Yiddish language

Yiddish (Yid. ייִדיש, yidiš) is a Germanic language spoken by about three million people throughout the world, predominantly Ashkenazic Jews. The name Yiddish itself is Yiddish for "Jewish" (compare German jüdisch) and is likely an abbreviated rendition of yidish-taytsh (ייִדיש־טײַטש), or "Jewish German". In its earliest historical phase (13th-14th centuries), Yiddish is referred to by linguists as Judeo-German; occasionally this term is used for later forms of the language as well.

Books

• Cohen, David (Rabbi), Yiddish: A Holy Language, Mesorah Publications, New York, 2004 (in Hebrew).
• Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.), Never Say Die: A Thousand Years of Yiddish in Jewish Life and Letters, Mouton Publishers, The Hague, 1981, ISBN 90-279-7978-2 (in Yiddish and English).
• Jacobs, Neil G., Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, ISBN 0-521-77215-X.
• Katz, Dovid, Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish, Basic Books, New York, 2004, ISBN 0-465-03728-3.
• Kriwaczek, Paul, Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2005, ISBN 0-297-82941-6.
• Lansky, Aaron, Outwitting History: How a Young Man Rescued a Million Books and Saved a Vanishing Civilisation, Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, 2004, ISBN 1-565-12429-4.
• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
• Weinreich, Uriel. College Yiddish: an Introduction to the Yiddish language and to Jewish Life and Culture, 6th revised ed., YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-914-51226-9 (in Yiddish and English).
• Weinstein, Miriam, Yiddish: A Nation of Words, Ballentine Books, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-345-44730-1.
• Wex, Michael, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-312-30741-1.