Mick Harper
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In: London
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How to be a Cunning Linguist: Add Some Yiddish, of Course!
A guide to using Yiddish phrases in everyday conversation by Deanna Bugalski |
| Mick Harper wrote: | "it combines German, Hebrew, and Aramaic, with a pinch of Slavic added"
Not really. It's German. I'm not saying this lightly or critically. I'm saying it because there is a giant mystery attached to Yiddish. How come a bunch of Khazars from the Caucasus mountains ended up speaking a language of another bunch of people living a thousand miles away? |
| Deanna Bugalski wrote: | | They bastardized it of course! |
| Ira Rampil wrote: | | In the Middle Ages through the 19th century there were many Jews who were itinerant traders. They help spread a common language. |
| Mick Harper wrote: | | You're saying people gave up their ancestral tongue because some peddlars have returned from foreign parts with news of a language far, far away? |
| Ira Rampil wrote: | | I did not say that at all. Itinerant traders and their customers would benefit from being multilingual -- a competitive advantage. Not a replacement, a supplement. Apparently, over time, there were further adaptive pressures to switch from Hebrew/Aramaic. |
| Mick Harper wrote: | | Adaptive pressures when living in areas speaking Polish, Lithuanian and Russian? I wonder what they were. |
| Ira Rampil wrote: | | I leave that to your imagination |
| Mick Harper wrote: | | It was your theory, I was rather hoping for some substance. But a lot of linguistics is imaginary. |
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