Klezmer-loshn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Klezmer-loshn (Yiddish: Musician's Tongue) is an extinct dialect of Yiddish. It was a slang language or argot used by travelling Jewish musicians, known as klezmers or klezmorim, in Eastern Europe prior to the 20th Century.
It combined Yiddish with borrowed words from many other European languages. These borrowed words were often substituted for key Yiddish words using rhyme or some kind of association.
Like other argots, such as thieves' languages, Klezmer-loshn evolved to fill the need of a certain class of people to speak among others without being understood. So, klezmorim could speak this language during and after performances, whether among Gentiles or Yiddish-speaking Jews, without being understood; this allowed them to discuss business, plan, and even mock others without getting into trouble.
As a language, it gradually dwindled in use in the 20th Century, and disappeared along with the klezmer trade in Eastern Europe, especially after the Holocaust obliterated much of the Jewish population there.
