College Yiddish : An Introduction to the Yiddish Language and to Jewish Life and Culture

by Uriel Weinreich

THIS IS A TRADE SIZE PAPERBACK

Genres: Judaica, Jewish, Language, Reference

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the mother of all books on yiddish. Once you get into it, the texts in it get better and better. A lot of them are totally hilarious. There's one about a kind of simple guy and he's going to be married, and it's all aranged, right, so he never met the bride before. there's this part of a jewish wedding where the couple is alone for the first time. so he's all nervous about that, and he doesn't know what to say. someone tells him, ask her about herself, and then ask her about her family, and then talk about philosophy. so the big day comes, and the moment he's been dreading. he's thinking, "ask her about herself." he asks, "do you like noodles?" she says yes. he's doesn't know what to say so he thinks, "ask about her family." he asks, "do you have any brothers?" she says "no." he thinks, "philosophy" so he asks her, "if you had a brother, would he like noodles?" the more yiddish you learn, the more stuff like that there is for you to discover.

[Sabena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been the go-to text for Yiddish language learners since it was originally published in 1949. I'm studying the second printing of its 50th anniversary edition, published by YIVO in 2006. Each chapter includes writings about all aspects of Jewish life and history, from personal letters and humorous stories to articles on the Shoah and "the father of Yiddish Theatre," Avrom Goldfaden. The appendices include a synopsis of Yiddish grammar, additional articles and poetry, and a good Yiddish-English glossary. Vocabulary is built contextually. And each chapter includes grammatical lessons and explanations of idiomatic language. I love this book!