Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Weekly Themes Yiddish
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP I think comedian Billy Cyrstal would disagree with Singer's assessment of Yiddish. He told an NPR reporter a few years ago that Yiddish is a cross between German and Phlegm.
PS welcome Joe
I grew up in a neighborhood with many yiddish speakers, and could understand the gist of spoken yiddish --age 18 or so, i went to a play at 92nd st Y(MHA)and understood enough to get the jokes--but there are fewer and fewer yiddish speakers, (and i have less contact with those that do speak yiddish)
NY(C) english is filled with yiddish expressions--we schelp things (in tote bags perhaps), we nosh (on knishes) , we kibbitz, and even a irish man (conan o'brien) is a mensch--(when he is not a fool!)
we know the difference between a schmer, and smear, when we ess a bagel..(there is a ny bagel store, Ess a Bagel (yiddish for eat a bagel)--and we know what's kosher!
and while movies and television have made some of these words know in most american english, they still remain common only in areas with current/former yiddish speaking populations.
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,317Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 596 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 13ddrinnan 1
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613tsuwm 10,542wofahulicodoc 10,534LukeJavan8 9,916Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org