Re: You meet the oddest people on the Internet

On 13 March, Doug Dee wrote:

> In a message dated 3/13/2004 10:28:18 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> paul-bennett@NC.RR.COM writes:
>
> >I just got called an anti-Semite for pointing out the difference in
German
> >between the ich-laut /C/ and ach-laut /x/, and that they're not both /x/.
>
> >Dan/Steg/Yitzik/anyone: WTF?
>
> >Seriously. How in the hell was that anti-Semitic?
>
> I have no idea, so I'll engage in groundless speculation:
>
> I'm told that in Yiddish there is no /C/ vs /x/ distinction, it's always
/x/.
>  Perhaps someone reasoned as follows:
>
> You say that German (correctly pronounced) distinguishes these two sounds.
> Yiddish doesn't.
> Therefore your claim is that Yiddish is mispronounced German.
> Therefore your claim is that Yiddish is an inferior language.
> Therefore you're an anti-Semite.
>
> I don't believe it either, but it's a theory.
    I also can't see how discussing German phonology could get one branded
as an anti-semite! Unless, of course, the person was a Yiddish speaker
with a huge chip on their shoulder, in which case, Doug's speculation
might have some merit.
    I have come across German speakers who consider Yiddish as
bad German (much as people who consider "Black English" [or whatever
it's called these days] spoken by many Afro-Americans as merely bad
English )
and thus, deserving of full disdain and rejection until they clean up their
act and speak German "like it should be spoken" (whatever that means)!
If this person held this belief and was, in addition, a super-sensitive
Jewish Yiddish speaker, I could see the cause of the outburst.
     I, personally think, though,  that it was a stupid thing to say!


Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.