Re: yiddish language decline?

[Dick Rosenberg <mashke...>]

There is a conscientious effort towards preservation among a relatively few
scholars and devotees of the language and culture (such as the members of
this list) but, in the absence of a viable Yiddish speaking community I'm
not optimistic.

Dick


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Dichter" <dbrian (at) enteract(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 3:47 PM
Subject: yiddish language decline?


> Hi. Yesterday afternoon I heard a story on NPR (an introduction before the
> Yiddish Radio Project that starts broadcasting today) about the decline of
> Yiddish. A linguist (I forgot his name) stated that even though many
> students are studying the language at universities around the planet (even
> in Germany and Poland) and that there is additional interest attributed to
> the growing popularity of klezmer music there is still such a decline in
> yiddish usage that it's considered a dying language.
>
> Does that sound about right?
>
> I'm a bit surpised that it would be considered "dying" because there seems
> to be so much conscientious effort towards preservation.
>
> brian
> --
> "Wisdom begins in wonder." --Socrates
>
>

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