ABSTRACT — The ability of Yiddish to open up to the surrounding languages is a phenomenon with which it has been familiar since its birth. This article analyses more specifically what becomes of Yiddish when it emigrates from its breeding ground, the east-European Jewishnesses where it was an everyday language to a western country. Resettled in France, the Yiddish adopted and took in many French words in less than two generations. The clothing industry was one of the main media of this language proselytism to the point of becoming almost the professional language of the Jews who traded in that specific branch. “Yiddishisation” of French words and expressions appears as one of the multi-sided immigration phenomenon. Derived and rewritten in Hebraïc characters, legitimated by the Yiddish papers of that time, they fall within the wider scope of the speech of the immigrated group about itself.
The ability of Yiddish to open up to the surrounding languages is a phenomenon with which it has been familiar since its birth. This article analyses more specifically what becomes of Yiddish when it emigrates from its breeding ground, the east-European Jewishnesses where it was an everyday language to a western country. Resettled in France, the Yiddish adopted and took in many French words in less than two generations. The clothing industry was one of the main media of this language proselytism to the point of becoming almost the professional language of the Jews who traded in that specific branch. “Yiddishisation” of French words and expressions appears as one of the multi-sided immigration phenomenon. Derived and rewritten in Hebraïc characters, legitimated by the Yiddish papers of that time, they fall within the wider scope of the speech of the immigrated group about itself.
