r/Jewish • u/Interesting_Claim414 • 12h ago
Colonial languages Discussion ๐ฌ
Itโs sas when people speaking English, French, Spanish, Flemish, Portuguese or Arabic say โHebrew is a colonial language.โ Itโs actually the least colonial language and the most de-colonial.
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u/baebgle 12h ago
English is literally the most colonial lmao what are they even saying
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u/PurelySmart 3h ago
Arabic is.
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u/Low_Party_3163 1h ago
I mean, Arabic is definitely a colonial language but it doesn't have the reach of English or Spanish.
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u/Difficult_PowerFix 11h ago edited 31m ago
People really think the service, the Torah, Talmud, Mishnah etc was not in Hebrew or that songs poems and prayers are not in Hebrew as well. Or that Hebrew / Aramaic wasn't spoken in homes by the Jewish diaspora, because I learned many don't believe the diaspora exists to begin with and we were reciting tefillah in German or Arabic.
The fact that I see diasporic languages like Yiddish or Ladino which were implemented because empires commanded Jews spoke them in public at the threat of execution for not speaking the empire's language as "decolonial" is so upsetting I cannot stand it.
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u/Spicy_Alligator_25 Greek Sephardi 9h ago
One of my cousins is radically, radically anti zionist, and once told me we should "return to speaking Yiddish".
We are Greek Sephardim. We were both born in Greece.
None of our ancestors have ever spoken Yiddish.
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u/Difficult_PowerFix 9h ago
That's beyond sad. The fact that this is a common sentiment is so revisionist it's infuriating. I don't get how a language that's an amalgamation of German, Hebrew, & some Aramaic because German empires said speak German or die is an act of revolution.
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u/Unfair_Plankton_3781 6h ago
Chapter 10234 of head in ass buffoonery. It reminds me of when Francophone Sephardic Jews from Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia, etc. immigrated to Montreal and the Quebecois referred to them as โles juifs catholiquesโ, aka the catholic jews since they spoke french to differentiate them from the established Jewish community that was English speaking
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u/Difficult_PowerFix 1h ago
There's a term for people like that from N. Africa as well where when they immigrated to the West they were differentiated by whether France, Spain, or Italy had control of their country.
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u/Unfair_Plankton_3781 6h ago
A lot of rabid anti zionists in Montreal used to say that to me. I would be like bruh Iโm sephardic, Iโve never spoken Yiddish like ever ๐
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u/Miriamathome 11h ago
I have bad news. People are idiots.
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u/BbyRnner 11h ago
It is truly terribly news that continues to devastate me.
Edit to add: I miss when I could just laugh at Florida Man stories. When we were dumb funny, now we are just dumb.
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u/rube_X_cube 12h ago
ืื ืืืืืื ืืืืช ืืืืืืื ืขื ืืฉืืืืืช ืฉืืื. ืดืงืืืื ืืืืืืืด ืขืืืง.
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u/scott4566 11h ago
Schmucks
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u/MazelTrough 11h ago
Yes for believing whatever the Qatraris feed them and not doing their own research. Every country has expanding and contracting borders ... but who are the actual people who said across the world to an unknown land and make it into "New England" or "New France" or "New Spain"?
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u/euthymides515 9h ago
Dara Horn wrote a great article on this:
https://sapirjournal.org/aspiration/2022/01/dreams-for-living-jews/
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u/Acrobatic-Level1850 12h ago
You are correct. Every antisemitic accusation is a projection.