Yiddish

A language historically spoken by Ashkenazi European Jews. Yiddish is linguistically closely related to German but is written using Hebrew characters, reflecting the combined influence on medieval Jewish communities of the German-speaking environment around them, as well as the ancient languages of Jewish religious texts, Hebrew and Aramaic. Yiddish developed around the 10th century in the Rhineland area; as Jewish populations moved further into Eastern Europe, elements of Slavic languages were integrated into Yiddish.

During the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Yiddish was the language of a vibrant Jewish culture, literature, and press in Jewish communities particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. The Holocaust drastically reduced the Yiddish-speaking population. Today Yiddish is spoken primarily in ultraorthodox Jewish communities that view Hebrew as a sacred language only to be used in prayer and religious study.