Editing Yiddish (section)

=== Secularization ===
The Western Yiddish dialect—sometimes pejoratively labeled ''Mauscheldeutsch'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Bechtel |first=Delphine |editor1-last=Malkin |editor1-first=Jeanette R. |editor2-last=Rokem |editor2-first=Freddie |title=Jews and the making of modern German theatre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=geJnnySQ4rUC |access-date=October 28, 2011 |series=Studies in theatre history and culture |year=2010 |contribution=Yiddish Theatre and Its Impact on the German and Austrian Stage |publisher = University of Iowa Press |isbn=978-1-58729-868-4 |page=304 |quote=[...] audiences heard on the stage a continuum of hybrid language-levels between Yiddish and German that was sometimes combined with the traditional use of Mauscheldeutsch (surviving forms of Western Yiddish).}}</ref> i. e. "Moses German"<ref>{{cite book |first1=Celia |last1=Applegate |author1-link=Celia Applegate |first2=Pamela Maxine |last2=Potter |title=Music and German national identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roHbXnBqE1wC |access-date=October 28, 2011 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-02131-7 |page=310 |quote=[...] in 1787, over 10 percent of the Prague population was Jewish [...] which spoke German and, probably, ''Mauscheldeutsch'', a local Jewish-German dialect distinct from Yiddish (''Mauscheldeutsch'' = Moischele-Deutsch = 'Moses German').}}</ref>—declined in the 18th century, as the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and the ''[[Haskalah]]'' led to a view of Yiddish as a corrupt dialect. The 19th-century Prussian-Jewish historian [[Heinrich Graetz]], for example, wrote that "the language of the Jews [in Poland] ... degenerat[ed] into a ridiculous jargon, a mixture of German, Polish, and Talmudical elements, an unpleasant stammering, rendered still more repulsive by forced attempts at wit."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graetz |first1=Heinrich |last2=Löwy |first2=Bella |title=History of the Jews, vol. 6 |date=1891 |publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America |location=Philadelphia |page=641 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofje04grae/page/640/mode/2up |access-date=3 December 2023}}</ref>

A ''[[Maskil]]'' (one who takes part in the ''Haskalah'') would write about and promote acclimatization to the outside world.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-development-of-yiddish |title=History & Development of Yiddish |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |language=en |access-date=February 7, 2017}}</ref> Jewish children began attending secular schools where the primary language spoken and taught was German, not Yiddish.<ref name=":0" /><ref>[[L. L. Zamenhof|Zamenhof]], whose [[Mark Zamenhof|father]] was overtly assimilationist, expressed in his correspondence both a great fondness for his ''mama-loshen'' and (apart from [[Esperanto]], of course) a preference for [[Russian language|Russian]] over [[Polish language|Polish]] as a culture language.</ref>{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote=Yiddish grates on our ears and distorts. This jargon is incapable in fact of expressing sublime thoughts. It is our obligation to cast off these old rags, a heritage of the dark Middle Ages.|3= –&nbsp;[[Osip Rabinovich|Osip Aronovich Rabinovich]], in an article titled "Russia – Our Native Land: Just as We Breathe Its Air, We Must Speak Its Language" in the [[Odessa]]n journal ''Рассвет'' (dawn), 1861<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rabinovich |first1=O.A. |title=Russia – Our Native Land: Just as We Breathe Its Air We Must Speak Its Language |journal=Рассвет |date=1861 |volume=16 |page=220. As cited on the [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-development-of-yiddish#1 website] of the [[Jewish Virtual Library]]}}</ref>}}

Owing to both assimilation to German and the [[Modern Hebrew|revival of Hebrew]], Western Yiddish survived only as a language of "intimate family circles or of closely knit trade groups".<ref>{{cite book |last=Liptzin |first=Sol |title=A History of Yiddish Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofyiddish00lipt |url-access=registration |publisher=Jonathan David Publishers |location=Middle Village, New York |date=1972 |isbn=0-8246-0124-6}}</ref>

In eastern Europe, the response to these forces took the opposite direction, with Yiddish becoming the cohesive force in a [[secularity|secular culture]] (see the [[Yiddishist movement]]). Notable Yiddish writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, writing as [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]]; Sholem Rabinovitsh, widely known as [[Sholem Aleichem]], whose stories about {{lang|yi|טבֿיה דער מילכיקער|rtl=yes}} (''Tevye der milkhiker'', "[[Tevye]] the Milkman") inspired the Broadway musical and film ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''; and [[I. L. Peretz|Isaac Leib Peretz]].