – Our Native Land: Just as We Breathe Its Air, We Must Speak Its Language" in the [[Odessa]]n journal ''Рассвет'' (dawn), 1861<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rabinovich |first1=O.A. |title=Russia – Our Native Land: Just as We Breathe Its Air We Must Speak Its Language |journal=Рассвет |date=1861 |volume=16 |page=220. As cited on the [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-development-of-yiddish#1 website] of the [[Jewish Virtual Library]]}}</ref>}}

Owing to both assimilation to German and the [[Modern Hebrew|revival of Hebrew]], Western Yiddish survived only as a language of "intimate family circles or of closely knit trade groups".<ref>{{cite book |last=Liptzin |first=Sol |title=A History of Yiddish Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofyiddish00lipt |url-access=registration |publisher=Jonathan David Publishers |location=Middle Village, New York |date=1972 |isbn=0-8246-0124-6}}</ref>

In eastern Europe, the response to these forces took the opposite direction, with Yiddish becoming the cohesive force in a [[secularity|secular culture]] (see the [[Yiddishist movement]]). Notable Yiddish writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, writing as [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]]; Sholem Rabinovitsh, widely known as [[Sholem Aleichem]], whose stories about {{lang|yi|טבֿיה דער מילכיקער|rtl=yes}} (''Tevye der milkhiker'', "[[Tevye]] the Milkman") inspired the Broadway musical and film ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''; and [[I. L. Peretz|Isaac Leib Peretz]].

=== 20th century ===

[[File:Yiddish WWI poster2.jpg|thumb|American [[World War I]]-era poster in Yiddish. Translated caption: "Food will win the war – [[History of immigration to the United States#New immigration|You came here seeking freedom]], now you must help to preserve it – We must supply the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] with wheat – Let nothing go to waste". Colour lithograph, 1917. Digitally restored.]]

[[File:100karbovantsevUNR R.jpg|thumb|right|1917. 100 [[karbovanets]] of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Revers. Three languages: [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Polish language|Polish]] and Yiddish.]]

In the early 20th century, especially after the Socialist [[October Revolution]] in Russia, Yiddish was emerging as a major Eastern European language. Its rich literature was more widely published than ever, [[Yiddish theatre]] and [[Yiddish cinema]] were booming, and for a time it achieved the status of one of the [[official language]]s of the short-lived [[Galician Soviet Socialist Republic]]. Educational autonomy for Jews in several countries (notably [[Poland]]) after [[World War I]] led to an increase in formal Yiddish-language education, more uniform orthography, and to the 1925 founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, [[YIVO]]. In [[Vilnius]], there was debate over which language should take primacy, Hebrew or Yiddish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/vilna/before/hebrew_or_yiddish.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki|title=Hebrew or Yiddish? – The Interwar Period – The Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Story of the Jewish Community of Vilna|website=www.yadvashem.org|access-date=April 3, 2019|archive-date=April 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403153951/https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/vilna/before/hebrew_or_yiddish.asp%3FWT.mc_id%3Dwiki|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Yiddish changed significantly during the 20th century. [[Michael Wex]] writes, "As increasing numbers of Yiddish speakers moved from the Slavic-speaking East to Western Europe and the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were so quick to jettison Slavic vocabulary that the most prominent Yiddish writers of the time—the founders of modern Yiddish literature, who were still living in Slavic-speaking countries—revised the printed editions of their oeuvres to eliminate obsolete and 'unnecessary' Slavisms."<ref>{{cite book |title=Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods |last=Wex |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Wex |year=2005 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/borntokvetchyidd00wexm/page/29 29] |isbn=0-312-30741-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/borntokvetchyidd00wexm/page/29 }}</ref> The vocabulary used in Israel absorbed many Modern Hebrew words, and there was a similar but smaller increase in the English component of Yiddish in the United States and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} This has resulted in some difficulty in communication between Yiddish speakers from Israel and those from other countries.

"[[Khurbn]] Yiddish", as discussed by Professor Hannah Pollin-Galay, refers to the [[sociolect]] shaped by Yiddish speakers' experience during the Holocaust. Prisoners developed new words and slang, particularly relating to theft, protest, and sexuality.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pollin-Galay |first1=Hannah |title=Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish |date=September 3, 2024 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9781512825916}}</ref>