Is Ebonics the New Yiddish? Language Politics in Historical Perspective. Part of a lecture to German 380: Yiddish for German Speakers. Emory University, Spring 2015

1. Is Ebonics the New
Yiddish? Language
Politics in
Historical Perspective
Mary Zeigler & Benjamin Moore III, Georgia State University
with Nick Block, Emory University
January 27, 2015

2. Yiddish words common in English & German
English
▪ schlep – to carry (shlepn)
▪ spiel – sales pitch (shpil)
▪ chutzpah – brazenness
(khutspe)
▪ kosher – satisfactory (kosher)
▪ klutz – clumsy person (klots)
German
▪ vermasseln – to mess up
(mazel)
▪ Stuss – nonsense (shtus)
▪ melochen – to work hard
(melokhe)
▪ Tachles – brass tacks (tachles)
▪ Mishpoke – group of
unpleasant people (mishpokhe)

3. Yiddish derided as a language
▪ Largely seen as a dialect of German beforeWWI
▪ Called “corrupted German,” “Jargon,” “mauscheln” (=to speak like a
Moshe), “Mischsprache” (=mixed language)
▪ Martin Luther, well-known anti-Semite, created a dictionary of
“Thieves-Speak,” (Gaunersprache) which was mostly Hebrew roots
1528
▪ Moses Mendelssohn, Jewish Enlightenment philosopher, beseeched
fellow Jews to speak either German or Hebrew, not this mixed
language
▪ Even late 19th-century self-aware Jewish authors thoughtYiddish
incapable of artistic, intellectual expression

4. Yiddish Firsts
▪ First evidence forYiddish sentence –Worms, Germany, 1272
▪ First collection ofYiddish writings – Cambridge Codex, 1382
▪ First secularYiddish book – Italy, 1507
▪ FirstYiddish Newspaper – Odessa, Ukraine, 1862
▪ FirstYiddish Language Conference – Czernowitz, Ukraine, 1908
▪ First Professor ofYiddish – Hamburg, 1922
▪ Yiddish as Official Language – Birobidzhan, Soviet Union, 1934

5. Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference,
1908
▪ Goal of changing function ofYiddish from (L)ow cultural functions
(conversation) to (H)igh cultural functions (literature, legal, politics).
▪ Resolution thatYiddish was “a,” but not “the,” Jewish national
language.
▪ Made many authors choose a side between writing in Hebrew or
writing inYiddish. Caused self-awareness in writing in non-Jewish or
Jewish language, and if Jewish language, which one.
▪ Interestingly, convened by a non-native speaker ofYiddish, a
Viennese-born, German-speaking Jew, Nathan Birnbaum

6. Language Politics – Official Recognition
Major markers the involved at least de facto government recognition of
Yiddish
▪ 1910 US census –Yiddish is listed as language
▪ WWI – German government hires German-Jewish soldiers on Eastern
front in press corps to read/writeYiddish newspapers
▪ Birobidzhan – 1934 Soviet establishment of Jewish autonomous
region withYiddish, and specifically not Hebrew, as official language

7. Lack of Yiddish Translators stalls US
District Court, July 2014

8. US Drug Enforcement Agency in Atlanta
hires nine Ebonics Translators, 2010

9. Is Ebonics the New Yiddish? Language
Politics in Historical Perspective
▪ What is the role that politics plays in legitimizing a perceived dialect’s
status as full-fledged language?
▪ What are the stages common to the legitimization of a language?