Yiddish, an official language? (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Yiddish, an official language?
Tags: Yiddish
Share with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Language Learning Forum : Philological Room

15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
kanjicabinet.tumblr.
Joined 6768 days ago
2282 posts - 2814 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

Message 1 of 15

28 May 2007 at 8:49am | IP Logged

I discovered an odd geographical note today. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East is a republic in the Russian Federation originally set up by Stalin as a region where Jews could pursue cultural autonomy. Although the remaining Jewish population today is a very small percentage, Yiddish is still co-official with Russian and taught in schools.
1 person has voted this message useful

alexptrans
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Israel
Joined 6765 days ago
208 posts - 236 votes

Speaks: English, Modern Hebrew, Russian*, French, Arabic (Written)
Studies: Icelandic

Message 2 of 15

29 May 2007 at 7:38am | IP Logged

That's very interesting, Captain Haddock.

Here's a Wikipedia article about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast
1 person has voted this message useful

delectric
Diglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 7181 days ago
608 posts - 733 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: German

Message 3 of 15

29 May 2007 at 8:17pm | IP Logged

Can you paste the article here? I'm in China and the government block this web site!
1 person has voted this message useful

Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
kanjicabinet.tumblr.
Joined 6768 days ago
2282 posts - 2814 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

Message 4 of 15

30 May 2007 at 2:23am | IP Logged

The article is pretty long. Check this mirror site and see if you can get through.
1 person has voted this message useful

delectric
Diglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 7181 days ago
608 posts - 733 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: German

Message 5 of 15

30 May 2007 at 3:21am | IP Logged

Great I got through. Does that mean I can surf this site in China?

1 person has voted this message useful

Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
kanjicabinet.tumblr.
Joined 6768 days ago
2282 posts - 2814 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

Message 6 of 15

30 May 2007 at 3:56am | IP Logged

It appears that way. I found it by searching for "wikipedia" and "mirror"; it seems to have most English articles mirrored, at least. I've no idea how often it's updated.
1 person has voted this message useful

daristani
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7144 days ago
752 posts - 1661 votes

Studies: Uzbek

Message 7 of 15

31 May 2007 at 2:33pm | IP Logged

Here's an article on Birobidzhan from today's Washington Post. It seems that the Jewish population is only a tiny minority, but that the numbers are gradually growing, in part due to people having moved back from Israel.

Washington Post article
1 person has voted this message useful

zhiguli
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6441 days ago
176 posts - 221 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Mandarin

Message 8 of 15

04 June 2007 at 7:37am | IP Logged

On a side-note, here's a little bit of trivia about "Frayland", a little Yiddish-speaking country that never was:

http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol07/vol07.032

Quote:

Most people don't seem to recall one sad piece of Holocaust history. In
1945 as the survivors were being liberated, an organization was founded
called The Frayland League whose goal was to establish a Yiddish speaking
state, to be called Frayland. They negotiated with the Dutch government to
obtain Surinam as a haven for the Yiddish speaking survivors who were
being brutally detained by the British in new camps, to prevent them from
entering Palestine.

The Zionist, who were exceedingly hostile to Yiddish, were desparate to
prevent the Dutch government from ceding the land, since they felt that
the pressure would then have abated for the establishment of a Hebrew
speaking state in Israel. Informal poles taken in the camps seem to
indicate that the majority of the newly liberated preferred having a
Yiddish state, since Yiddish was their native language.

On the eve of the Dutch vote, in 1946, Golda Mayerson, among others,
rushed to Holland to politic forcefully against Frayland, using her Second
International connections in the Dutch Social Democratic Party. When the
vote was finally taken Frayland lost by one vote. The Hebrew state that
ultimately resulted, maintained a vendetta against Yiddish for these many
generations.

Yes, there almost was a Yiddish nation where the little traveler's guide
would have been a useful and valuable accessory. But a miss is as good as
a mile. And as long as Israel no longer feels threatened by Yiddish and
lets it live its precarious existance we gladly transfer our affections to
it. To quote an old Yiddish song "Ver mir zaynen zaynen mir, Ober Yidn
zaynen mir."

1 person has voted this message useful

This discussion contains 15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum

This page was generated in 0.4209 seconds.