The Story of Yiddish: How a Mish-Mosh of Languages Saved the Jews - Neal Karlen

Karlens delightfully engaging, sometimes irreverent history of the Yiddish language chronologically charts the language from its beginnings as a minor dialect in 11th-century France to its unlikely revival and electrifying 21st-century renaissance. \n \nA delightfully unconventional tale of a people, their place in the world, and the fascinating language that held them together.\n \nYiddish is an unlikely survivor of the ages, much like the Jews themselves. Incorporating antique German dialects and elements from more than a dozen other tongues, the Yiddish language bears the imprint of the many places where European Jews were briefly given shelter. Neal Karlen's unique, brashly entertaining, yet thoroughly researched telling of the language's story reveals that Yiddish is a mirror of Jewish history, thought, and practice--for better and for worse.\n