An October 2013 article in the Huffington Post discusses the revival of training in Yiddish that is helping to keep the language alive for the next generation. This is of great interest to me since I chose to use Yiddish words in my novel, Papa's Shoes. My resources were online Yiddish to English dictionaries and a wonderful old book called  The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten. My mother gave my husband a copy back in 1970 when we got married. I think she was trying to entice him to convert. One of my novel's beta readers, who is also not Jewish, did a study of the words I used in the book, dividing them into three categories: Words he uses in his own vocabulary, for example: Goy a person who is not Jewish Kibitz to offer unsolicited advice as a spectator Mazel tov good luck Mensch a special man or person, someone respected Nebbish a nobody, simpleton, weakling Schmooze talk, conversation, chat Shtup push, vulgarism for sexual intercourse Tokhter … [Read more...]