Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Jul 2;8(6):1948-9.
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evw131.

Yiddish Language and Ashkenazic Jews: A Perspective from Culture, Language, and Literature

Marion Aptroot  1
Affiliations
Review

Yiddish Language and Ashkenazic Jews: A Perspective from Culture, Language, and Literature

Marion Aptroot. Genome Biol Evol. .

Abstract

The typology of Yiddish and the name Ashkenaz cannot serve as arguments to support the theory put forward by Das et al. (2016) (Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to primeval villages in the ancient Iranian lands of Ashkenaz. Genome Biol Evol 8:1132-1149.) that the origin of Ashkenazic Jews can be located in ancient Iran. Yiddish is a Germanic, not a Slavic language. The history of the use of the term Ashkenaz from the Middle Ages onward is well documented. Ashkenazic Jewry is named for the Hebrew and Yiddish designation for Germany, originally a Biblical term.

Keywords: Ashkenaz; Ashkenazic Jewry; Yiddish.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aptroot M. 2010. “Euchels Kollegen”: Reb Henoch und die aschkenasischen Komödien im späten 18. Jahrhundert In: Aptroot M, Kennecke A, Schulte C, editors. Isaac Euchel. Der Kulturrevolutionär der jüdischen Aufklärung. Hannover: Wehrhahn Verlag; p. 295–318.
    1. Comrie B. 1991. Comment: Yiddish Is Slavic? Int J Soc Lang. 1991(91):151–156.
    1. Das R, Wexler P, Pirooznia M, Elhaik E. 2016. Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to primeval villages in the ancient Iranian lands of Ashkenaz. Genome Biol Evol. 8:1132–1149. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shmeruk C. 1979. Mahazot mikraiyim beYidish, 1679–1750 (Yiddish Biblical plays, 1679–1750). Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Hebrew).
    1. Stampfer S. 2013. Did the Khazars convert to Judaism? Jew Soc Stud. 19(3):1–72.

LinkOut - more resources