Abstract
Christian authors tried to offer a definition and explanation of the Yiddish language to their readers, often by discussing the Jewish language in relation to the German language. One reason was that the Christian literature on Yiddish was produced first and foremost by German-speaking scholars and published in the German-speaking lands either in Latin or German. This chapter examines how Christian authors in early modern Germany portrayed the relation between Yiddish and German, both structurally and functionally. It also looks at the social and cultural factors that influenced these depictions of Yiddish and its relation to German, and how these depictions helped promote perceptions about the place of the Jews and their language in German society, as well as in the consolidating German Sprachnation. The chapter concludes by discussing the Christian view of Yiddish as the Jews' secret language, and their contention that the Jews resorted to secrecy to deceive and harm their Christian neighbors.
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