The Straight Dope: Yiddish, shmiddish--why do we repeat a word but start it with &shm-&?

From the page: "Dear Straight Dope: What is the origin of the practice of a dispraging a word by saying the word than dropping the first letter and replacing it with "schm?" For example, if you don't like baseball, you would say "baseball schmaseball." "

Reviewed by johnwatchtower Jun 24, 08:04am ( 7 reviews ) • straightdope.com

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Rated by johnwatchtower on Jun 24, 8:04am

From the page: "Dear Straight Dope: What is the origin of the practice of a dispraging a word by saying the word than dropping the first letter and replacing it with "schm?" For example, if you don't like baseball, you would say "baseball schmaseball." "
Rated by BAROSALSA on Jun 08, 8:07am

I love it very much. Hebrew and all it's deriviative dialects I'd like to learn and be atuned to. As a Singer? i'm supposed to be well versed in languages.
Rated by jeanmare on Jun 05, 11:42am

This article was very informative and answered most of the questions I had concerning Yiddish, certainly the origin and development of the language. I'm off to my library site to see if I can order Rosten's book.
Rated by chynabug on Jun 04, 4:29pm

"A yiddish kiss on the brow" (Blessing of understanding with affection)
Rated by brussels5565 on Jun 02, 1:47pm

Interesting and amusing...a potted history of yiddish, already.
Rated by benadamx on Jun 01, 5:26pm

"Yiddish was the language of eastern European (or Ashkenazic) Jews. Yiddish is not Hebrew. Hebrew is the 3,000 year old language used by the Jews for prayer and religious ceremonies (along with Aramaic) and is the official language of the state of Israel. "
Rated by kotzker on Jun 01, 12:32pm

Very cool information.

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