Author Topic: Jewish English (Read 7074 times)

Tante Shvester · « **on:** August 28, 2006, 02:03:07 PM »

I was reading a book on language today, and discovered that what I thought was just plain old colloquial, folksy English is actually a dialect known as Jewish English.

I didn't even know I was speaking in dialect. No wonder I'm so incomprehensible to Porter.

Porter · « **Reply #1 on:** August 28, 2006, 02:38:09 PM »

Go figure.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #2 on:** August 28, 2006, 02:48:35 PM »

You want I should translate my posts for you?

(Would you like me to translate my posts for you?)

Porter · « **Reply #3 on:** August 28, 2006, 02:52:29 PM »

I think I can navigate my way around odd syntax. The big problem I have is with the unshared lexicon.

But, apparently, I'm the only person that doesn't know those words.

Jonathon · « **Reply #4 on:** August 28, 2006, 02:59:12 PM »

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I didn't even know I was speaking in dialect.

At the very least you (presumably) speak some form of the American English dialect.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #5 on:** August 28, 2006, 04:06:07 PM »

Indeed. That's the dialect I thought I was speaking. I didn't realize that I was using some sub-dialect incomprehensible to folk from Utah.

Porter · « **Reply #6 on:** August 28, 2006, 04:21:00 PM »

I am not from Utah.

Jonathon · « **Reply #7 on:** August 28, 2006, 04:26:55 PM »

I'm confused. What did you say that was incomprehensible to Porter?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #8 on:** August 28, 2006, 06:59:52 PM »

Oh, I'm sure that it's not just Porter. He's just the one who points out to me that I seem to be using some foreign language.

And by "Utah", I guess I meant "the middle part of the country where people seem to find me incomprehensible."

Jonathon · « **Reply #9 on:** August 28, 2006, 07:05:51 PM »

But "shvester" is a foreign language.

Porter · « **Reply #10 on:** August 28, 2006, 07:54:28 PM »

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And by "Utah", I guess I meant "the middle part of the country where people seem to find me incomprehensible."

So, to you, Texas and Utah are pretty much the same thing? o_O

Noemon · « **Reply #11 on:** August 28, 2006, 08:19:55 PM »

And so it continues.

Porter · « **Reply #12 on:** August 28, 2006, 08:30:00 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #13 on:** August 28, 2006, 09:03:21 PM »

The miscommunication (I'm guessing).

rivka · « **Reply #14 on:** August 28, 2006, 09:04:32 PM »

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In the early 21st century, speakers of Jewish English tend to be fluent in the local non-Jewish variety and shift styles according to audience, setting, and topic.

That is totally me. Y'all get the slightly Judaized version, because I'm comfortable with you, and know you'll ask if I use something you don't understand (and not hold it against me too much

). At work I use a slightly "frummer" (more religious) version, and with most of my fellow frummies, it's as bad as some of the examples the article cited.

When I am with non-Jews I do not know well, I use virtually no Yiddish or Hebrew. Well, unless they're NYers. :mrgreen:

I think it is both awesome and hysterical that Frumspeak and a Journeys song are being cited in a scholarly article.

Porter · « **Reply #15 on:** August 28, 2006, 09:08:04 PM »

What is frum?

rivka · « **Reply #16 on:** August 28, 2006, 09:30:13 PM »

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"frummer" (more religious)

Jonathon · « **Reply #17 on:** August 28, 2006, 10:04:20 PM »

That was a wholly unsatisfactory answer.

rivka · « **Reply #18 on:** August 28, 2006, 10:42:30 PM »

Frum is a Yiddish word. It is approximately equivalent to "religious" or devout. In common usage, it is used to indicate that someone is an Orthodox Jew. While technically an adjective (e.g. Dost ist a frumme Yid -- That is a religious Jew), it is often used in Yinglish as a noun. Or rather, the diminiutive is. Mostly in a poking-fun-at-self manner.

More here, although he's wrong about it not also being used self-referentially, at least in some circles.

Correct usage of frum and variants thereof:

He went to Israel last year, and totally frummed out!
I'm looking for a doctor, preferably a frum one.
She is such a frummie! So holier-than-thou, she makes me sick.
How long have you been frum?
And of course, the age-old question, asked by match-makers everywhere: Are you a BT (ba'al(as) teshuva, one who became frum as an adult) or an FFB (frum from birth)?

Better?

pooka · « **Reply #19 on:** August 29, 2006, 04:32:46 AM »

Maybe frum and frumpy are related.

rivka · « **Reply #20 on:** August 29, 2006, 05:35:30 AM »

The connection has been suggested, although I am fairly certain it is only a folk etymology.

Porter · « **Reply #21 on:** August 29, 2006, 06:06:12 AM »

Ah. Thank you. In many Mormon circles, we use the word Molly (as in Molly Mormon) and Peter Priesthood in many, but not quite all, the same ways.

pooka · « **Reply #22 on:** August 29, 2006, 06:45:02 AM »

Except I don't know anyone who would say someone else was more "Molly Mormon" in a spirit of affection. But maybe it's different for women.

Noemon · « **Reply #23 on:** August 29, 2006, 11:21:26 AM »

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The miscommunication (I'm guessing).

Yep. Said 83% in jest.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #24 on:** August 29, 2006, 02:28:12 PM »

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So, to you, Texas and Utah are pretty much the same thing?

Well, they do have some things in common. Like, they aren't on the East Coast and I've never been to either. I suppose I am guilty of this kind of world view at times: