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

(This message went before completion... Here it is again)

> Hi Mimi!
> You are right: now that you mention it, I remember that my
> mother told me she adressed her parents with "Der Papa" and
> "Die Mama". I only mentioned "Sie" as opposed to "Du".
> I spoke German with my parents in Paris, but now that they are gone for so long and that I have no opportunity to speak it, it somehow slowly fades away. Probably, what is fading away is the better part of German (the Hochdeutsch) I learned at school, which made it that German people were surprised at my good pronunciation and knowledge of the language, but couldn't tell from where I came as my way of speaking was <ohne Pfeffer und Salz>
Regards,
Charles
>
> > Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Our love affair with the German
> > language
> > From: Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
> > Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:07:03 -0400
> > X-Message-Number: 7
> >
> > Dear Charles,
> > Since your father was born in Wiznitz, I assume that
> his
> > parents or
> > grandparents were Wiznitzer Chasidim. So were my
> > great-grandparents.
> > Conjecture: they probably knew each other.
> > Even though I have no liking for any branch of
> Chasidism, I
> > love the
> > Wiznitzer melodies of the prayers. I did not hear
> those in
> > Czernowitz, but
> > in Oradea Mare, where we moved to after the war.
> >
> > By the way; what a difference between Oradea and
> > Czernowitz! In Oradea,
> > some of the streets still were not paved.
> >
> > As far as "Sie" and "Du" were concerned, I too did not
> say
> > "Du" to my
> > parents. I found "Sie" too formal, so when addressing
> my
> > parents, I would
> > say: "die Mama", or "der Papa". When speaking about
> them, I
> > never said "sie"
> > or "er" (she or he). To this day, if one of my
> > grandchildren refers to his
> > or her mother as she or he, I immediately correct
> them: who
> > is she? The cat?
> >
> > We were unfailingly polite in Czernowitz; men lifted
> their
> > hats when meeting
> > a woman (excuse me, a lady), people took off their
> right
> > glove in order to
> > shake hands, on tramcars and trolleybuses, men and
> children
> > offered their
> > seats to women and the elderly and said: " Bitte
> nehmen
> > Sie  Platz". (please
> > be seated). Some maintain, that because we spoke
> German so
> > badly, there were
> > those who said: "Bitte platzen Sie" (please explode),
> but I
> > doubt that this
> > is true.
> >
> > We did not speak German correctly, but we must have
> spoken
> > it better than
> > some of the other nationalities within the Austrian
> Empire.
> > There were lots
> > of jokes about how Hungarian noblemen and Polish
> Jewish
> > nouveau rich spoke
> > German.
> >
> > Mimi 

-snip-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2010-09-12 07:35:22