What sort of Yiddish did Jews in Hungary speak?
This article originally appeared in Yiddish here.
When you hear Yiddish on the streets of Brooklyn these days, the likelihood is its Hungarian Yiddish. Even Galician, Polish, and Lithuanian Hasidim use the Hungarian dialect today. One reason could be that the Hungarian-descended Satmar Hasidim have been more successful at maintaining Yiddish as its daily vernacular. Most Hungarian-Hasidic women, for example, speak Yiddish among themselves, while women from other Hasidic groups tend to speak English.
But calling these Hasidim Hungarian doesnt mean that they immigrated from present-day Hungary, a relatively small country (although its four times the size of Israel). The Jewish geography of Hungary is the once vast Hungarian kingdom that existed before World War I, which included large expanses of todays Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia and Austria. In this respect, when speaking of the pre-World War I Jewish community in Hungary, you can compare it with Jewish Lithuania, which is exponentially larger than the contemporary State of Lithuania, and also includes Belarus, large parts of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Poland. Jewish Lithuania covers mostly the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Middle Ages, one of the largest nations in European history.
When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and new nations emerged from former Hungarian territories, many ethnic Hungarians remained on the other side of the new borders, while Jews in the territory of modern Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia continued living in a culturally Hungarian environment, which includes the historical centers of Hungarian Hasidism: Satmar and Klausenburg are both cities in present-day Romania (Satu Mare and Cluj-Napoca, respectively); Munkacs (Mukachevko) is in Ukraine; and Nyitra (Nitra) is in Slovakia.
There is a historical irony in the fact that Hungarian Hasidim speak more Yiddish today than other groups: in the old country, Hungarian Jews more often spoke Hungarian than Yiddish, and in western Hungary some even spoke German, or a mix of German and Yiddish. Among the generation of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants that arrived in the United States after World War II, and helped established the current Hasidic dynasties, many spoke Yiddish with a strong Hungarian accent. On the streets of Williamsburg many Jews of the older generation continued to speak Hungarian.
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xocetaceans
(3,968 posts)This is embarrassing, but I had no idea that Yiddish was written using the Hebrew alphabet. Is there an authoritative source on the origins/orthography/etymology of Yiddish that you could recommend please?
Behind the Aegis
(54,901 posts)One, "Yiddish: A Nation of Words", is more a history, but it does touch on some of the other topics of your interest. There is also "Born to Kvetch", which is more about the humor in the language and some history. A few people have issues with the narrator (if you use the audible version), but I thought it was interesting and funny.
xocetaceans
(3,968 posts)mopinko
(71,909 posts)is just a perfect embodiment of it's definition. i live in a very jewish hood, and have picked up a few words.
i was talking about it w my voice teacher, who is married to a jew, and whose grands go to jewish school and are learning hebrew. he pulled out a book- dick and jane in yiddish.
i need to get a copy. it's hilarious.
Behind the Aegis
(54,901 posts)It has been around for a few months and still have a few hiccups, but if you want to learn some basics, it might be a good place to start.
mopinko
(71,909 posts)i need to pick up a bit of gaelic. hope to go 'home' in the not too distant future.
i can almost pass, lol, but if i have to read a sign or a name, i'm sunk.