What languages would my great grandparents have spoken?

[floodsofmemory]

Hi,
I'm hoping to come up with a definitive list of the languages my great grandparents would have spoken. They all came to New York after World War I, from the late 1910's to the mid 1920's. I believe they would have spoken Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, German (and probably the Bavarian dialect also), Yiddish, Hungarian and, some English.

Comments

[novy_chitatel]

I think Hungarian was not spoken in Bukovina, since it's in the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary. Main languages there would be Romanian, Ukrainian, Yiddish and German (there were some German settlers in the area and German was the official language)

Mariupol was and is a Russian-speaking town. Cherkassy and Ukrainian countryside in general was Ukrainian-speaking, but Jews there generally spoke Yiddish (and Russian), not Ukrainian.

Pultusk is a solidly Polish-speaking town, even Jews would be speaking Polish.

[maryxmas]

nah, Jews living in the Ukrainian part of the settlement pale spoke Yiddish, Hebrew and Ukrainian. they spoke Russian only in big cities -- along with Ukrainian.

[floodsofmemory]

So, it's probable that my family from Mariupol spoke Russian (and Yiddish) and not Ukrainian and my family from Smila spoke Ukrainian (and Yiddish), but not Russian?

[maryxmas]

I would even say those in Mariupol -- if it were before the Revolution they most probably would be Ukranian-speaking, not Russian.

[dorsetgirl]

Am I right in thinking that the US census gives languages spoken? It gives a lot more detail than the England & Wales one afaik.

[13chapters]

Ack, responded in the wrong place. Sorry!

[dorsetgirl]

I've lost count of how many times I've done that!

[floodsofmemory]

The censuses I've seen have listed birth country, but not languages spoken.

[13chapters]

If any of your ancestors were particularly religious, they could also have spoken Hebrew. According to my bubbe, my great grandfather (who was born in Ukraine and was the son of a rabbi), spoke Hebrew, anyway. But to the best of my knowledge, the day to day language used was Yiddish.

That reminds me, does anyone know how to say Yiddish in Slavic languages? When I lived in Bulgaria and people found out my ancestors were from Russia, they always tried to convince me that somehow I could speak Russian. I would tell them that my ancestors didn't even speak Russian on a daily basis, they spoke Yiddish. But no one ever knew what that was and I had a particularly frustrating conversation once with a friend who insisted that what I meant was Hebrew. (Bulgarian Jews are Sephardim and don't speak Yiddish.)

[oryx_and_crake]

>>how to say Yiddish in Slavic languages
You'd be amazed, but it's Yiddish (идиш in Russian). Your friend should have known what Ladino is, so you could explain that it is the same, only German-based instead of Spanish-based.

[13chapters]

Ha! That's too easy. I tried to explain that it was a mixture of Hebrew and German and she was like "what is this madness?".

eta: and thanks! I'm not sure she would have known what Ladino is, it was not my experience that many Bulgarians knew much about Jewish culture, and I lived in a really rural area without a Jewish population.

[floodsofmemory]

My maternal grandfather's grandfather was apparently a Rabbi in East New York (in Mariupol, too? I dunno), so I figured he could read Hebrew, if not speak it. Do you imagine he could do both? Here's a picture of the guy, in case you're curious:

[tinimaus]

They don't speak Bavarian in Nuremberg - they speak Fränkisch (Ostfränkisch, to be precise). Sounds quite different to me, although there are overlaps in pronunciation.

[floodsofmemory]

Thanks. The Wikipedia entry implied Bavarian is spoken in all of Bavaria, so I didn't realize there was a different variety in Nuremberg.

[muckefuck]

Which Wikipedia entry do you mean? The entry for Bavarian language is pretty explicit that it's not spoken in Oberfranken outside of Wunsiedel.

[floodsofmemory]

You're right - I read the entry too quickly and assumed Upper and Lower Bavaria included the whole state. Once again, another lesson on why it's bad to assume.

[zunatta]

hi! i think the last address is not very correct, i think if it was part of russia and you say it was poland (a little confusing, isn'tit) really now and it's Belarus. the city is called Potatsk so your grandparent used to speak belarussian or russian, but not polish. hope, it was useful))