| Yenish | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Netherlands, and elsewhere |
| Ethnicity | Yenish |
| Native speakers | 16,000 (2006) |
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Writing system | Latin (German alphabet) |
| Official status | |
| Recognised minority language in | Switzerland |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yec |
| Glottolog | yeni1236 |
Yenish (French: Yeniche, German: Jenisch) is a variety of German spoken by the Yenish people, former nomads living mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Alsace and other parts of France.
Components
Yenish has been documented since the 18th century. Yenish speakers generally speak their local German dialect, enriched by the Yenish vocabulary, which is derived in part from Rotwelsch, with influences from Yiddish, Romani, and other minority languages of the region.
The Yenish vocabulary contains many words of Romani and Yiddish (and through the latter route, Hebrew) origin; it also has many unusual metaphors and metonyms that replace the standard German words. Some original Yeniche words have become parts of standard German.
The Yenish were originally travelers, i.e. people with professions outside of mainstream society that required them to move from town to town, such as showpeople, tinkers, and door-to-door salesmen. Today, the Yenish jargon is only used in certain isolated locations, such as certain poor districts of Berlin, Münster, some Eifel villages, and Luxembourg.
Individual variants of the Yenish language can be quite distinct, and have names of their own, such as Masematte, Lepper Talp, Heenese Vlek, and others.
See also
References
- Yenish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- "Yenish in Switzerland". Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
External links
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