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How Many People Speak Yiddish?
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Scrabble123




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 08 2014, 2:25 pm
Chayalle wrote:
Ha Ha.

My father always tells us about the guys in Yeshiva who tried to communicate with him in Yiddish (he grew up in Vienna.)

They would ask him "Du gleichst es du"

They meant to ask if he likes it here.

Well - Gleich means straight, in German.

He could not figure out what on earth they were trying to ask him.


DH told me he always thought "smetena" (sour cream) is a yiddish word. It's not. Or it was absorbed into Yiddish. Holuptche and Kokosh cake are not yiddish, either.


Neither is tzumi and a whole lot of other words..........
As well as many Yiddish names.
Again, that is really what Yiddish is about. Creating something unique from the vernacular....
Yiddishists speak a pretty "Bloiz" Yiddish.
I like to read "Di Shteren" because I sometimes find myself staring at a word only to find it's an English one turned Yiddish.....
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sweetpotato




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 08 2014, 2:46 pm
Quote:
Last summer, they spent time on a Yiddishist commune upstate (can't remember the name) where they raise sheep to make Tzitzis. I don't know the level of religiosity/kosher, though


You're talking about Yiddish Farm: https://yiddishfarm.org/.

It's not so much a commune as an intensive language/farming program, all in Yiddish. They keep kosher and the program is shomer shabbat. They get participants from all backgrounds, from frum (even, I think Chasidish of a sort) to not religious at all. They do farm tours/hay rides for school groups from Monsey and Kiryas Yoel. The whole thing is a real kiddush Hashem.

They do raise sheep for wool for Tzitzis, and wheat for shmura matzos, and a lot of other crops.
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MyKidsRQte




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 08 2014, 3:38 pm
Yiddish was my first language, with English a close second. I come from a chassidish home, but went to BY. I spoke yiddish at home until 7th-8th grade
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perquacky




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 08 2014, 4:38 pm
Not a word. It was the language spoken at the table when my parents didn't want us kids to understand what they were saying. Sort of. My mother would speak in German, and my father would try to decipher her words and answer in Yiddish. Most of the time, it just dissolved into good old fashioned American English! (There were very few secrets in our house.)

Hebrew. Now there's a language I wish I spoke better.
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poelmamosh




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 2:05 pm
sweetpotato wrote:
Quote:
Last summer, they spent time on a Yiddishist commune upstate (can't remember the name) where they raise sheep to make Tzitzis. I don't know the level of religiosity/kosher, though


You're talking about Yiddish Farm: https://yiddishfarm.org/.

It's not so much a commune as an intensive language/farming program, all in Yiddish. They keep kosher and the program is shomer shabbat. They get participants from all backgrounds, from frum (even, I think Chasidish of a sort) to not religious at all. They do farm tours/hay rides for school groups from Monsey and Kiryas Yoel. The whole thing is a real kiddush Hashem.

They do raise sheep for wool for Tzitzis, and wheat for shmura matzos, and a lot of other crops.

Thanks!
Happy to hear about kashrus/Shabbos...
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 2:17 pm
I had to take an exam in Yiddish where I was supposed to translate a scholarly text and a magazine article which were written in Yiddish, into English. I showed it to my father (who grew up speaking Yiddish and still uses it ever day) and he barely understood the scholarly one. He has street Yiddish because he grew up in Williamsburg.

I always laugh at how street Yiddish is so twisted:

We add a "nun" into some words: Yankev for Yaakov,
We say "leben" instead of "neben" - S'iz leben yene shank

My father-in-law in Belgium uses Yiddish on Whatsapp and text but using the ABCs.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 2:21 pm
It's not twisted.
Accents vary and modify words in all languages over time.
The n from a ayin is found among Yemenites also, as well as Benei Roma
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rachel91




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 2:26 pm
mandr wrote:
I had to take an exam in Yiddish where I was supposed to translate a scholarly text and a magazine article which were written in Yiddish, into English. I showed it to my father (who grew up speaking Yiddish and still uses it ever day) and he barely understood the scholarly one. He has street Yiddish because he grew up in Williamsburg.

I always laugh at how street Yiddish is so twisted:

We add a "nun" into some words: Yankev for Yaakov,
We say "leben" instead of "neben" - S'iz leben yene shank

My father-in-law in Belgium uses Yiddish on Whatsapp and text but using the ABCs.


I actually always say 'neben', not 'leben', but my foundation is german, so maybe because of it.
Come visit, if you'll come to Belgium once! Smile
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amother


 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 2:37 pm
I speak very bad Yiddish, mixed with English. DH speaks very well.
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wereafamily




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 09 2014, 4:12 pm
Zehava wrote:
Yiddish by definition is a language that picked up words from wherever Jewish people lived. Some is German, Russian, polish, Hungarian. So I don't think ours is more watered down than in previous years.


Aren't all languages like that?
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