The Influence of Yiddish on English

It is a remarkable fact that never in its history has Yiddish been so influential — among Gentiles. (Among Jews, alas, the tongue is running dry.) We are clearly witnessing a revolution in values when a Pentagon officer, describing the air-bombardment pattern used around Haiphong, informs the press: 'You might call it the bagel strategy.' Or when a Christmas (1966) issue of Better Homes and Gardens features: 'The Season's Delightful Jewish Traditions and Foods.' Or when the London Economist captions a fuss over mortgage rates: 'HOME LOAN HOOHA.' Or when the Wall Street Journal headlines a feature on student movements: 'REVOLUTION, SHMEVOLUTION.' Or when a wall in New York bears this eloquent legend, chalked there, I suppose, by some derisive student of English:

Marcel Proust is a Yenta

Or when England's illustrious Times Literary Supplement, discussing the modern novel, interjects this startling sentence: 'Should, schmould, shouldn't, schmouldn't.' Or when a musical play about Jews in the Polish shtetl of fifty years ago, Fiddler on the Roof, scores so phenomenal a success.

Yiddish phrasing and overtones are found in, say, the way an Irish whiskey advertises itself:

Scotch is a fine beverage and deserves its popularity
But enough is enough, already...

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Colloquial Uses in English of Yiddish Linguistic Devices
(Often an underlying Yiddish syntax, but using English words)

But words and phrases are not the chief 'invasionary' forces Yiddish has sent into the hallowed terrain of English. Much more significant, I think, is the adoption by English of linguistic devices, Yiddish in origin, to convey nuances of affection, compassion, displeasure, emphasis, disbelief, scepticism, ridicule, sarcasm, scorn. Examples abound:

1. Blithe dismissal via repetition with an sh play-on-the-first-sound: 'Fat-shmat, as long as she's happy.'
2. Mordant syntax: 'Smart, he isn't.'
3. Sarcasm via innocuous diction: 'He only tried to shoot himself.'
4. Scorn through reversed word order: 'Already you're discouraged?'
5. Contempt via affirmation: 'My son-in-law he wants to be.'
6. Fearful curses sanctioned by nominal cancellation: 'A fire should burn in his heart, God forbid!'
7. Politeness expedited by truncated verbs and eliminated prepositions: 'You want a cup coffee?'
8. Derisive dismissal disguised as innocent interrogation: 'I should pay him for such devoted service?'
9. The use of a question to answer a question to which the answer is so self-evident that the use of the first question (by you) constitutes an affront (to me) best erased either by (a) repeating the original question or (b) retorting with a question of comparably asinine self-answeringness...

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"-NIK" (Example of Yiddish-stereotype suffixes, and subsequent spinoffs ...

• -nik, or -nick (Pronounced "NICK": a suffix from the Slavic languages)

This multipurpose syllable converts a verb, noun or adjective into a word for an ardent practitioner, believer, lover, cultist or devotee of something. Thus, a nudnik is someone who nudzhes or pesters. An alrightnik is someone who has done so well that he is prosperous. We are all familiar, of course, with beatnik and peacenik. The New York Times recently referred to Bachniks, and a friend of mine, dieting, wailed that it was especially hard for her because at heart she was a noshnik.

-Nik lends itself to delightful ad hoc inventions.

A sicknik would be one who fancies sick or black humor. A Freudnik would be an uncritical acolyte of the father of psycholanalysis. And recently homosexuals have begun to refer to heterosexuals, with some amusement, as straightniks.