Code Switching in Yiddish.

June 24, 2025 by 2 Comments

Jim Bisso posted to the Facebook group The Morphology of Peevology:

Code switching in Yiddish by a Chasid youth. So much English, Yinglish, what have you. Anyway, he went to Iran to find the tombs of Ester and Mordekay.

https://youtu.be/D5TZPlO4Se8?si=GOLMHQI8TesQjzZr

If you know even a tiny bit of Yiddish it’s well worth watching at least some of the 46-minute video; I’m in awe at the language-mixing. Description of the content:

I landed in Tehran and headed straight to Hamadan, where I spent the night. The next day, I explored the vibrant bazaar and visited the sacred Tomb of Mordechai and Esther. Then, I set off to the breathtaking Ali-Sadr Cave, an underground wonder with vast waterways and boat rides—an unforgettable experience.

Comments

  1. Yeshivish says
    June 24, 2025 at 4:45 pm

    This video contains one of my favorite specimens of Yeshivish English-Yiddish code switching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5jU3LzsLGQ the language is so technical and complex that even a seasoned Talmud Scholar can barely understand it.

  2. languagehat says
    June 24, 2025 at 4:55 pm

    Boy, that bridegroom is a talker (from c. 5:40), and everybody looks so happy! And I learned a meaning of vort new to me:

    In some communities, when couples become engaged to be married, they sign an elaborate contract known as tenoyim (“conditions”). Others don’t want to put their intentions on paper in advance of the wedding, lest one party feel the need to back out. Instead, the two parties verbally acknowledge their intentions to bring the marriage to fruition. This vort is often celebrated with an engagement party. In time, the celebration also became known as a vort.

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