Comments on: Chutzpa! Google adds Yiddish translation

By: Varhoken

Varhoken — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:50:10 +0000

Wow, have you guys seen this?…

I ran into another funny post that I had to share….

By: Refael

Refael — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:56:50 +0000

I would like to point out that most people would not say that Yiddish is the “language of the diaspora” because essentially Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew and whatever language was spoken in the country they lived in. There are different dialects based on where the specific Jews that spoke their form of Yiddish lived. There is even a language called Ladino that was used by the Sephardic, or Spanish, Jews.

The reason that Yiddish is considered a second-class language is that, due to anti-Semitism, few Jews had much secular education, so they relied on what they picked up in the street combined by the Hebrew of their heritage. Just like broken English mixed with another language would be less tasteful than proper English, Yiddish was looked down upon as well

Biblical Hebrew is quite distinct from modern Hebrew, much the same as modern English is significantly different than older versions of English: They were much more poetic, long-winded languages that would be much out of place in our frenzied, hectic world. Someone who walked around America saying phrases such as, “Thou wouldst sayest to mine self…” would probably be riddiculed.

By: sammie

sammie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:47:49 +0000

If Yiddish was seen as the language of second class citizens, it might be because Jews in many countries, from the Middle Ages, forward, were considered second-class citizens.

By: sammie

sammie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:43:43 +0000

My understanding, growing up with the language in the 40s and 50s, was that Yiddish was the language of the diaspora, that Hebrew was for study, and would not be used until the coming of the Messiah

By: Norm

Norm — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:12:35 +0000

My mother called Yiddish a “jargon”. They seemed to have a feeling…probably the result combining the attidudes of the Rabbis and the surrounding peoples… that Yiddish was a language of second class citizens.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:18:35 +0000

Hi Mark, you are correct of course. There is nothing ‘official’ about Yiddish since it’s use spanned over several countries and was never adopted officially by any country. But it certainly was the first language for many of the Ashkenazi Jews and for millions of people before WWII.

By: Mark Schwartz

Mark Schwartz — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:40:01 +0000

Regarding the comments about Yiddish, and I quote “Yiddish became the official language of the Jews”, which is not true.

It was the language of most of EUROPE’s Jews. Jews in countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czecholslovakia, Hungary, etc, spoke the standard languages of those countries. I don’t want anyone to get this idea that Yiddish was ever the language of the N. African Jews, of the Spanish Jews, the Jews of Iraq and Persia, etc etc.

By: qabalah

qabalah — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:11:32 +0000

Magnificent idea