Lupiti, Galoshi par Tilti were Yiddish-Latvian words that my mother uttered meaning the rags and old shoes peddler is near. This peddler would go up and down streets shouting for housewives to bring out their stuff in pre-World War II Riga, Latvia. Yiddish is perhaps the oldest and well-known of what are called code-sharing languages: Franglais, Chinglish, Hinglish, Taglish, Spanglish and Portuñol amid some others. I still use the Yiddish when I refer to a dodgy or stupid person as a schmuck. Language purists can freak out over these mixed languages. In Israel, for example, the language police want you to speak Hebrew ... To read this entire article you must be a MultiLingual subscriber. For immediate access to the current issue, subscribe to the digital version. Already a subscriber?

Above excerpt taken from the July/August 2010 issue of MultiLingual published by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864-1495 USA, 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310. Subscribe