Re: [Cz-L] German language

Who cares about what the Germans thought of the way we spoke?
We spoke among ourselves; those born in Czernowitz in the 20th century,
spoke German, those born earlier, or in the surrounding villages
spoke Yiddish.
Everyone spoke some Ruthenian, those with a high-school or higher
education,
also spoke Romanian and the creme de la creme - spoke French.
(did'nt you know that every well educated Czernowitzer spoke French
and plaid the piano?)
The lingua franca was Austrian German with a peculiar accent and bad
grammar,
mixed with some Yiddish and occasional Ukrainian or Ruthenian
expressions.
We used the language in which a term was most expressive;
"Czort ne voznye" - "the devil will not take him" in Ruthenian,
"saracu, saracu" - sarcastic "poor guy" in Romanian.
"curva" - prostitute in Polish,
"Meila, davka, chutzpe" in Yiddish.
Our language was rich and expressive and to this day, I enjoy
speaking it,
more than any other language.

Mimi

On May 28, 2011, at 9:15 AM, HARDY BREIER wrote:

> True is true, German was our mother language.
> It was the language we used at home .
> There was no language we knew any better.
> But it was bad enough.
> We found out much later.
> We read German books , but we didnt talk like this.
> If we talked as the books we read the other boys would
> call us nasty names !
> I grew up in a town 20 years after Cz became Rumania .
> Cut off from Vienna .
> At school we sang :" Trei culori cunosc pe lume "( rumanian
> jingoistic)
>
> And yet German was our pride , our show off !
> Yes Czernowitzerish, a never declared dialect of the German
> family of
> languages.( see our posts).
> With a high percentage of Yiddish and Hebrew words included.
> The German dialects are spoken by the Germans from Prussia
> to Switzerland.
> The Jewish people are not a germanic tribe.
> The Germans had a word for the way the our speech sounded
> to them : Mauscheln.
> Look it up.
> Hardy

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Received on 2011-05-28 09:11:02