Quote:
|
Originally Posted by subaquaticus
Some linguistic remarks about your native language and your country (far beyond the scope of freediving...)
First Hebrew has a connection with one official language of the European Union : Maltese. Maltese is a Semitic language and as such connected with Arabian and Hebrew.
|
10x, I didn't know that.
I assume it's so far away from Hebrew that I have better chance understanding French on the account of english resemblance.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by subaquaticus
As far as I know, the main communities constituting Israel are :
1. ASHKENAZIM ; "Ashkenaz" means Germany in Hebrew and the vernacular language of Ashkenazim is Yiddish, which is a Middle High German dialect ; Ashkenazim are then Teutonic locutors since they speak a language belonging to the family of Teutonic languages...
|
Ashkenaz means middle and northern europe. Yiddish is a mix of German, Biblical hebrew and some Polish depends on where you come from. Basically, ASHKENZIM are white-skinned (by etnicity, not a racial thing) European jews who follow the ashkenaz religous stream as their parents did.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by subaquaticus
2. SEPHARDIM ; "Sepharad" means "Spain" in Hebrew and the vernacular language of Sephardim is "ladino", or "Jewish Spanish" , which is a Spanish dialect once spoken in the whole Mediterranean area...
|
The main constituency of SPHARADIM in Israel are from North Africa and other middle-eastern countries, only a minority have a real recent (3-5 generations) connection to Spain. SPHARADIM are typically dark-skinned jews that follow the SPHARADIC religeous stream.
In France you might find both types, the ASHKENAZIM that immigrated from central and eastern europe and the SPHARADIM that immigrated from north-africa.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by subaquaticus
I can guess from your mastering of the English language that you must be an Ashkenaz, aren't you ? Then as such you belong to the family of Teutonic locutors...
A Sepharad would have pleaded for the use of a Latin language like French or Spanish...
|
I am Ashkenzi, but I don't think a Spharadi would have pleaded the use of any other european language here other than English. It might have been true if this conversation had taken place a few decades ago. My knowledge of english comes from TV, books, cumputer games and general computer stuff. If I was a normal Israeli then my english knowledge would've come from our schools where english is being tought as a second language all over Israel (unless I'm arab I guess). My parents were born in Israel and therefore speak hebrew, I wasn't raised listening to yiddish and german. All of my friends regardless of their grandparent's origin (askenazi or spharadim) know english better than french or spanish.
We have a society that is more prone to English. Same for Germany and Sweden I guess (if returning to the original point), which is the reason they find it easier with English more than French rather than it being more similar or have an imprint on them.
You show some impressive knoweldge in our culture for some one who is not a jew. Why is that?
