SOMETHING ABOUT YIDDISH LANGUAGE

Yiddish counts among the world's medium languages. Derived from Mittelhochdeutsch, it has developed through a millennium of existence as a language of the daily life. The vocabulary, predominantly of German origin, was largely enriched by the Hebrew language, especially in terms of nouns.

The current structure of Yiddish was formed only after the mass persecutions in the Middle Ages, when immigrants in Slav regions (Poland, Belarus, Ukraine) came into contact with a new and very important linguistic influence... It must be stressed that Yiddish-language studies have made a comeback in recent years. A series of prominent world universities have opened Yiddish-language departments attended by ever growing numbers of students.

Yiddish continues to be spoken in European countries, in Israel, in the United States and Latin America, in Asian countries, Australia and even South Africa. There is a wealth of Yiddish-language literature whose authors are among the world's greatest creative minds. In 1978, Yiddish language won the Nobel Prize - through author Isaac Bashevis-Singer, who said on accepting the prize: "The great honor the Swedish Academy is bestowing on me is also an acknowledgment of Yiddish language as a language of the Diaspora, a language without a country and without frontiers."