a Germanic language of Ashkenazi Jews, based on Middle High German dialects with an admixture of vocabulary from Hebrew, Aramaic, the Slavic languages, and Old French and Old Italian, written in Hebrew letters, and spoken mainly in eastern and central Europe and by Jewish emigrants from these regions and their descendants.
adjective
of, relating to, or characteristic of Yiddish.
Origin of Yiddish
First recorded in 1885–90; from Yiddish yidish; see yid, -ish1
Well, the joke was, I discovered finally, that A sounds like ei in Yiddish.
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview|Alex Belth|February 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I could read while daylight lasted, if I chose, in the Yiddish.
The Promised Land|Mary Antin
Once it was in Yiddish, and as far as spirit goes it remains there.
Pieces of Hate|Heywood Broun
The mere danger of slipping back unconsciously to the banned Yiddish put a curb upon her tongue.
Ghetto Comedies|Israel Zangwill
Since then there has been, in his opinion, a decadence which began with the translation of the classics into Yiddish.
The Spirit of the Ghetto|Hutchins Hapgood
Stolar, which is a Yiddish word borrowed from the Russian, signifying carpenter, is often changed to Carpenter.
The American Language|Henry L. Mencken
British Dictionary definitions for Yiddish
Yiddish
/ (ˈjɪdɪʃ) /
noun
a language spoken as a vernacular by Jews in Europe and elsewhere by Jewish emigrants, usually written in the Hebrew alphabet. Historically, it is a dialect of High German with an admixture of words of Hebrew, Romance, and Slavonic origin, developed in central and E Europe during the Middle Ages