The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-03

shop- The door of the workman had
swung open and inside could be seen iust
s ..r scene as Zangwill describes in a
Rose of the Ghetto" Groups of mon
sewing cross-legged. pressing seams tha
cncklng OF the machines sounding Iou1
above the jabbering talk.
suddenly oneaof the sewers broke into a
song half lit, half wall and the rest
1olnel IN. The rhythm was Slavic to
us core, and its peculiar harmonies made
you think of the folk songs of Russia.
Ihen the door closed and the head filter
came out, skirt hung over his arm.
w nat was that song they were singing
IN thereE he was eagerly asked. and ne
managed to explain in broken English.
with high-shouldered shrug, that il was
Lithuanian folk song that they had
sung in the old country before en-, grafton
Alddlsh is, properly speaking, Judeo-
German-7O per cent. German, % per cent.
Hebrew, and 10 per cent, Slavic. THUS.
OF course, its natural dependence is upon
German, its mother tongue, but phiI1lo-
gists are very unwilling to give it its
proper place as a branch of the German
language.
To quote a passage from Mr. Les Wien
er's 'Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth
Century such bias can only be ex-
planned as manifestation of a general
prejudice against everything Hebrew, for
passions have been at play to such an ex-
tent as to blind the scientific vision to the
most obvious and common linguistic phe
nomena. Unfortunately, tn s interesting
evolution of a German dialect has found
its most violent opponents in the German
Hebrews, who, since the day Of Msnde s.
sohn have come to look upon il as an ar
bitrary and vicious corruption of the Ian
guage of their country"
In the Middle Ages Europe was pervad-
ed by a bilingual tendency. Latin had
been rel oi M
clerical purposes that it began to be in
PRODUCED into the secular writings of the
Catholic countries.
The Hebrews Were thus obliged to make
use of the language employed in their
own sacred scriptures, as writing in the
Latin tongue would have been equal to
compromising their own faith EARLY in
the sixteenth century large numbers of
Jews left the Middle Rhineand and set
tied in Poland, Russia and Bohemia Such
was their superiority in number and in
tellect that they completely absorbed the
smaller colony of Slavic-speaking He
breWs, but although their connection with
Germany had been in the main cut off,
still they craved the intellectual stimulus
thet they had always received there.
The Old Germanic legends that they had
brought with them 10 their new home
were all that they had to amuse them
selves with Even after these tales had
eagerly listened to in the Slavic countries.
and were even collected and sold in large
quantities in Russia, Bohemia and Poland
To counterfeit their influence the Hebrew
rabbis began to try the substitution Of
more Hebrew legends To quote again
Mr.. Wiener's book:
I'm this manner the Judeo- German lit
erature was made possible. Its preserva-
ton for four centuries was mainly due to
the isolation of the German Hebrews in
Russia and Poland, where the German
mediaevaHsm became ossiied and was
preserved intact till within half a century
q go, when, under favorable circumstances,
the Russianization of the Hebrews began
Had these conditions prevailed but a short
time longer Judeo-German literature
would have been thing of the past and
of interest only to the linguist and TO the
historian In the short time that the He
brews had enjoyed the privileges of Rus
sian culture their German nediaevalism
was completely dispelled 1t is not con-
tinuaton of the older form, but has de-
veloped upon an entirely new basis
Yiddish appears to have the faculty of
absorbing words in the language of what
ever country IL is associated with. For
example, the writer was told by a young
girl who had come over from Russia a
few years ago that in writing to her
friends at home she he'd a great deal of
difficulty in making them understand ey-
erything that she wished to express
"If l wished TO say that my father had
started i'm business and had taken a store.
l could not think of the Yiddish word for
store Probably when I was in Russia I
used the Russian word, and f. is so in n
great measure with everything that l
write"
Yiddish IS really divided into three dia-
lects-the Polish. Lithuanian and South
Russian. OF these three dialects the Polish
and South Russian possess the most SINH
larjty. These dialects are. in the main.
comprehensive to any Yldiish-speaking
person, though there are some slight dir
fcrences that are very amusing. and Of
which the Russian Hebrews themselves
make a great joke,
For example. in the sentence II am cold
Give me the fur, that | may cover my.
self" the word futter Qur), In one dialect
Is pronounced Ike fater (father). so that
the sentence appears GIVE me my father.
that / may cover myself.
Newspapers published in Yiddlsh. and, of
course, printed in Hebrew characters are
quite widespread in this country. New
Y ork has five or six. and Philadelphia. Chi
caeo and San Francisco also publish Yid-
dish newspapers and magazines Alto
gether there are about twenty Yiddish
publications in the United States. There
Is no Boston newspaper, but in New York
a pauer Is published with IA Boston sun