2026-09-24 04:30 UTC
I don't remember participating in the original survey exploring the familiarity of Jewish English terms among Australian and American Jewish and non-Jewish people, but I was informed that the paper based on the survey has been published, and it's highly illuminating for a linguistics nut like me.
Generally, Australian non-Jews are less likely to be familiar with Jewish English terms (chutzpah, shlep, kvetch, menorah) than their American counterparts, with the exception of a small set of words that have entered Australian general speech (cobber, shemozzle, shtum, gazumped), which American Jewish and non-Jewish people don't use much.
I love "barmi" and "batmi" for bar/bat mitzvah and I will now use these at any possible opportunity.
Full paper: https://brill.com/view/journals/jjl/14/1/article-p42_3.xml
Citation: Breslow, E., & Hendy, C. (2026). Was the Barmi a Shemozzle?: A Comparative Study of Australian and American Familiarity with Jewish English Lexical Items. Journal of Jewish Languages, 14(1), 42-86. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134638-bja10063
#English #Linguistics #Jewish #Yiddish #Australia #USA
Replies (4)
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@uep@timeloop.cafe 2026-09-24 04:33
@futzle@old.mermaid.town cool.. I look forward* to the debate over barmi vs barma
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@yaakov@cloudisland.nz 2026-09-24 04:37
@futzle@old.mermaid.town ooh this is mamash gevaldig
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@sknob@mamot.fr 2026-09-24 06:09
@futzle@old.mermaid.town I use shlep and kvetch all the time (I even used kvetch in a song recently 😅). Then again, I lived in NYC during most of the 80s. Edit: still, learning quite a few new words browsing through the paper!
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@fraser@aus.social 2026-09-24 06:55
@futzle@old.mermaid.town ditto. I got an email today (to a very specific email address) and I have no recollection of doing the survey either.