just because it's funny doesn't mean it's not true

[lagilman]

me, from a discussion over on Facebook:

"NYC: where everyone's 3rd language is Yiddish."

Comments

[saladinahmed.livejournal.com]

Heh. I grew up in an Arab enclave in Detroit with few Jews around, but my Arab Muslim pops was born in Brooklyn and raised back and forth between there and Detroit. He relies quite heavily on the words 'putz' and 'schmuck.' And he used to drive half an hour into the 'burbs to a Jewish deli for pastrami and bagels and lox...

It's interesting, though. These days, (the hipster-academic Yiddish revival aside), I wonder if this is a generational thing, though -- your quote was probably much more true as little as twenty years ago than it is today(?)

[ceosanna.livejournal.com]

I showed that quote to a friend of mine who used to live in the city, and she responded with: "2nd is street spanish."

[lagilman]

*nod* AKA Subway Spanish.* Yep.





*so-called because you can read all the ads on the subway, subconsciously.

[lagilman]

I think the difference now is that they don't know they're speaking Yiddish...

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Susan was born upstate, Mike's family was from somewhere in the Bronx, I do believe. When they had David they moved into New York... I'm not sure where to be honest. But I do know that when I was born 6 years later in the middle of farming country in Ontario, Canada, there were a LOT of people looking at us funny.

It took forever to realize people didn't use putz, shmuck, etc, etc. Or that certain cadences would be listened to with a head cocked to one side.

Here's the fun bit. THAT got mixed in with the local stuff from the last town we lived in. A small Scottish based county. So I had Scottish idioms and cadences mixing freely (just FREELY I tell you) with vague Yiddish influences.

I sounded a right mess. ;)

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Oy vey...

[ceosanna.livejournal.com]

And hear the gossip about what Chino is gonna do to Juan in the seat next to you? Hee!