Ethnicity Yeniche Recognised minority
language in Switzerland | Native speakers 16,000 (2006) | |
Native to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Netherlands, and elsewhere Language family Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
High German
Yeniche Writing system Latin (German alphabet) | ||
The Yenish language (French: Yeniche, German: Jenisch), is a variety of German spoken by the Yeniche, former nomads living mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of France.
Components
The Yeniche language has been documented since the 18th century. It is a jargon rather than an actual language; meaning, it consists of a significant number of unique specialized words, but does not have its own grammar or its own basic vocabulary. Yeniche speakers generally speak their local German dialect enriched by the Yeniche vocabulary.
The Yeniche vocabulary contains many words of Romani and Yiddish (and through this route, Hebrew) origin; it also has many unusual metaphors and metonomies that replace the standard German words. The relationship between Yeniche and standard German is comparable to the relationship between Cockney or Polari and standard English. Many original Yeniche words have become parts of standard German.
The Yeniche 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 salespeople. Today, the Yeniche jargon is only used in certain isolated locations; for example, in certain poor districts of cities such as Berlin and Münster, few Eifel villages, Luxembourg etc.
Individual variants of the Yeniche language can be quite distinct, and have names of their own, such as Masematte, Lepper Talp, Heenese Vlek, and many more.