Cockney Yiddish: how two languages influenced each other in London’s East End

By Nadia Valman, Professor of Urban Literature, Queen Mary University of London
Vivi Lachs, Research Fellow, School of the Arts, Queen Mary University of London

Yiddish is a familiar presence in contemporary English speech. Many people use or at least know the meaning of words like chutzpah (audacity), schlep (drag) or nosh (snack).

These words have been absorbed into English from their original speakers, eastern European Jews who migrated to Britain in the late 19th century, through generations of living in close proximity in areas like London’s East End.

Linguistics scholars have even theorised that elements of a Yiddish accent may have influenced the cockney accent as it evolved in the early 20th century.

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