One way Yinglish words may differ from their Yiddish origins is that they tend to be charged with emotion — verklempt, which in Linda Richman parlance means “choked up with emotion,” actually comes from the Yiddish farklempt, which is associated with grief. If you’re interested in learning more about the “Yiddish” words you’ve heard on shows like Seinfeld, Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish is a great resource on Yiddish words in English (my grandfather had not one, but two copies on his bookshelf. You can never have too many books celebrating Yiddish.).
