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God forbid I should resurrect such an old thread, but someone asked the Straight Dope about the X, schmX question. Give a solid answer they didn't, but it is a nice little discussion about Yiddish in English. You want a link, here it is: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myiddish.html
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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from the link: during WWII, my father-in-law was in the American army, in one of the advance units moving into Germany. He was the translator when his unit encountered German civilians, because he spoke Yiddish--as close to German as his unit was going to get.
When my parents traveled in Europe (not Germnany) in the 1960's and would try to communciate with folks who spoke no English, they quickly discovered that my mother's french was far less useful than my father's yiddish.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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When my parents traveled in Europe (not Germnany) in the 1960's and would try to communciate with folks who spoke no English, they quickly discovered that my mother's french was far less useful than my father's yiddish.
Oh? Where was that? While I know absolutely nothing about Yiddish, I understand that it incorporates a lot of German or at least Germanic words. I can accept that it would probably be well-known in predominantly Jewish communities throughout Europe. But the French are so xenophobic about language that I find it very hard to believe that Yiddish would have been more useful in France than French!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Where? I specifically recall them commenting on incidents like that in Italy, Greece and Turkey. I personally saw it while with them in Greece.
You're quite right, Kiwi, the point did not apply to France: when there, the french language was the more useful.
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