“It’s an hourglass than you think, kids.”

The tradition of Jewish humor continues today, especially in the United States, mostly in Yiddish origin, just as the language is cultivated there—albeit in a woefully deteriorating development. In addition, Yiddish also influences the English language. So one talks about English. This linguistic noun is a “combination,” as linguists say, a combination of two parts of the word: Yiddish and English that results in English.

But noteworthy is the distinction made by American author Leo Rosten (1908-1997) in his bestselling book Yiddish joys (1970). The term Yinglish is used for words used colloquially both in and outside the United States: kibitzer, mishmash, bagel, etc.

ameridish There are also words that are understandable only in the American Jewish context: in the Catskill Mountains, El Dorado for American-Jewish summer holidays, for example, rooms or cottages with cooking facilities, is called kochalayns – derived from the familiar words cook and alone. Anyone who looks at other people’s cards out there is called a kibitzer. For such names, Rustin again coined a “mixture,” this time of Native American and Yiddish: that is, Native American.

American plays, television shows, and commercials often contain expressions that, in subtle humor, are not revealed except to those familiar with Yinglish and Ameriddish. Interestingly, New York disc jockeys can sometimes be heard whispering into the microphone: “It’s louder than you think, kids.”

Even publicist Wallace Markfield (1926-2002) spoke of “Yiddish for American humor” in a 1965 article in Esquire magazine: “For the past several years the Yiddish language has quietly infiltrated the American landscape and grammar.” Anyone who wants to get acquainted with American Jewish humor should read the innovative books of Leo Rostens, a very versatile publisher. Among other things, he is the author shout out to the handIt was published in New York in 1982.

Leo Rustin Rustin was a very funny language commentator, who was also a highly critical observer, and in no way agreed or disagreed. His defining style is sharp-tongued, never fancy: he sometimes detracts from Jews in the United States as: “Arab, Ike, Izzy, Jake, Motzer, Shine, Schonker, Smosh, Schnozel, Schnozola, Yedd, Yiddisher.”

There is no dictionary where jokes are interspersed in an entertaining way similar to explaining explanations of words, for example for maven, which means expert. This word was adopted from Hebrew via Yiddish into American and is quite common there – as Random House Webster’s College Dictionary and Linguee Dictionary indicate.

The maven of Yinglish and Ameriddish knows not only the grammatical but also the rhetorical properties of these variants: for example the echo question, in which one emphasizes the absurdity of the initial question. As Jan Myrowitz (1913-1998) wrote in his book, comes from “the age-old prohibition of assimilation into non-Jewish culture” The real jewish joke (1971) A rich source of Jewish jokes.

merger Two examples from Meyerowitz “with a dash of resentment that is not always funny” confirm the skepticism about desire and the possibility of assimilation. Moritz Rosenthal, a pianist of whom the Jews were especially proud, plays in Budapest. The hall is full, people are huddled on the stairs where they can’t see anything. Jew in the middle of Liszt’s “Mephisto Waltz”: “You, does he play the violin or is he just?”

The second joke: a Jew goes to Götterdämmerung. It takes three hours, four hours, and five hours. Six hours! When he comes out of the stage friends ask him how was it? “Oh, cool, cool, only the end has been rushed!