Post by pieter on Jul 6, 2019 6:23:59 GMT -7
The Yiddish minority language in Poland
A Jewish wedding which took place in the courtyard of the Jewish Lauder-Morasha School in Warsaw
Yiddish language, one of the many Germanic languages that form a branch of the Indo-European language family. Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazim, central and eastern European Jews and their descendants. It was the language of Polish jews, but there were also Polish oriented, Polish speaking jews, who weren't raised in a Yiddish household, like the Dutch writer, Milo Anstadt ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Anstadt ), who was born in a Polish Jewish family in Lwów, and raised Polish by his Polish jewish mother before they immigrated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Written in the Hebrew alphabet, Yiddish became one of the world’s most widespread languages, appearing in most countries with a Jewish population by the 19th century. Along with Hebrew and Aramaic, it is one of the three major literary languages of Jewish history.
Yiddish, a language once spoken throughout vast areas of Central and Eastern Europe, is likely one of the most fascinating linguistic laboratories of all time. Its amazing creative potential can be admired in these strange words and expressions mixing German, Polish and sometimes Hebrew.
Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazic Jews (Jews whose ancestors lived in Germany in the European Middle Ages), also developed from High German. The Yiddish sound system has been determined by those German dialects which contributed the bulk of its basic lexical stock. The language thus has a distinctive expiratory stress, which, though its place in a word is not fully predictable, nevertheless functions in several characteristic distributions. Secondary stresses seem to be less prominent than in German – possibly as a result of Slavic influence.
From its beginnings in the tenth century and until the end of the 18th, Yiddish was the virtually uncontested medium of oral communication among Jews from Holland to Ukraine, from Livonia to Romania, as well as in the Ashkenazi communities in Italy, the Balkans, Palestine. Alongside Hebrew, it was also an important medium of literary and other written communication (see *Yiddish Literature ). Then, in response to the Emancipation, there arose a strong interest in converting Ashkenazi society from the use of Yiddish to that of other, non-specifically Jewish vernaculars. This striving, successful in most of the German-language sphere and in Holland, had only marginal effects in Eastern Europe. There, on the contrary, the number of Yiddish speakers increased rapidly as the Jewish population burgeoned, and a new flowering of Yiddish literature, contemporary with the rebirth of Hebrew literature, took place.
Poland
Warsaw during the Thirties
Jewish youth and religious groups, diverse political parties and Zionist organizations, Yiddish (and Polish language Jewish) newspapers and Yiddish theatre flourished in the Poland between the two World Wars (1919-1939. Jews owned land and real estate, participated in retail and manufacturing and in the export industry. Their religious beliefs spanned the range from Orthodox Hasidic Judaism to Liberal Judaism.
Warsaw during the Thirties
The Polish language, rather than Yiddish, was increasingly used by the young Warsaw Jews who did not have a problem in identifying themselves fully as Jews, Varsovians and Poles. Jews such as Bruno Schulz were entering the mainstream of Polish society, though many thought of themselves as a separate nationality within Poland. Most children were enrolled in Jewish religious schools, which used to limit their ability to speak Polish. As a result, according to the 1931 census, 79% of the Jews declared Yiddish as their first language, and only 12% listed Polish, with the remaining 9% being Hebrew.[90] In contrast, the overwhelming majority of German-born Jews of this period spoke German as their first language. During the school year of 1937–1938 there were 226 elementary schools and twelve high schools as well as fourteen vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language.
Warsaw during the Thirties
Eastern Yiddish
Eastern Yiddish is split into Northern and Southern dialects. Northeastern Yiddish, also known as Litvish or Lithuanian Yiddish, was spoken in modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and portions of northeastern Poland, northern and eastern Ukraine, and western Russia. The Southern dialects are again subdivided: Mideastern or Polish Yiddish was spoken in Poland, western Galicia and much of Hungary, while Southeastern or Ukrainian Yiddish was spoken in Volhynia, Podolia, and Bessarabia (Romania).
Ukrainian Yiddish was the basis for standard theater Yiddish, while Lithuanian Yiddish was the basis of standard literary and academic Yiddish.
About three-quarters of contemporary Yiddish speakers speak Southern Yiddish varieties, the majority speaking Polish Yiddish. Most Hasidic communities use southern dialects, with the exception of Chabad which uses Litvish; many Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox jews) in Jerusalem, Williamsburg in Brooklyn New York and in Antwerp (Belgium) and England (UK) also preserve Litvish Yiddish.
I wonder how much Yiddish literature, poetry, philosophy, theatre, music and culture has influenced Polish culture, art, literature, poetry, philosophy, theatre, music, humor and cuisine? The Polish Roman-Catholics and Polish jews lived together for centuries, and there were a lot of secret love affairs and open marriages between Roman-Catholics and jews. Sometimes jews converted to Roman-Catholicism, in some cases the families were secular atheist, or mixed in the religious sense. I know that there were also German elements in many Polish families. The relationship of the Polish ethnic majority with the non-Polish minorities in the political, cultural, financial, economical, commercial, sociological, anthropological, pyschological, scientific, linguistic (how was the relationship between Polish, Yiddish, German, Ukrainian. Lithunian and Russian for instance) and just human sense? What influence had the Polish Western slavic language on the Yiddish, German, Ukrainian,Lithunian, Ruthenian (Wendish), Kashubian, Silesian, Goral language and the Russian of the Polish minorities. I do believe that Polish Tartars don't speak Tartar anymore, but just Polish, but I could be mistaken.
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia and the Jewish Virtual Library
A Jewish wedding which took place in the courtyard of the Jewish Lauder-Morasha School in Warsaw
Yiddish language, one of the many Germanic languages that form a branch of the Indo-European language family. Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazim, central and eastern European Jews and their descendants. It was the language of Polish jews, but there were also Polish oriented, Polish speaking jews, who weren't raised in a Yiddish household, like the Dutch writer, Milo Anstadt ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Anstadt ), who was born in a Polish Jewish family in Lwów, and raised Polish by his Polish jewish mother before they immigrated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Written in the Hebrew alphabet, Yiddish became one of the world’s most widespread languages, appearing in most countries with a Jewish population by the 19th century. Along with Hebrew and Aramaic, it is one of the three major literary languages of Jewish history.
Yiddish, a language once spoken throughout vast areas of Central and Eastern Europe, is likely one of the most fascinating linguistic laboratories of all time. Its amazing creative potential can be admired in these strange words and expressions mixing German, Polish and sometimes Hebrew.
Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazic Jews (Jews whose ancestors lived in Germany in the European Middle Ages), also developed from High German. The Yiddish sound system has been determined by those German dialects which contributed the bulk of its basic lexical stock. The language thus has a distinctive expiratory stress, which, though its place in a word is not fully predictable, nevertheless functions in several characteristic distributions. Secondary stresses seem to be less prominent than in German – possibly as a result of Slavic influence.
From its beginnings in the tenth century and until the end of the 18th, Yiddish was the virtually uncontested medium of oral communication among Jews from Holland to Ukraine, from Livonia to Romania, as well as in the Ashkenazi communities in Italy, the Balkans, Palestine. Alongside Hebrew, it was also an important medium of literary and other written communication (see *Yiddish Literature ). Then, in response to the Emancipation, there arose a strong interest in converting Ashkenazi society from the use of Yiddish to that of other, non-specifically Jewish vernaculars. This striving, successful in most of the German-language sphere and in Holland, had only marginal effects in Eastern Europe. There, on the contrary, the number of Yiddish speakers increased rapidly as the Jewish population burgeoned, and a new flowering of Yiddish literature, contemporary with the rebirth of Hebrew literature, took place.
Poland
Warsaw during the Thirties
Jewish youth and religious groups, diverse political parties and Zionist organizations, Yiddish (and Polish language Jewish) newspapers and Yiddish theatre flourished in the Poland between the two World Wars (1919-1939. Jews owned land and real estate, participated in retail and manufacturing and in the export industry. Their religious beliefs spanned the range from Orthodox Hasidic Judaism to Liberal Judaism.
Warsaw during the Thirties
The Polish language, rather than Yiddish, was increasingly used by the young Warsaw Jews who did not have a problem in identifying themselves fully as Jews, Varsovians and Poles. Jews such as Bruno Schulz were entering the mainstream of Polish society, though many thought of themselves as a separate nationality within Poland. Most children were enrolled in Jewish religious schools, which used to limit their ability to speak Polish. As a result, according to the 1931 census, 79% of the Jews declared Yiddish as their first language, and only 12% listed Polish, with the remaining 9% being Hebrew.[90] In contrast, the overwhelming majority of German-born Jews of this period spoke German as their first language. During the school year of 1937–1938 there were 226 elementary schools and twelve high schools as well as fourteen vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language.
Warsaw during the Thirties
Eastern Yiddish
Eastern Yiddish is split into Northern and Southern dialects. Northeastern Yiddish, also known as Litvish or Lithuanian Yiddish, was spoken in modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and portions of northeastern Poland, northern and eastern Ukraine, and western Russia. The Southern dialects are again subdivided: Mideastern or Polish Yiddish was spoken in Poland, western Galicia and much of Hungary, while Southeastern or Ukrainian Yiddish was spoken in Volhynia, Podolia, and Bessarabia (Romania).
Ukrainian Yiddish was the basis for standard theater Yiddish, while Lithuanian Yiddish was the basis of standard literary and academic Yiddish.
About three-quarters of contemporary Yiddish speakers speak Southern Yiddish varieties, the majority speaking Polish Yiddish. Most Hasidic communities use southern dialects, with the exception of Chabad which uses Litvish; many Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox jews) in Jerusalem, Williamsburg in Brooklyn New York and in Antwerp (Belgium) and England (UK) also preserve Litvish Yiddish.
I wonder how much Yiddish literature, poetry, philosophy, theatre, music and culture has influenced Polish culture, art, literature, poetry, philosophy, theatre, music, humor and cuisine? The Polish Roman-Catholics and Polish jews lived together for centuries, and there were a lot of secret love affairs and open marriages between Roman-Catholics and jews. Sometimes jews converted to Roman-Catholicism, in some cases the families were secular atheist, or mixed in the religious sense. I know that there were also German elements in many Polish families. The relationship of the Polish ethnic majority with the non-Polish minorities in the political, cultural, financial, economical, commercial, sociological, anthropological, pyschological, scientific, linguistic (how was the relationship between Polish, Yiddish, German, Ukrainian. Lithunian and Russian for instance) and just human sense? What influence had the Polish Western slavic language on the Yiddish, German, Ukrainian,Lithunian, Ruthenian (Wendish), Kashubian, Silesian, Goral language and the Russian of the Polish minorities. I do believe that Polish Tartars don't speak Tartar anymore, but just Polish, but I could be mistaken.
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia and the Jewish Virtual Library