Sunday, February 07, 2010

Update alert: Another "Yeshivish" goodie

You might find today's update of my February 2 post, "Yeshivish" as a second language interesting.

4 Comments:

Blogger The Reform Baal Teshuvah said...

I think "bring down" may be a metaphor, the idea being that Rashi is bringing down for us ignoramuses from the holy, elevated treasure trove of midrash, a midrash that explains a verse.

Sun Feb 07, 04:47:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

" . . . for us ignoramuses . . ."

As my father used to joke, I resemble that remark." :)

Sun Feb 07, 09:50:00 PM 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hah - that was a good post. I have a yeshivish friend who's first langage is Yiddish (for home) and British English for when he used to work in the wider world. He uses 'by' all the time. I don't see him as uneducated though - it's just a hold over.

And I do like 'some' of the terminology myself.

And I also use words like Chumash and so on in 'shul' and also 'Shabbes' for when I'm in touch with some of my Yiddish-speaking friends.

I do like your blog, by the way. From another tallit & tefillin-wearing woman!

Rachel

Mon Feb 08, 12:25:00 PM 2010  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Rachel, I think that it's often advisable to use different language, or a different combination of languages, when one is among Jews exclusively than when one is among the general public. What distressed me about the little girl's statement "Mommy doesn't let" was that she was using "Yeshivish" as an everyday language without even realizing that it wasn't really English. For this, I blame the Jews of her neighborhood--I have little choice but to assume that this is the way everyone whom she knows speaks, since, at her age (3 or 4, I believe), she's not likely to have learned this in school.

I'm glad that you're enjoying my blog. As for the tallit and tefillin, let's hear it for those of us females who prefer that method of staying "under wraps." :)

Mon Feb 08, 01:08:00 PM 2010  

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