1.1. The Language
Yiddish, the vernacular language of the Ashkenazic (Central and East European) Jews, traditionally categorized as a Germanic language, is a fusion language (M. Weinreich, 1973) that combines characteristics from the Semitic, Germanic, and Slavic language families. It emerged in the tenth century in the Rhineland or Bavaria regions (Dovid Katz, 1987; Wexler, 1991) in Germany, but as a result of the migration of its speakers to Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, it underwent a substantial process of Slavicization. Thus, the modern Yiddish language consists of three main vocabulary components: German, Hebrew-Aramaic, and Slavic (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech, Slovak, etc.), and its syntax and underlying structure are influenced by Slavic patterns. Yiddish is written in the Hebrew alphabet (right to left); but unlike Hebrew, which uses an abjad writing system (a consonantal script of 22 letters with vowels marked diacritically), Yiddish uses a phonemic orthography, in which all vowels are represented by separate symbols. Several other studies are recommended for more information on the history and linguistic structure of the Yiddish language (Birnbaum, 1979; M. Weinreich, 1973; J. E. Fishman, 1991; Jacobs, 2005; Dovid Katz, 2004;).