tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/yiddish-24726/articlesYiddish – La Conversation2020-05-21T12:20:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1389002020-05-21T12:20:03Z2020-05-21T12:20:03ZThe Scripps spelling bee is off this year, but the controversy over including foreign words is still on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336091/original/file-20200519-152298-ty7qju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=145%2C50%2C4041%2C2686&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Co-champions celebrate at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, on May 31, 2019. The winning spellers made history with eight co-champions, most ever in spelling event's history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/co-champions-sohum-sukhatankar-of-dallas-texas-saketh-news-photo/1152757579?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a normal year, millions of Americans would be following closely this week as preteens showcase their knowledge of words most of us have never heard of. </p>
<p>The contestants and their families may be devastated by the cancellation of the <a href="http://spellingbee.com/">Scripps National Spelling Bee</a>. As a <a href="http://huc.edu/directory/sarah-bunin-benor">linguist</a> who studies <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/263681">languages</a> that <a href="https://becomingfrum.weebly.com/">draw</a> from multiple <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/mandel/projects/hebrewatcamp.html">sources</a>, I’m disappointed our country is missing its annual lesson in English linguistics.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/shalini-shankar/beeline/9780465094523/">social and professional benefits</a> of spelling bees are hard to ignore. The participants, including many from immigrant families, develop skills of grit and performance, and they and their parents form new social networks. An entire industry has emerged surrounding the preparation of elite contestants.</p>
<p>But it’s also worth recognizing spelling bees’ contributions to the public’s awareness of world languages. Even if the acceptable spellings of many international words are debatable, their presence highlights the multicultural past and present of the English tongue.</p>
<p>In a millennium of global expeditions and conquests, English has cast its net in diverse linguistic habitats. It has captured words from many languages, often for concepts not previously expressed in English. Linguists call these words “<a href="https://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Ekemmer/Words/loanwords.html">loanwords</a>,” which does not mean English eventually returns them.</p>
<h2>English loanwords</h2>
<p>Many loanwords have been part of English for centuries and are not considered foreign at all. Unless they’ve studied linguistics, most people would be surprised to learn that “skirt” entered English from Old Norse, “beef” from French and “expensive” from Latin.</p>
<p>With more recent loanwords, English speakers sense their language of origin but still see them as part of English. This is especially common in the domains of <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Language-of-Food/">cuisine</a>, as with “jambalaya” (from Louisiana French, originally Provençal), natural phenomena like “tsunami” (Japanese) and specialized terminology such as “fortissimo” (Italian) in music. </p>
<p>Although there is no English language academy that makes official rulings, the spellings of such loanwords are standardized, as they are frequently used in English and have been for many years. Nobody would question their inclusion in the spelling bee.</p>
<p>Most English loanwords borrow from languages that, like English, use the <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/borrowed-words/">Latin alphabet</a>. These words usually maintain their original spellings, such as “schadenfreude” (German: pleasure derived from another’s misfortune) and “coup d’état” (French: violent overthrow of a government). </p>
<p>Other examples, which showed up in the <a href="https://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Multiple%20Champs%20declared%20for%202019%20Scripps%20National%20Spelling%20Bee%205-31-19.pdf">2019 national spelling bee</a>, include “tjaele” (Swedish: frozen ground), “imbirussú” (Portuguese: a South American tree) and “geeldikkop” (Afrikaans: a disease among southern African sheep). Some viewers might wonder if words like these should be included in the bee, but nobody would question their spellings.</p>
<p>However, English – and therefore spelling bees – also includes many words from <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/where-do-spelling-bee-words-come-from/">languages</a> not historically written in Latin characters. Sometimes the English spellings of these words adhere to conventionalized phonetic transliteration. </p>
<p>Examples include “makimono” (Japanese: a horizontal ornamental scroll), “namaz” (Persian: Islamic prayer) and “teledu” (Malay: a Javanese skunk-like animal). In other cases, many possible transliterations are used within English, even if the dictionary provides only one spelling. Is it “falafel” or “felafel”? “Pad thai” or “phad thai”?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHPxDsLQxg">Last year’s competition</a> featured several such ambiguous loanwords, including “chaebol,” which could be “jaebeol” (Korean: a family-controlled industrial conglomerate) and “kooletah,” which could be “kuleta” (Greenlandic Aleut: a caribou-skin coat). In fact, four of the five most <a href="https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight/status/1133783192861847553/photo/1">difficult</a> languages of origin in spelling bees are written in non-Latin letters.</p>
<h2>Wrangling over loanwords</h2>
<p>Of course, difficulty should not disqualify a word from being included in spelling bees. But such loanwords have generated <a href="https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/05/knaidel-v-kneydl-debating-the-winning-spelling-bee-word/">controversy</a> in recent years, especially from <a href="https://thewordmavens.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/spelling-bee-mishegoss-yiddish-for-craziness/">word mavens</a> in the Jewish community upset about the spellings of the bee’s many <a href="https://forward.com/news/national/425240/yiddishkeit-scipps-spelling-bee-yiddish-jewish-words/">words from Hebrew and Yiddish</a>. </p>
<p>Some Hebrew and Yiddish sounds have multiple possible transliterations, and Jews of different backgrounds have different spelling preferences. To represent this diversity, when I moderate Hebrew and Yiddish entries in the crowdsourced <a href="https://jel.jewish-languages.org/">Jewish English Lexicon</a>, I list several spellings – sometimes more than a dozen.</p>
<p>A Hebrew example is “keriah” (Jewish ceremonial garment rending), spelled “correctly” by 13-year-old Rishik Gandhasri, one of the eight champions in 2019. This word has <a href="https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/1473">many attested spellings</a>, including “kria,” “kriyah” and “qeri’ah.” “Kriah,” according to Google, is the most common spelling in English. But the E.W. Scripps Company, which has run the bee since 1941, allows only “keriah.” Why? Because that’s the spelling espoused by Merriam-Webster, <a href="http://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/Contest_Rules_of_the_2018_Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee.pdf">Scripps’ authoritative dictionary</a>. </p>
<p>Gandhasri advanced to another round in the bee with the Yiddish-origin word “yiddishkeit” (Jewishness). In a <a href="http://www.yiddishwit.com/transliteration.html">standard system</a> for transliterating Yiddish words, it’s spelled “yidishkayt.” However, a Yiddish culture organization in Los Angeles spells it “Yiddishkayt.” These spellings represent different ideologies regarding Yiddish and its relationship to German. And many who use them believe wholeheartedly that only their spelling is correct.</p>
<p>In the 2013 bee, the winning word was also from Yiddish: “knaidel” (Passover dumpling). I <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/culture/229899/linguists-take-knaidel-kneydl-controversy/">wrote</a> then that, if I had been a contestant: “I would have given 10 possible spellings, explained what various spellings indicate about the people who write them and then protested the English spelling bee’s use of loanwords from a language that does not use Latin script. Clearly, I would have lost.” </p>
<h2>Benefits of a growing lexicon</h2>
<p>Since then, I have recognized the benefits of including such loanwords. First, while contestants must learn the spelling and transliteration conventions of dozens of languages, the major skill tested is who can memorize more of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/spellpundit-scripps-spelling-bee.html">472,000 words</a> in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. The competition emphasizes this skill by including loanwords without standardized English spellings.</p>
<p>Second, the ubiquity of loanwords expands Americans’ awareness of new cultural domains. The broad media coverage of recent spelling bees has introduced Americans to a Brazilian drum, “atabaque” (from Portuguese, influenced by Arabic), a Norse merman, “marmennill” (from Icelandic) and a Polynesian chief or noble, “alii” (from Hawaiian).</p>
<p>Even when the dictionary’s one accepted spelling is debatable, members of immigrant, indigenous and religious groups <a href="https://www.kveller.com/this-yiddish-word-kicked-off-the-scripps-national-spelling-bee-finals/">are generally proud</a> when spelling bees feature their community’s language in such a public way. </p>
<p>Although 2020 news headlines won’t feature 13-year-olds’ spelling feats, we can still marvel, not only at the accomplishments of our youth, but also at the richness of the English lexicon. Whether loanwords are from Icelandic, Korean or Hebrew, they remind us of the layered history of our language and the increasingly interconnected nature of our world.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bunin Benor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Scripps National Spelling Bee highlights the richness of the English lexicon by picking some tough entries with foreign roots.Sarah Bunin Benor, Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/979622018-09-05T11:25:11Z2018-09-05T11:25:11ZAshkenazic Jews’ mysterious origins unravelled by scientists thanks to ancient DNA<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232473/original/file-20180817-165934-yvfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where do the Jewish people come from? This is a question that anthopologists, historians and theologists have studied for millennia.</p>
<p>According to mythology, the Judaeans descended from three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs">Cave of Machpelah</a>) in Hebron – a Palestinian city and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/unesco-recognises-hebron-as-palestinian-world-heritage-site">world heritage site</a> located in the southern West Bank, 19 miles south of Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Buried alongside them are said to be Adam and Eve and the four Matriarchs – Sara, Rebecca and Leah. The cave has never been excavated, but on top of it is a relatively modern building (mid first-century), which Herod the Great built – likely to honour his ancestors. </p>
<p>For a more scientific take on the Jewish origin debate, recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3543">European</a>. It has also been found that their DNA <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00087/full">only has 3% ancient ancestry</a> which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East) – namely Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria, and western Jordan. This is the part of the world Jewish people are said to have originally come from – according to the Old Testament. But 3% is a minuscule amount, and similar to what modern Europeans as a whole share with Neanderthals. So given that the genetic ancestry link is so low, Ashkenazic Jews’ most recent ancestors must be from elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Not one, but many tribes</h2>
<p>To understand why this is the case, we need to go back in time, to look at where these other ancestors came from. It starts in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the sixth century. This is where <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234">most of the world’s Jews were living</a> at this time. </p>
<p>The tolerance of the Persians encouraged the Jews to adopt Persian names, words, traditions, and religious practices, and climb up the social ladder <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">gaining a monopoly on trade</a>. They also <a href="http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/03/gbe.evw046.full.pdf+html">converted other people</a> who were living along the Black Sea, to their Jewish faith. This helped to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Jewish_Merchant_Adventures.html?id=Ey0JAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">expand their global network</a>.</p>
<p>Among these converts were the Alans (Iranian nomadic pastoral people), Greeks, and Slavs who resided along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Upon conversion, they <a href="https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/manuscripts-of-the-greek-old-testament">translated the Old Testament into Greek</a>, built synagogues, and continued expanding the Jewish trade network. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in northwest Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, and the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews can be traced to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">Ancient Ashkenaz</a>” – an intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey. </p>
<h2>The rise of the Ashina</h2>
<p>We now know that at the time these Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, they also acquired unique <a href="https://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0870-2">Asian mutations</a> on their Y chromosome. This is where another important group of people in our story come into play – and they are called the Gok-Turks. </p>
<p>During the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Turks_and_Khazars.html?id=AOhIAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">sixth century</a>, these nomadic people were ruled by a Siberian Turkic tribe called the Ashina. They were forced by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tang-dynasty">Chinese Tang Empire</a> – who were in power in China at the time – to migrate westwards toward the Black Sea. </p>
<p>Thanks to their organisational and military skills, the Ashina united many tribes in this area – and a new empire called the “Khazar Khaganate” was born. Offering freedom of worship and taxing trade, these people quickly rose to power.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orthodox Jews pray at the ancient cemetery of Safed, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3928">The Asian group of these DNA mutations</a>, found in Ashkenazic Jews, likely originated from <a href="https://www.academia.edu/23316012/Wen_S.-Q._Muratov_B.A._Suyunov_R.R._The_haplogroups_of_the_representatives_from_ancient_Turkic_clans_-_Ashina_and_Ashide_BEHPS_ISSN_2410-1788_Volume_3_2_1_2_March_2016_P.154-157">the Ashina</a> elite and other Khazar clans, who converted from Shamanism to Judaism. This means that the Ashina and core Khazar clans were absorbed by the Ashkenazic Jews.</p>
<p>It was also around this time that the Jewish elite adopted many Slavic customs. And based on my previous research, I would suggest that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">Yiddish was developed as a secret language</a> to assist in trade.</p>
<h2>The next chapter</h2>
<p>What happened next was that the Jewish empire began to collapse. By the tenth century, the Jews on the Black Sea migrated to Ukraine and Italy. Yiddish became the lingua franca of these Ashkenazic Jews and absorbed <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ashkenazic-Jews-Slavo-Turkic-People-Identity/dp/0893572411">German words while maintaining the Slavic grammar</a>. And as global trade moved to the hands of the Italians, Dutch and English, the Jews were pushed aside.</p>
<p>What this all shows is that by using modern <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-dna-could-unravel-mystery-prehistoric-european-migration-180963702/">genetic</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=WSBnr7yuOiI">technology</a> – that enables scientists to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180617204416.htm">track the past</a> of modern-day people – a new appreciation for Jewish ancestry can be discovered. </p>
<p>It has meant a greater understanding of the journeys these people took to arrive in Europe. It has also allowed for increased knowledge as to the significant role the Ashina and the Khazar clans – from which some of the real Jewish patriarchs actually came from – played.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Elhaik consults DNA Diagnostics Centre. Eran Elhaik was partially supported by an MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme award 2014-University of Sheffield to E.E. (Ref: MC_PC_14115).</span></em></p>DNA evidence tracks the ancient history of the Jewish people.Eran Elhaik, Lecturer in population, medical and evolutionary genomics, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583552016-05-06T11:09:14Z2016-05-06T11:09:14ZUncovering ancient Ashkenaz – the birthplace of Yiddish speakers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121535/original/image-20160506-32019-1jw8ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Did Ashkenazi Jews descend from ancient Turkey?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Everett Historical/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At 1,000 years, the search for the location of <a href="http://forward.com/culture/13681/the-origins-of-ashkenaz-02111/">Ashkenaz</a> – thought to be the birthplace of Ashkanazic Jews and the Yiddish language – is one of the longest quests in human history. It is perhaps second only in length to the search for Noah’s Ark which began in the 3rd century AD.</p>
<p>The place name Ashkenaz occurs three times in the Bible, but by the Middle Ages the exact origin of Ashkenaz was forgotten. Because of the migration of the Ashkenazic Jews <a href="http://forward.com/culture/13681/the-origins-of-ashkenaz-02111/#ixzz47gpe9gtB">it later became associated with Germany</a>. This led to all German Jews being considered “Ashkenazic”, a term which was then applied to central and eastern European Jews who follow <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews">Ashkenazic religious customs</a> and who speak Yiddish.</p>
<p>The Yiddish language – which consists of Hebrew, German, Slavic elements and is written in Aramaic – has been spoken at least since the 9th century AD, but its origins have been debated by linguists for several centuries. While some have suggested a <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/165247/yiddish-ashkenazi-woodworth">German origin</a>, others believe a <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/165247/yiddish-ashkenazi-woodworth">more complex beginning for the language</a>, starting in Slavic lands in Khazaria – the Middle Age Khazar Empire that covered present-day southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and parts of the Caucasus – and followed by Ukraine, and finally Germany. Although the language adopted a German vocabulary it retained its Slavic grammar – which is why Yiddish is often referred to as “<a href="http://germslav.byu.edu/perspectives/2001/5-Yiddish.pdf">bad German</a>”. </p>
<p>The inability of linguists to reach a consensus have led some to decry that <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/200977/study-claims-yiddish-originated-in-turkey">the mystery of where Yiddish came from will never be solved</a>. But now for the first time a pioneering tool that converts genome data into ancestral coordinates, is helping to <a href="http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/03/gbe.evw046.full.pdf+html">pinpoint the DNA of Yiddish speakers</a>.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/dna-sat-nav-uncovers-ancient-ashkenaz-1.569403">largest genomic study of Ashkenazic Jews</a>, and the first one to study Yiddish speakers, we applied our Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool – which operates in a similar way to the sat nav in your car – to the genomes of more than 360 Yiddish and non-Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jews. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121223/original/image-20160504-6918-11bn3h9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in north-west Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Surprisingly, our GPS <a href="http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/4/1132.full.pdf+html">homed in on north-east Turkey</a>, where we found four primeval villages, one of which was abandoned in the mid-7th century AD.</p>
<p>These ancient villages identified by the GPS tool are clustered close to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road">Silk Road</a> – the ancient network of trade routes – and are named Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz. And it is likely that these are the villages that mark the location of the lost lands of Ashkenaz.</p>
<h2>The history of a people</h2>
<p>Located on the cross roads of ancient trade routes, this region suggests that the Yiddish language was developed by Iranian and Ashkenazic Jews as they traded on the Silk Road from the first centuries AD to around the 9th century when they arrived in Slavic lands.</p>
<p>Putting together evidence from linguistic, history, and genetics, we concluded that the ancient Ashkenazic Jews were merchants who developed <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/dna-sat-nav-uncovers-ancient-ashkenaz-1.569403">Yiddish as a secret language</a> – with 251 words for “buy” and “sell” – to maintain their monopoly. They were known to trade in everything from fur to slaves.</p>
<p>By the 8th century the words <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/european-history-1000-1450/byzantine-jewry-mediterranean-economy">“Jew” and “merchant” were practically synonymous</a>, and it was around this time that Ashkenazic Jews began relocating from ancient Ashkenaz to the Khazar Empire to expand their mercantile operations. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121222/original/image-20160504-11494-12xb7dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two Jewish merchants in medieval dress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudine Van Massenhove/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This Jewish migration led to some of the Turkic Khazar rulers and numerous eastern Slavs living within the Khazar Empire to convert to Judaism so they didn’t miss out on the lucrative Silk Road trade between Germany and China. </p>
<p>But the demise of Khazaria due to continued invasions and finally the Black Death devastated this last <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/nicolas-soteri/khazaria-forgotten-jewish-empire">Jewish Empire of Khazaria</a>. This led to the Ashkenazic Jews splitting into two groups – some remaining in the Caucasus and others migrating into eastern Europe and Germany.</p>
<p>The two groups still called themselves Ashkenazic Jews, however the name Ashkenaz became more strongly associated with Germany and the the European group – for whom Yiddish became their primary language.</p>
<h2>A secret language</h2>
<p>Since north-east Turkey is the only place in the world where the place names of Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz exist this strongly implies that Yiddish was established around the first millennium at a time when Jewish traders moved goods from Asia to Europe. This was done by developing the language of Yiddish, which very few can speak or understand other than Jews. </p>
<p>Further evidence to the origin of Ashkenazic Jews can be found in many customs – such as the breaking of a glass at a wedding ceremony and placing stones over tombstones, which were probably introduced by Slavic converts to Judaism. </p>
<p>By studying the origin of Yiddish using our GPS technology, combined with a citizen science approach, we were able to shed light on one of the most forgotten chapters of history and demonstrate the use of bio-geographical genetic tools to study the origin of languages. For Ashkanazic Jews these are the ties that bind their history, culture, behaviour, and identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Elhaik consults DNA Diagnostics Centre.
Eran Elhaik was partially supported by a Genographic grant (GP 01-12), The Royal Society International Exchanges Award to E.E. and Michael Neely (IE140020), MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme award 2014-University of Sheffield to E.E. (Ref: MC_PC_14115), and a National Science Foundation grant DEB-1456634 to Tatiana Tatarinova and E.E.</span></em></p>Yiddish was at one time the international language of Ashkenazic Jews, but it’s exact origin has always been somewhat unclear, until now.Eran Elhaik, Lecturer in population, medical and evolutionary genomics, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546212016-02-12T16:30:12Z2016-02-12T16:30:12ZTed Cruz’s linguistic chutzpah<p>“Chutzpah” is making headlines again. This time it’s not because someone mispronounced it (as former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_mWlXvKnq8">did a few years ago</a>); it’s because Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called it a “New York term.” </p>
<p>At a recent New Hampshire event, Cruz responded to Donald Trump’s criticism that he borrowed money from Goldman Sachs. </p>
<p>Cruz pointed out that Trump, in fact, had taken out over US$480 million in loans from Wall Street banks. </p>
<p>“For him to make this attack,” Cruz boomed, “to use a New York term” – Cruz then paused for laughter – “it’s the height of chutzpah.” </p>
<p>Highlighting Donald Trump’s “New York values” is a tack Cruz has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/01/18/what-ted-cruzs-new-york-values-attack-is-really-about/">repeatedly taken</a> in recent weeks on the campaign trail. </p>
<p>But not all were amused. <em>Washington Post</em> columnist Dana Milbank <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nastiness-of-ted-cruz/2016/02/05/2cfbfde0-cc2c-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html">wrote</a>, “‘chutzpah,’ of course, is not a ‘New York’ term. It’s a Yiddish – a Jewish – one. And using ‘New York’ as a euphemism for ‘Jewish’ has long been an anti-Semitic dog whistle.” </p>
<p>As a sociolinguist who specializes in American Jewish language, I’ve studied the use of the word “chutzpah” in the United States. Was Ted Cruz correct in calling “chutzpah” a New York word? And were there anti-Semitic undertones to the association? </p>
<h2>Two primary uses</h2>
<p>“Chutzpah” is just one of many words introduced into American English by Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, along with “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/479">shmooze</a>,” “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/347">maven</a>” (also both from Hebrew), “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/533">shpiel</a>” and “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/274">klutz</a>.” </p>
<p>In his 1968 book <em>The Joys of Yiddish</em>, Leo Rosten offered a <a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/119">definition</a> of “chutzpah” (or as he spells it, “chutzpa”) that has been widely cited: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible “guts”; presumption-plus-arrogance such as no other word, and no other language, can do justice to. The classic definition of <em>chutzpa</em> is, of course, this: <em>Chutzpa</em> is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Gall” is primarily negative – like Cruz’s use of the word. But “chutzpah” has also come to have positive associations, as in Oprah Winfrey’s <a href="http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-First-Annual-Chutzpah-Awards">Chutzpah Awards</a>, presented annually to “women whose chutzpah – audacity, nerve, boldness, conviction – has taken them to the most amazing places.”</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=chutzpah&year_start=1820&year_end=1990&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cchutzpah%3B%2Cc0">According to a Google Books search</a>, “chutzpah” first appeared in English writing in 1877, and it gained popularity in the 1960s. There were additional bumps in usage after the 1991 publication of Alan Dershowitz’s memoir, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chutzpah-Alan-M-Dershowitz/dp/0316181374/">Chutzpah</a></em>, and in 2000, when Al Gore selected Joe Lieberman, a religious Jew, as his running mate. In his first speech as Gore’s running mate, Lieberman <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/09/uselections2000.usa">said</a>, “You know, there are some people who might actually call Al Gore’s selection of me an act of chutzpah.” </p>
<p><em>Time</em> magazine then featured the word on its cover under a photo of Gore and Lieberman. At that time, the word was clearly associated with Jews, and it was one of <a href="http://becomingfrum.weebly.com/discussion-forum/february-10th-2016">many Hebrew and Yiddish words used in the press</a> (by supporters and detractors) to highlight Lieberman’s Jewishness. </p>
<p>Sixteen years later, the word is used regularly in political discourse – and not necessarily in reference to Jews. In December, President Obama used the term <a href="http://www.jta.org/2015/12/11/default/obamas-chutzpah-email">in a fundraising email</a> when describing Republicans in Congress. Of course, many still associate the word with Jews because of its origins and its “ch” sound.</p>
<h2>A part of Newyorkese?</h2>
<p>In 2008, I tested “chutzpah” and other Yiddish words in a <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=3874">survey</a> I conducted with sociologist Steven M. Cohen. We received over 30,000 responses, with about 25,000 coming from Jews and 5,000 from non-Jews. We asked respondents whether they know and use these words; many reported that they do.</p>
<p>The survey can help us answer the question of whether Cruz correctly characterized “chutzpah” as a “New York term.” We also asked about two different meanings of “chutzpah”: negative, like Cruz’s use, and positive, like Oprah’s. </p>
<p>We found that Jews are more likely than non-Jews to report using the word with both meanings, but regardless of Jewish identity, those who’ve lived in New York are more likely to report using both than those who’ve never lived in New York. In addition, among survey respondents, 63 percent of non-Jews who have lived in New York report using “chutzpah” negatively, compared to 47 percent who have never lived in New York. </p>
<p>So Cruz is right – the word is used more by New Yorkers. But, as Milbank points out, it’s also used more by Jews (87 percent). Interestingly, non-Jewish respondents are more likely to use the positive meaning than the negative one. The opposite holds for Jews.</p>
<h2>How Cruz uses “chutzpah” to set up contrasts</h2>
<p>The conflation of Jewish and New York language has a long history. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/452953?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">A researcher in 1932 reported</a> that New York Jews had several “errors” in their pronunciation of English words. <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle/j$002fijsl.1980.issue-26$002fijsl.1980.26.15$002fijsl.1980.26.15.xml">A 1980 study found</a> that people associated Yiddish-influenced grammar with both Jews <em>and</em> New Yorkers (including sentences like “Some milk you want?”). </p>
<p>Of course, it’s only natural for a large ethnic concentration to influence their local dialect. About a quarter of the Jews in the United States live in the New York area – <a href="http://www.ujafedny.org/who-we-are/our-mission/jewish-community-study-of-new-york-2011/">over 1.5 million people</a>, which represents about 12 percent of the New York population. A century ago, this percentage was even higher: Jews were almost a third of the New York population.</p>
<p>Jews are also overwhelmingly liberal; in every presidential election since 1984, a majority of Jews have voted Democratic, sometimes as high as <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html">80 percent</a>.</p>
<p>So when Cruz uses “chutzpah” in this way – and when he rails against “New York values” – he’s associating Donald Trump not just with New York, but with Jews and liberals (ironic, given the vast chasm between Trump and liberals). And this allows him to set up a contrast with his conservative, Christian, suburban and rural base. </p>
<p>If Cruz had just accused Trump of chutzpah, there would be no issue. By marking the word as “New York” and exaggerating the guttural “ch,” he distanced himself from the word and the foreignness and cosmopolitanism it represents. </p>
<p>So, yes, there is some veiled – and therefore deniable – anti-Semitism there. (But, I would argue, it’s minor compared to Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_Y3YIN43c">calling</a> a Jewish audience “negotiators” and saying they want to control politicians with their donations.) </p>
<p>At the same time, I share Jewish journalist <a href="http://www.jta.org/2016/02/07/news-opinion/politics/when-ted-cruz-slams-donald-trumps-chutzpah-should-jews-be-offended-or-honored">Ron Kampeas</a>’ instinct to kvell a little about the graduation of the word “chutzpah” into the mainstream. </p>
<p>Whether they align politically with Cruz, embrace “New York values” or find themselves somewhere in the middle, Jews should be tickled that a word once considered Jewish is now used by a Southern Baptist to attack a Presbyterian.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bunin Benor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is ‘chutzpah’ actually – as Ted Cruz claimed – a New York word? And what’s with the candidate’s insistence on distancing himself from New York City?Sarah Bunin Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.