Languages (was Re: [Sca-cooks] globetrotting)

[Daniel Myers]

Quoted from Randy Goldberg MD - 5/21/02, 6:54 AM -0400:
>> I don't know Yiddish is dead. Most large cities around the world have
>> a Yiddish-speaking population, and there are still Yiddish cinema,
>> theatre, and publications. There are possibly more people in the
>> world that speak Yiddish than, say, Basquaise...
>
>The only people still learning Yiddish are adult or nearly-so, except in
>pockets of Chasidism. Except in those communities, most of which think it's
>still 1880, Yiddish will be dead in another generation or so. My
>grandparents were the last mainstream generation to use Yiddish as a living
>language (again, with the exception of Chasidic enclaves), and they are
>nearly gone. In another 20 years, the Chasids will be the only ones using
>Yiddish on a daily basis; everyone else who knows it will be a scholar.

There's a lot of Yiddish though that is creeping into American English -
words like schmooze, schmuck, and drek for examples.



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 Edouard Who Is Not 'Lainie's Edouard (Daniel Myers)
 I BELIEVE! http://www.bookofrefreshments.com
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