Ashkenazi Jews, also known as
Ashkenazic Jews or simply
Ashkenazim (,
Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singular: ,
Modern Hebrew: ; also , lit. "The Jews of Germany"), are a
Jewish ethnic division who
coalesced as a distinct community of
Jews in the
Holy Roman Empire around the end of the 1st millennium. The traditional language of Ashkenazi Jews consisted of various dialects of
Yiddish.