Member of the Germanic branch of the
Indo-European language family, deriving from
13th-14th-century Rhineland German and spoken
by northern, central, and eastern European
Jews, who have carried it to Israel, the USA,
and many other parts of the world. It is
written in the Hebrew alphabet and has many
dialects reflecting European areas of
residence, as well as many borrowed words. In
the USA, Yiddish has had a powerful impact on
English, best heard in the argot of New York,
in the film and stage communities, and in the
national media. Such words as bagel,
chutzpah, kibbitz, mensh, nosh, schlemiel,
schmaltz, and schmuck have entered the
American language, but are less used in
Britain. The novelist and short-story writer
Isaac Bashevis Singer writes in Yiddish.