Re: yiddish language decline?

[Yakov Chodosh <ync8...>]

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:47:01 -0600, you wrote:

>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.

(note: deviant ideas may lurk below. proceed with caution)

isn't it basically dead tho'? i mean, where in the world can you go through a 
normal day in your town or city and speak to everyone in yiddish? if someone 
said "ok, yiddish! where do they speak yiddish?" what would you say? for me a 
lot of the fun in yiddish kind of stems from that. i mean the language kind of 
brings me back. like learning how to write english like someone in the 1600s. 
or latin. a lot of fun, historical value and such. but basically "dead" by the 
definition of "no full society speaks it anymore" if you know what i mean.

there's a lot of cool stuff in yiddish. yiddish culture is huge. i want to 
learn yiddish. a lot of people of my generation and your generation, people who 
have no practical reason to be into it, are into it. it's got a lot of flavor, 
character etc. and there's a lot of interesting stuff to be done with it still. 
if i didn't believe that for sure before i certainly do after hearing the 
yiddish dada poems on the yiddish radio project at klezkamp. but as a common 
usage, i.e. getting into a cab and saying "take me to the corner of beechwood 
and 5th" in yiddish, or walking up to some random person someplace and saying 
"what time is it" in yiddish, that'll never happen again, and i think we all 
know that.

i wouldn't say yiddish isn't "living" -- it certainly is a "living" cuture 100% 
hell yeah. but it is also "dead" if you use the definition i put forth above, 
and also by the definition they seem to use in that article.

here's a shortened version of what i just wrote:
a language that isn't ALREADY dead wouldn't NEED "so much conscientious effort 
towards preservation."



-yakov (back to transcribing tunes...) chodosh.
http://yakov.cjb.net
and now the links actually work!
(thanks folks)

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