Re: [Cz-L] language

Hello Judith,

In the 1880s and 1890s many Jews did not speak German.
I have a journal written by my grandfather in which he describes his
youth.
His parents and he had moved to Czernowitz in 1880 from a small town
in Maramures. They spoke only Yiddish and possibly Hungarian and
Ruthenian.
My grandfather very badly wanted to learn German. A student at the
university
who was a lodger of my great grandparents, started to teach my
grandfather German,
but when his mother discovered my grandfather studying the German
Grammar book,
she took it from him and tore it to pieces.

He did eventually learn German and even spelled it correctly.

Mimi
On Apr 2, 2014, at 1:59 PM, Judith Meyers wrote:

> So strange to read about Czernowitzers use of German. My paternal
> grandparents grew up there in the 1880s and 1890s. They moved to
> NYC and when I knew them, obviously many years later, I only heard
> them speak Yiddish and some kind of English :) Clearly they
> had to have been fluent in German, but I never heard any mention of
> this.
[Judith]

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Received on 2014-04-02 13:47:50