Joys of Yiddish

Learn by reading stories rather than businesslike definitions. Very cool way to learn and funny. A classic book.

If you are curious about the evolution American English and have a robust sense of humor, you must have this book. In his introduction, the author clarifies that this book is about the English language, emphasizing contributions to English from Yiddish. Having your copy at hand, so you can look up the Yiddish words as you hear them will reveal another layer of humor in any Mel Brooks movie. When I acquired my first copy 25 years ago, I found that by just flipping pages and reading what grabbed my eye at the moment, I'd quickly find something profoundly interesting, something uplifting, and something hilarous, all within ten minutes.

Helpful when just the right word or term is needed. And full of humor.

THE JOYS OF YIDDISH is a delightful little dictionary of Yiddish words and expressions that have worked their way into the English language, or at least should have. I can't count the times I've heard people with no background in Yiddish use words like "mavin" (expert), or "shnuk" (a real pitiful character), or dozens of others.Rosten's frequent approach is to take a word or expression, explain its pronunciation, define it as nearly as is possible, and give an anecdote or example of its use. When the word lends itself to humor, Rosten usually opts for a humorous anecdote.For an example, I've chosen the word "chutzpah." It is pronounced to rhyme with foot spa, with the ch rolled in your throat to give the German gutteral "kh" sound, not like the ch in "choo-choo." The nearest you can come to defining "chutzpah" in English is unmitigated gall or perhaps brazen effrontery. An example of "chutzpah" is the man who, after killing his mother and father, asks the court for mercy because, after all, he IS an orphan.There are hundreds of such examples in the book. There are also many more serious examples of words that do not lend themselves to humor.At the end of the book there are appendices which discuss Jewish Traditions, Ceremonies, Religious Writings, Names, and more.Rosten has evidently done his research to come up with the many hundreds of entries in the book. He has provided a valuable research document and a book that can be opened to almost any page and elicit a chuckle or two.

You can learn a lot more with humor than by dry explanations alone. Rosten's classic is packed with Jewish wit, backed by solid linguistical and historical facts that explain, in a nutshell, how much common Yiddish came into existance. Only drawback: the "hardback" is really just a bigger paperback!

The most authoritative book on Yiddish expressions (for general readers) is Leo Rosten's "The Joy of Yiddish." It not only catalogues and defines Yiddish expressions and words, but contains illustrations and jokes that use Yiddish words.