Benjamin Franklin feared that Pennsylvania, with its endless stream of German immigrants in the 1750s, would become primarily a German-speaking colony. If we brought him back and plopped him in Monterey, he would think his fear materialized--more families speak Pennsylvania German than English around the breakfast table.
A similar language is Yiddish. My word-a-day feed gave me this today. Here's what Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer had to say about the language in his 1978 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
"Yiddish language - a language of exile, without a land, without frontiers, not supported by any government, a language which possesses no words for weapons, ammunition, military exercises, war tactics ... There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love. The Yiddish mentality is not haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, muggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for Creation is still at the very beginning ... In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity."
English language words such as bagel, klutz, and kibitz are terms from Yiddish.
