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Born To Kvetch

Audiobook

As the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive persecution: they never stopped kvetching about God, gentiles, children, and everything else.

In Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex looks at the ingredients that went into this buffet of disenchantment and examines how they were mixed together to produce an almost limitless supply of striking idioms and withering curses. Born to Kvetch includes a wealth of material that's never appeared in English before.

This is no bobe mayse (cock-and-bull story) from a khokhem be-layle (idiot, literally a "sage at night" when no one's looking), but a serious yet fun and funny look at a language. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to kvetch, Yiddish words have permeated and transformed English as well. Through the fascinating history of this kvetch-full tongue, Michael Wex gives us a moving and inspiring portrait of a people, and a language, in exile.


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Publisher: HarperAudio Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9780061173240
  • File size: 299349 KB
  • Release date: March 21, 2006
  • Duration: 10:23:38

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9780061173240
  • File size: 299379 KB
  • Release date: March 21, 2006
  • Duration: 10:30:37
  • Number of parts: 9

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Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

Languages

English

As the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive persecution: they never stopped kvetching about God, gentiles, children, and everything else.

In Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex looks at the ingredients that went into this buffet of disenchantment and examines how they were mixed together to produce an almost limitless supply of striking idioms and withering curses. Born to Kvetch includes a wealth of material that's never appeared in English before.

This is no bobe mayse (cock-and-bull story) from a khokhem be-layle (idiot, literally a "sage at night" when no one's looking), but a serious yet fun and funny look at a language. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to kvetch, Yiddish words have permeated and transformed English as well. Through the fascinating history of this kvetch-full tongue, Michael Wex gives us a moving and inspiring portrait of a people, and a language, in exile.


Expand title description text
  • Details

    Publisher:
    HarperAudio
    Edition:
    Unabridged

    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    ISBN: 9780061173240
    File size: 299349 KB
    Release date: March 21, 2006
    Duration: 10:23:38

    MP3 audiobook
    ISBN: 9780061173240
    File size: 299379 KB
    Release date: March 21, 2006
    Duration: 10:30:37
    Number of parts: 9

  • Creators
  • Formats
    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    MP3 audiobook
  • Languages
    English
  • Reviews
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