Yenish (French: Yeniche, German: Jenisch, Luxembourgish: Jéinesch) is a variety of German spoken by the Yenish people, former nomads living mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Alsace, Luxembourg, and other parts of France.
Today, the Yenish jargon is only used in certain isolated locations, such as certain poor districts of Berlin, Münster, some Eifel villages, and Luxembourg.
[citation needed] Individual variants of the Yenish language can be quite distinct, and have names of their own, such as Masematte, Lepper Talp, Heenese Vlek, and others.
[4] This hypothesis is shared by Rémy Welschinger, who specifies that, due to the various wars and numerous food shortages, Jews and Yenishes were forced to live marginally by exercising professions which required great mobility and that the two peoples were able to settle and their languages to mix.
According to Sandrine Szwarc also raises the hypothesis that the Yenishes are, at least for certain families, descendants of Ashkenazi crypto-Jews.