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Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Jonathon on July 19, 2008, 08:35:45 AM

Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Jonathon on July 19, 2008, 08:35:45 AM: link (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9eQwWyblG_2b8ixLqbt6QFhg_3d_3d)

They want both Jews and non-Jews to take it. I figured some people here might be interested in taking it.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Porter on July 19, 2008, 09:05:11 AM: Quote
They want both Jews and non-Jews to take it.
What about the rest of us? ;)
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Jonathon on July 19, 2008, 09:09:20 AM: You can take it too, Porter. :P
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: The Genuine on July 19, 2008, 11:34:06 AM: Did anyone provide their email address to be notified when the results are in? (I didn't.)

If you did, please post them!
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on July 19, 2008, 08:26:40 PM: I gave them my email address.

They didn't list among the choices of what you call your mother, what my kid calls me.

I'm "Ma". And I call my Ma "Ma". Is this uncommon?
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: The Genuine on July 19, 2008, 08:30:06 PM: I'm a Ma man too. I chose Mom since Ma wasn't an option.

But I say Dad, not Da.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on July 19, 2008, 11:15:12 PM: Quote
And I call my Ma "Ma". Is this uncommon?
Nope.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on July 19, 2008, 11:27:19 PM: Quote
Q: Why didn’t you ask about shlep, tshatshke, goyim, shiksa, putz, shmuck, shtup, shmegege, lox, blintzes, etc.?
A: We didn’t think everyone would want to spend 2 hours taking a survey…
:lol:

You know, I'm not sure, but I think I might have met one of the two researchers. She is a teacher at a couple of SoCal universities, and not only does her name ring a bell, she looks vaguely familiar.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Porter on July 20, 2008, 07:10:47 AM: Quote

Quote
And I call my Ma "Ma". Is this uncommon?
Nope.
My initial reaction was "Yes, unless you live on the prairie, preferable in a small house."
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on July 20, 2008, 11:19:59 AM: Porter, what do you call your ma?
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Porter on July 20, 2008, 01:16:55 PM: Usually "Mom" and sometimes "Mother".
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Annie Subjunctive on July 21, 2008, 07:31:40 PM: I think "Ma" is closer to "Mama" than to "Mom."

I've never called my parents Mom/Mommy or Dad/Daddy, except when I was around friends and was too embarrassed. It's really weird to say it. They were always Mama and Papa, but I'm not sure where in the family this came from. I thought it was Southern, but the rest of my Southern family says Mama/Daddy.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on November 05, 2009, 12:53:14 PM: Results of the survey are in. (http://huc.edu/survey/09/)
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Farmgirl on November 05, 2009, 01:03:44 PM: Wow. That "SUK-kiss vs. soo-COAT" part was amazing to me. I didn't know there were different ways of saying that.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on November 05, 2009, 10:07:16 PM: The results reinforce my assertion that I am not peppering my language with foreign words, but rather with New York regionalisms.

In formal speech and writing, I conform to standard English, but in informal speech and friendly informal writing (like here), I use a more conversational, colloquial form of English. The New Yorkish Variant.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on November 05, 2009, 10:21:16 PM: Quote
I am not peppering my language with foreign words, but rather with New York regionalisms.
Why are you so sure there's a difference? ;)
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on November 05, 2009, 10:24:03 PM: 'Cause I don't hold by that.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on November 05, 2009, 10:37:24 PM: :rolleyes:
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on November 05, 2009, 10:39:12 PM: I was surprised to learn that “Are you coming to us for dinner?” isn't standard. The rest of the country really says “Are you coming to our place for dinner?” I had no idea.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on November 05, 2009, 10:54:43 PM: Actually, I'm with you on that one.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on November 05, 2009, 11:35:56 PM: +1 list

or, as some of us put it,

Shvester!
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Jonathon on November 06, 2009, 09:29:11 AM: I would probably say, "Are you coming over for dinner?" "Coming to us" definitely sounds strange to me.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Porter on November 06, 2009, 09:31:54 AM: Same here. "Coming to us" means "coming towards us" to me.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on November 06, 2009, 10:58:09 AM: Huh.

Irrationally, I want to encourage the spread of this one, and wipe "by us" off the face of the planet. ;)
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on November 06, 2009, 11:46:20 AM: By me, either sounds fine.
Title: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: pooka on November 23, 2009, 08:06:44 PM: Huh, I forgot to include that about a third of the books I read as a child were about Jews living in New York. Of course, I'm replying too late to be part of the survey.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Tante Shvester on February 10, 2012, 10:45:19 AM: Hey Rivka, what's the English word for "tallis"? I know the English word for tefillin and for kippah (even though I'm pretty sure I'd never find the right occasion to use either, and I haven't met anyone else who calls them by their English names), but for the life of me, I can't remember the English word for tallis. Is there an English word?

I had thought that tallis was an English word, until Scrabble just told me otherwise.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Jonathon on February 10, 2012, 10:50:06 AM: The Scrabble dictionary has "tallit" and "tallith." Apparently they like Sephardic but not Ashkenazic Hebrew.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on February 10, 2012, 11:12:51 AM: Quote from: Tante Shvester on February 10, 2012, 10:45:19 AM
Hey Rivka, what's the English word for "tallis"?
Prayer shawl, usually.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on February 10, 2012, 11:13:32 AM: Quote from: Jonathon on February 10, 2012, 10:50:06 AM
The Scrabble dictionary has "tallit" and "tallith." Apparently they like Sephardic but not Ashkenazic Hebrew.
Sephardic and Yemenite, apparently.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: Jonathon on February 10, 2012, 11:24:38 AM: I figured I'd missed something in there; the Wikipedia article was not totally clear on where all the forms are from.
Title: Re: Survey on American Jewish Language
Post by: rivka on February 10, 2012, 11:31:56 AM: I'm not entirely clear on how the various forms have migrated into English (or not). I actually doubt that "tallith" is English because of the Yemenite pronunciation. Historically, it just wouldn't make much sense, I think.

Nonetheless, that IS how Yemenite Jews pronounce the letter in question. ת is a tav using Sephardi pronunciation, a saf in Ashkenazi, and a thav in Yemenite. I don't follow much of the technical bits of this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Hebrew), but I imagine you might.