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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5777 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 41 of 46 18 January 2011 at 2:41am | IP Logged | |||||
Earlier in the thread:
This is exactly what happened in my family. My father's parents grew up in a Polish community and spoke the language, but did not pass it on their children or grandchildren. I remember very well that they would switch from English to Polish when they didn't want me to understand the conversation. My cousin of same age as me has the same memory. So I heard plenty of Polish as a child, but didn't learn a word, except for one that I remembered years later, looked up, and found out to be obscene--that could be one reason for the conversational change to Polish! But I do not have any bad feeling toward them for not passing it on. They had no interest at all in discussing any family history information, and the Polish language was part of that. I don't know why; it's just how they were. Today my cousin is doing genealogical research to find out who exactly our family members were. He's managed to trace the family back about 100 years, but before that time the records are all in Polish, so it would be wonderful to learn the language to learn more about that part of my own heritage. I've wondered if I'd have any advantage because I heard the phonemes of the language early in life. One day I'll try to find out. When I was grown, I remember one time bringing my grandmother some Polish groceries I'd found in an international import store. The packages were printed in Polish, and I asked her to tell me a little about the words. She was very dismissive and didn't understand why I'd want to know. But she was who she was; she made her choices in life, as I make mine. I can still learn it if I choose and that's enough for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| psr13 Newbie United States Joined 5005 days ago 8 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 42 of 46 20 January 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My paternal grandpa grew up in Wisconsin speaking only Finnish. He didn't learn English until he started school. Even though he knew Finnish up until his death a few months ago, he didn't teach it to any of his kids. I really wish he would have and my dad would have taught my sisters and me. I've always wanted to speak Finnish.
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| Yurk Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5540 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Azerbaijani Studies: Modern Hebrew, Sign Language, Korean, Spanish, Indonesian, Irish Studies: French | Message 43 of 46 20 January 2011 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Among my great-grandparents and grandparents Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and Irish were spoken. I know none of
them today. It would have been nice to have been gifted to just one of them! Oh well. I suppose I have a long time to learn them after my current languages... but I can't help but think of what other things I could learn instead if I already had some knowledge. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5300 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 44 of 46 20 January 2011 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Ah, I also originally had plans to learn all the languages of my ancestors. But I have a question about this. My mom's side is from Romania, Austria, and Russia. So I had originally thought of learning Romanian, German, Russian, and Yiddish. Now that I talked more to my grandparents, they can't remember their parents ever speaking Romanian or Russian, only Yiddish. Does anyone with more knowledge of Jewish history know this? Certainly the great-grandparents would have been fluent in their national language in addition to Yiddish, but would they have treated those languages as mother tongues, or would only Yiddish be a mother tongue? Thanks in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Seljak Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5519 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Serbo-Croatian | Message 45 of 46 21 January 2011 at 1:33am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes! A premise of this forum is that monolingualism is a curable disease. If you want to experience your linguistic heritage, just go for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Yurk Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5540 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Azerbaijani Studies: Modern Hebrew, Sign Language, Korean, Spanish, Indonesian, Irish Studies: French | Message 46 of 46 21 January 2011 at 5:43am | IP Logged | |||||
Originally? Well, hopefully I won't need to use such a term in the future to indicate a change of plans. What your ancestors spoke would really depend on your individual family. My Jewish side can be divided into two Ashkenazi groups. One from Poland and one from Lithuania. However, because they left for America in the 19th century, the regime they left was the Russian Empire. The Polish side spoke Polish in daily life with Yiddish used specifically within some parts of the Jewish community. Russian less so, and I imagine it would only have been needed for official matters. The Lithuanian side used Yiddish at home and within the community, using Russian when needing to interact outside of the community. Upon arriving in America both families adopted English. Do you know when your ancestors left their respective countries? As an example of why it might matter: I mentioned that Polish was the primary language of one side of my family. They were secular Jews. As one can observe in America today, Yiddish tends to be stronger among more frum/Orthodox Jews. Well, shortly after my family left Poland under the Russians for America, the Labor Bund movement formed and was a driving force for Jews throughout the Russian Empire. They promoted Yiddish as a Jewish language, including secular Jews, and it stayed in that position until they came to the USA or until Israel formed. If my family had came later, they would probably have claimed to not speak much Polish, or at least have chosen to identify Yiddish as their sole "native" language. As for Romanian, I can't say as much. I do know that in the 19th century, Yiddish art thrived particularly in Romania. However, the regime was particularly aggressive to Jews (on par with, or perhaps worse than Russia's policy's at the time), from removing them from homes, to some pogroms and riots, to taking away citizenship and removing from school. The century before that was marred with suffering caused by Romania being caught between Russian and Ottoman wars. And as far as I know, the Jewish community in Romania was fueled for a few hundred years of Jewish refugees fleeing the expanding Russian Empire (so even if many were born in Romania, I think as a whole they were seen as immigrants who couldnt integrate). I doubt it would have been easy to have learned Romanian, and so I assume the majority had a far greater grasp on Yiddish than Romanian. Edited by Yurk on 21 January 2011 at 5:48am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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