Der Yomervoch

Over lunch today, I was listening to Gretchen Helfrich's Odyssey show on Chicago Public Radio. (Gretchen, I'm in love with your voice, but I am totally intimidated by your intellect.) Today's topic was endangered and indigenous languages, which has some personal significance to me, since my father was brought up in a household in which a dying language was spoken.

The radio show reminded me about how, a few years ago, I was visiting a friend who had recently come to the United States from the Ukraine. It was a Shabbos dinner, and his extended family was there. At some point, I somehow had the occasion to recite the following:

Siz Brilik geven, di schlichtinke toves
Hob'n gevirt un gevim'lt in vob'n,
Gantz mimzisch geven di borogoves;
Di mome-ret hot oisgegrob'n.

This is the first stanza of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky translated into Yiddish. The translation was by someone named Rafael Finkel.*

Anyway, I hardly got the first line out before my friend's mother ran into the room excitedly... "You speak Yiddish!" she exclaimed. I had to explain that I was only reciting a poem, and no, I do not speak Yiddish, other than a few common words. I was amused, though, that even the nonsense words of Der Yomervoch, pronounced correctly, could so easily be recognized as Yiddish.

Footnote:
*Transliteration from that was done by me... The average English speaker reading the above text would probably mangle it beyond recognition; I'm not sure a pronunciation key would help much. Transliteration from Yiddish is never an exact science... For instance, by various conventions, my last name would be spelled Cherchowski (Poland), Tcherkhovsky (Russia), or Cherjovsky (Argentina).