Re: yiddish language decline?

[Inna Gerlovina <innars...>]

Hi everybody,
just a passing thought (I'll write it now and think about it later).
I have a feeling that what some of you are talking about as "dying" is not 
really the language, but the context in which it is spoken. Chassidic 
community uses the language differently, does't sing those songs, doesn't 
think those thoughts, etc. That "old culture" (bad word) is dying, but not 
because of the language (OK, not only); I believe it's much the same for 
many other cultures, at least in Europe. Definitely similar thing is 
happening with the oldest Russian folk peasant tradition (I just have more 
experience with it), well, slower, but still... Russian village is dying and 
so is its extraordinarily rich folklore. Huge and successful efforts are 
being made to preserve what's left (there are many fascinating differences 
and in some ways we are better off - think about stigma inflicted on Russian 
folk music by years of Soviet ideological misuse).
So, it's the world that we live in, and as long as those efforts are made 
and there are people who "speak Yiddish without an accent" (provided 
Chassidim don't start speaking Mandarin all of a sudden) we are on the same 
page with many others.
Inna


>From: "Dick Rosenberg" <mashke (at) attbi(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: yiddish language decline?
>Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 22:02:09 -0500
>
> > I guess no one has informed the Chassidic community who continue to
> > speak this "dead" language as part of their daily lives.
>
>
>I guess I don't consider a few scattered Chssidic enclaves (who are by
>definition very inwardly directed) to be a viable Yiddish speaking
>community, one  that is likely to produce the things we hold dear, great
>Yiddish music, philosophy, political thought, art, literature, etc.
>
>Dick
>
>

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