Yiddish translation of Gita (?)

[Lars Martin Fosse]

At 18:12 19.01.98 -0200, you wrote:
>>Besides Yiddish, that mere "German patois" by some pompous ignoramuses,
>>is also a language that has been the medium of several great writers
>>(one of them a Nobel Prize winner) and of an important culture.
>
>
>How much affected and violent in language certain people get when not
>everyone accept fully what they believe to be truth. For me a translation in
>Hebrew would have quite sense, but  not  much in Yidish, a disapearing,
>second language , no doubt a patois and a german dialect, an exclusive
>vehicle for communication only between members of a certain community
>without any universal aim. That's why it sounds strange to me and don't come
>with that old paranoid talk of anti-semitism.

I don't claim to be an expert on Yiddish, but from the language specimens I
have seen, it seems to be about as different from Standard High German as
Dutch. (As do indeed more than one German dialect). Given that it is a
"dying" language, it would make sense to blow some life into it by
translating foreign language literature into it. If languages want to
survive, they have to produce a certain amount of written material. The
remark about the "German patois" was rather insensitive, and, in my opinion,
not very intelligent, so a bit of anger seems rather relevant. Let me remind
you that Hebrew startet out at the beginning of this century even "deader"
than Yiddish is today. Dying languages can be brought back to life.

And by the way, I am not Jewish, and I will be very cross with anybody who
accuses me of being politically correct.

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse


Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
0674 Oslo

Tel: +47 22 32 12 19
Fax: +47 22 32 12 19
Email: lmfosse at online.no
Mobile phone: 90 91 91 45