Yiddish vs. Hebrew (was "kuf")

[Huppert23 <Huppert23...>]

Since I speak neither Yiddish nor Hebrew, and I can't read one letter of that 
alphabet, I am at a small disadvantage here, but I can't resist the 
temptation to bring up this subject which has been bugging me for a long time.

I can't count the number of times I have heard someone ask for a definition 
of "klezmer," and someone else has answered "It comes from the Hebrew "klei 
zemer."
Even if this is the true origin of the word (I have no idea whether it is or 
not), why define a Yiddish word by giving its origins from another language? 

If a foreigner or a young child were to ask me what the English word 
"musician" means, I would try to explain what the word means in current 
English usage, rather than giving them the supposed Greek roots of the word 
and leaving it at that.

If Yiddish is a distinct and legitimate language, then we should define the 
Yiddish word "klezmer" according to its meaning in Yiddish. BTW, "klezmer" is 
now a word in English, too, and the English meaning differs from the Yiddish 
meaning.

In my opinion, defining the Yiddish word by giving Hebrew roots implies that 
Yiddish is not really a language, just a dialect of German with a few 
mispronounced Hebrew words thrown in. It also leads to a lot of unnecessary 
confusion about what the word means.

This relates directly to the recent discussion here about "Israeli klezmer 
music." If Israelis think that "klezmer" is just the way us Gringos say "klei 
zemer," naturally they can play just about any kind of music and call it 
"klezmer"--it fits the Hebrew definition.
In fact, I recently met an Israeli-American woman who said "So you are the 
klei zemer."
She is a very nice woman, and her intentions were good. She just didn't 
realize that "klezmer" and "klei zemer" are different words, in different 
languages.

While I'm at it, a musician from Cleveland, Ohio explained to me last year 
the difference between language and a dialect:

A language is a dialect with an army.

Josh Huppert

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