Re: [Cz-L] Our love affair with the German language

Hi Mimi, Hardy, Arthur and all friends!
My father was born in Wiznitz in 1910 and, till he arrived in Cz after the war, he spoke Yiddish, not German. My maternal grandfather (grandmother was from Sadagura) was born in Zalesszcsyki, spoke German with his parents and said "Sie" not "Du" to them. He was an accountant and had brothers who were teachers. He married Grandma in September 1903 and moved to Cz where she was already living (Morariugasse). My mother didn't speak Yiddish as a child at home. In fact, the Yiddish she knew came from my father, and the German he knew came from my mother...
Anyway, here is an extract of my book (an English translation) as to what I consider as one of the best Jewish humour stories about languages:
"... in my opinion, the best story about languages appears in the dialog between Mordechai Schwarz and Israel Schmecht, in the excellent movie “Le train de vie” (train of life) directed by Radu Mihaileanu: Mordechai Schwarz must absolutely improve his German in order to be held for a Nazi captain; Israel Schmecht, who lives in Switzerland as a refugee after the Anschluss of Austria, is a cousin of the Rabbi. He tries to have Mordechai get a German accent by repeating the words “Freundschaftliche Beziehung”, a friendly relation.
- I don’t get it! Why is it so difficult? It resembles so much to Yiddish; I understand everything!
- German is a rigid language, Mordechai, precise and sad. Yiddish is a parody of German: it has humor in addition. So, the only thing I’m asking of you in order to perfectly speak German – and to lose this Yiddish accent – is to take-out the humor! That’s all.
- Do the German know that we parody their language? Maybe that’s the cause for the war!"

Best regards and Shana Tova to all friends,
Charles

> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Our love affair with the German
> language.
> From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_BEZEQINT.NET>
> Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 08:42:01 +0300
> X-Message-Number: 3
>
> There were people who spoke proper German in Czernowitz.
>   Not too many.
>    The majority spoke a German that was an
> offense to the ear
>     and a disgrace to the language of Schiller.
>      It was a cold - blooded murder of
> the German language.
>       It was only right  ,considering
> what the germans did to us.
> Hardy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
> To: "Paul Heger" <pheger_at_gmail.com>;
> "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_bezeqint.net>
> Cc: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 6:26 AM
> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Our love affair with the German
> language.
By the 1920ies and till the end of WW2, all Czernowitzers
> knew German,
> whether they preferred to speak it or not. I have the
> school certificates of
> my father, born in 1907. In 1921 and 1922 he was a pupil in
> school #14.
> The languages he studied in school during both of these two
> years were:
> Romanian, Latin, Hebrew, German as the language of
> instruction and French.
> My mother went to a commercial school and I have her school
> certificate of the year 1921-22. She studied Romanian, German and French.
> Even though the school certificate is in Romanian, I doubt that this was
> the language of instruction.
>
> My parents spoke German to each other, to me and to most of
> their friends,
> but both spoke and read Yiddish fluently and appreciated
> its rich and varied
> means of expression. Above anything else, it was "Mameh
> Looshen".
> I remember an incident which will serve to illustrate my
> point; it happened
> during a walk with my father, in either the summer of 1940
> or 1941. At the
> Franz Josef Pl., opposite the Cathedral, there was a
> newspaper kiosk, where
> we stopped. A man I did not know came towards us and as he
> came close, my
> father said: "Shoolem Aleichem" to him.
> Very excitedly I started tugging at my father's trousers
> and said:
> Ist dass Scholem Aleichem?
> Mimi

      
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Received on 2010-09-09 19:09:04