Yiddish – a Jewish language, an Indo-European language of the Ashkenazic Jews, which was formed as a mixture of Slavic and Germanic elements with strong influence from Semitic languages (Hebrew and Aramaic). It was formed during the period between the 10th and the 13th century as an ethnic variant of Medieval German (the so-called Yiddish-Taitsh). The western variant of the Yiddish language was later formed on its basis, used until the 18th century in Germany, western France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary.

From the 14th century onwards, following the migration of Jews to the east, the eastern variant of the Yiddish language continued to develop in Eastern Europe, under a strong influence of Slavic languages; it subsequently split into three main dialects: Polish (central), Lithuanian (north-eastern) and Ukrainian (south-eastern). The first writings in the western dialect appeared in the 14th century, followed by writings in the eastern dialect in the late 14th century. Yiddish uses Hebrew script and has its own phonetic principles.

Following the establishment of the Jewish Research Institute in Vilnius (1925), the standardisation of the Yiddish language has begun. Today, it is used almost exclusively by the older generation of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe as well as by the Hasidim in North and South America, in Israel and in some larger cities in Western Europe (either as the first or as the second language). In Poland, Yiddish remained the mother tongue of the Jewish minority before World War II. After the war, Yiddish was as the language of instruction at schools for Jewish children until 1968; there was also a special publishing house and a theater which used the Yiddish language. Today, the Yiddish language is on the verge of disappearing.

E. Geller, Język Żydów polskich (The Language of Polish Jews), Warsaw 1999.

The entry has been prepared on the basis of PWN source materials.