Oneskarf Newbie United States Joined 6026 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Yiddish
| Message 1 of 15 02 April 2009 at 9:39pm | IP Logged |
Greetings. I'm considering beginning a serious study of the Yiddish language, but am curious about the availability of the writings of the great Yiddish authors. Are these books generally available in reprint editions, or will I have to hunt down very old copies of their work in the original Yiddish? Thanks in advance.
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sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5822 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes   Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch
| Message 2 of 15 02 April 2009 at 11:43pm | IP Logged |
I can understand a great deal of Yiddish being a German speaker. Of course, Yiddish is a very colloquial language.
It is rarely written. The best way to learn the language itself would be to do some searching on Amazon.com for
you. Yiddish literature is rare and if you find anything I suggest you get it as it is probably luck that got it for you.
A less stressful approach is Wikipedia. I believe they do have a Yiddish version. Again, Yiddish is a Jewish language.
The Jews used it as an everyday common language. Their countries national language and Hebrew were usually
used for literature. Learning the Hebrew alphabet would help enormously if you want to read Yiddish. When I was
in the States a few years back, I was perusing through a local bookstore, when I came across Born To Kvetch. It was
about Yiddish culture and heritage and will help you greatly although it might not give you a set of grammar rules
or a list of words to learn. There is a book called Idiots Guide to Learning Yiddish if you are going to want to take a
less orthodox course. Make sure to explore all your options. Check for a Yiddish for Dummies.
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Oneskarf Newbie United States Joined 6026 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Yiddish
| Message 3 of 15 03 April 2009 at 12:01am | IP Logged |
I spent a few years living in Germany, so I've got a decent grounding in it and can understand a small amount of Yiddish already as a result, but only a small amount: the pronunciation is different enough that it can take me a second.
I also do know the Hebrew alphabet, although Yiddish orthography (i.e. - vowel usage) is different enough that it means re-learning it a bit.
I also understand the role of Yiddish in Jewish history as well as its current usage.
Born to Kvetch is an excellent book, but like 98% of books about Yiddish, it's not really instructional for regular language usage such as I am pursuing. I am using Sheva Zucker's Yiddish instruction book along with CDs.
Contrary to your assertion, I do not believe that written Yiddish is rare. It just depends on what you want to read, whether you're frum, etc.
I am studying the language in large part for its rich literary culture and there are some fairly well-known Yiddish authors. I'm just not certain whether their works are available in more recent Yiddish-language editions or whether I'll have to hunt down original editions of I.B. Singer, Sholem Aleichem, etc.
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sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5822 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes   Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch
| Message 4 of 15 03 April 2009 at 12:10am | IP Logged |
If there happened to be any Yiddish literature you would come by it would probably hard to find and expensive. You
should know this if you are interested in learning the language. I have heard of Sheva Zucker's Yiddish although I
didn't have an opinion from the person I heard about it.
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Oneskarf Newbie United States Joined 6026 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Yiddish
| Message 5 of 15 03 April 2009 at 12:15am | IP Logged |
Well, if I have trouble getting the books, at least much of Yiddish literature seems to be available online:
"Over ten thousand Yiddish texts, estimated as over 1/2 of all the published works in Yiddish, are now online based on the work of the National Yiddish Book Center, volunteers, and the Internet Archive."
http://www.archive.org/details/nationalyiddishbookcenter
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sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5822 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes   Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch
| Message 6 of 15 03 April 2009 at 1:00am | IP Logged |
it would more likely be online as most of modern Yiddish literature is put online.
I hope you find a lot. And if you want to learn Yiddish the really fun way, try to go to the Jewish Disapora in NYC or
anywhere where there are lots of Ashkenazic Jews. They speak Yiddish and I always find it fun to visit these places
as it is like another world.
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Oneskarf Newbie United States Joined 6026 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Yiddish
| Message 7 of 15 03 April 2009 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
sprachefin wrote:
it would more likely be online as most of modern Yiddish literature is put online.
I hope you find a lot. And if you want to learn Yiddish the really fun way, try to go to the Jewish Disapora in NYC or anywhere where there are lots of Ashkenazic Jews. They speak Yiddish and I always find it fun to visit these places as it is like another world. |
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The Jewish diaspora is everywhere except Israel.
Many major metropolitan areas in the USA have sizable Jewish populations, but most of the Yiddish speakers in these cities are Orthodox and/or Chasidic, with whom I would likely have little to say, if they would even speak with me. Such was the case in NYC, where I spent most of my youth.On the secular Jewish side, only the bubbes spoke any Yiddish, and most of that was fragmentary at best. I think I'll be reading the Yiddish Forward and older texts online and conversing with folks online and with my wife mainly.
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J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6106 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes    Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch
| Message 8 of 15 03 April 2009 at 11:59am | IP Logged |
http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/Stories.html
Good quality texts + recordings.
I have a couple of translations of a few of them. I've been collection as much Yiddish as possible in preparation for learning it one day.
Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier.
I too, am very interested in learning Yiddish so perhaps we can join up and chat about the language. Perhaps one day we can chat in the language. I'd absolutely love someone to actually speak to in the language when I get to learning it more seriously.
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