Re: Diglossia (was Re: Nur-ellen in the world of Brithenig)

Steg Belsky wrote:
>
> On Tue, 12 Sep 2000 19:46:40 -0400 Robert Hailman <robert@...>
> writes:
> > That's true, as I learned the hard way when I was in Bavaria this
> > summer. Of course, ich habe fur nur zwei Jahre Deutsch gelernt, so
> > it
> > could have been just as much my lack of German skills as it was
> > their
> > unintelligible dialect.
> >
> > --
> > Robert
> -
>
> If i understand your German correctly, "to learn" isn't reflexive?  In
> Yiddish it's _lernen *zix*_.  (i.e., "Ix hob gelernt zix yidiš çvei yohr
> in šule").  But then again, if you've learned German for 2 years and have
> a lack of skills, i've only learned Yiddish for one - and that was more
> than a year ago.
> (The _gelernt_ and _zix_ might have to be switched in that sentece)

No, it's not reflexive.  Although, I would say it differently than
Robert did -- Ich lerne seit zwei Jahren Deutsch (or in my case seit
drei Jahren) of course this could be completely wrong (I'm good in
French, not so hot in German) but what really surprises me is that you
say above "Ix hob gelernt zix" using the German third person singular
reflexive pronoun in a first-person-singular-subject sentence, but I
don't know anything about Yiddish so this could be perfectly correct and
an interesting development.  Also, I take it from the above sentence
that Yiddish has different word order than German as well?

Nicole