The sun., 1895-01-06
The Jewish JarCOn.

Onehundred thousand inhabitants of New
York city, or more than five per cent. of the
whole population q ,957, ,452 by the Board OF
Health census), speak colloquially language
that is hybrid, mongrel, indefinite, with
out grammar or literature, without rules or
declensions, denationalized and variant,
known as Yiddish or Jewish jargon, the
language Of the east side. 1t is the dialect
of the goose market, the peddler, and of the
orthodox rabbs, though not of the syna-
Rogue 1t is the language spoken almost
exclusively on the east side by Russian,
Polish, Hungarian, Roumanian, and Lithu-
anian Jews.
To what country or nation does this
jargon trace its origin To no land and no
government. 1t is a reflex of wanderings {;
a language founded on successive persecu-
tions. Intelligent Jews subdivide the his
tory Of their race in Europe by periods Of
persecution: the eleventh century in
Spain, the thirteenth in England, the fif-
teenth in Germany, the seventeenth in
Austria, and the nineteenth in Russia
There is a tradition which many Jews re-
ject, but which is accepted as true by all
Christian historians, that King CAsIMIR
III. of Poland, known in English his
tories as CAsIMIR the Great and called
in Polish KRoL KMIoTKow (King of
the Peasants) fell in love with ESTHER, a
Jewish girl, and that through her infu-
ence, which continued for many years, and
by her intervention, the whole Of Poland,
now Russian, Austrian. or Prussian, be-
came an asylum for the Jews, who were then
bitterly and cruelty prosecuted through
out Germany. The refugees from the west
spoke German, mixed with a few English,
Spanish, and Hebrew words. The Poles,
the most hospitable people of northern
Europe followed the example Of their King
and received the Jews kindly: the latter
began to learn, not grammatically, but in the
ordinary intercourse of business, the Polish
language, which in tieNibility, richness, and
power is hardly excelled by any language
of Europe. Out of this mixture of colo
quial German, with few words of English,
Spanish, and old Hebrew, with Polish, fur
ther corrupted by additions from other Ian
guages, Russian, Hungarian, Roumanian,
and bohemian, was formed the conglomer-
ate form of speech which is the Jewish jar
gon spoken in New York. But in this jar
BOn pcrHldh anu iollsh pTeuoIllHlIe,
Six daily newspapers are published in New
York city in this jargon. Speeches are de-
livered in it, sermons are preached In it,
discussions are held, and business trans
acted in this language without grammar or
standard of usage. The characters used are
genuine Hebrew letters The age Of the
jargon is about 800 years. 1t is not
an attractive language; 1t is not musi-
cal, but Is rich in diminutives, exple-
tives, and terse abbreviations, and Is
readily learned. The number of words
is small; they are mostly short words, as
the Polish language contains few COM
pounds, and the long combinationso of words
peculiar to German have not come into use
The jargon process is one OF shortening
Case, the German word for street, is "gass;" /"
Stddt, the German word for town, is "stud"
in jargon.
Substantially, all Jews on the east side
below Fourteenth street and east of the
Bowery, speak or understand jaTgon or
"Yiddish as it Is called (Jewish is JH-
disch " in German) It is the language of
the newly arrived emigrant in the Cheder
or Jewish religious school abroad, and 1t
holds together Jews from every part of east
ern Europe by the bond OF a tongue under
stood by all. The effort OF progressive and
intelligent Jews, especially those born in the
United States, is TO abandon the jargon as a
medium OF speech, substituting English.
An organization which takes an active part