Jewish World Review Feb. 10, 2004 / 18 Shevat, 5764

Google Goes Yiddish

By Steve Lipman

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | How do you say "search engine" in Yiddish?

If you're a traditionalist, you probably don't. "In the shtetl," where Eastern European Jews' language of preference developed, "there weren't such things," says Miriam Hoffman, professor of Yiddish and Yiddish literature at Columbia University. No computers, no Internet, no on-line features that perused databases.

But we're not in the shtetl anymore, and Yiddish has taken another high-tech step on the information highway — Google, which bills itself as the most popular English-language search engine in the world, just introduced a Yiddish version, www.google.com/intl/yi, complete with Yiddish menus and messages. Users need, of course, the software for the Hebrew/Yiddish alphabet on their computers.

For Hoffman, who says she is "not a computer person," that's no problem. "I do have the Yiddish lettering on my computer."

"I think it's wonderful. Why shouldn't they have Yiddish?" says Hoffman, who writes plays in Yiddish and introduces the language to college students.

"I'm surprised," she says, "that this wasn't done before."

Google isn't saying why it added Yiddish to its roster of common and more-obscure language sites, which includes Afrikaans, Latvian and Punjabi. It didn't make a formal announcement, and a Google spokesman did not return a call for comment from this paper.

Presumably, there is enough interest in cyberspace — with growing nostalgic interest in Yiddish, academic courses at prestigious universities, and an increase in its speakers in the Orthodox community — to warrant the step. In May, Google posted an announcement asking for volunteers to translate its home page, toolbar, wireless and other programs into Yiddish.

Coincidentally, Hoffman gave a class a Google assignment this week on the day she found out about the new search engine. Actually, her assignment was about google-moogle, a medicinal delicacy in her native Russia — it consists of raw eggs, melted butter, hot milk and honey.

As for the modern version, "you have to find an equivalent" in the Yiddish lexicon for the term "search engine," Hoffman says. She combined the terms for "to look for" and "engine," and came up with pfind-motor.