Speaking Jewish: “Yiddish” in the Discourse of First-Generation American Yiddish Speakers

Abstract

By the end of this century, well over half of the world’s languages will disappear. Analyzing how minority languages are discussed by native speakers can provide insight into the relationship between language ideologies and language survival. This paper addresses the position of Yiddish in America by examining discourse about the language by first-generation American native speakers and by demonstrating how these speakers construct an ideological version of Yiddish through their speech. How this specific version of Yiddish may have affected its current position is discussed. The paper also considers Critical Discourse Analysis as a useful method in analyzing discourse regarding Yiddish while critiquing its prizing of dominant discourse as the subject of analysis.