The Fifth Dimention and Beyond
Word from: Alieza
I've noticed a 5th dimension of verbal communication: Pronunciation. (The others might be: words, sentences, intonation/tone of voice, facial and body language- though each of these deserve a post -or a book- of their own and we should debate my hasty categories).
My Israeli born Ram (Talmud Teacher) has perfect Israeli Hebrew. But he selectively chooses to articulate certain words as a Yiddish speaker would. He doesn't uniformly mispronounce these words, but only in certain contexts. Chachamim, (Rabbis or wise men literally) become Chachomim, with a long o, when the Talmudic sages are neurotically worrying about the details of rituals. Another example: Issur Olam (a object that is forbidden forever) became Isser Oylam, as the Gemarah builds walls distancing people from taboos such as idol worship and pig. With his purposeful pronunciations, he evokes the fastidious frum community with love and irony, as he himself comes from a pretty Charedi background.
Sometimes I have the urge to say: Ium frum Neew Youk - though I'm not from Brooklyn. It gets across something otherwise un-captured in words.
Any one have any observations too add?














9 Comments:
At 3:58 PM, Jake said…
Alieza, I love it. Fifth dimension of verbal communication. To me, your post appears more like a brewing poem rather then a scholarly discussion. I think it would make an excellent piece, and I hope it materializes. This is a question of acquired identity; like the clothes we were, or maybe it's the clothes we dress our words in.
-Jake
At 6:05 PM, Grey said…
I've definitely noticed what you're saying too, but I was wondering a bit about that drawing you posted. I could swear that the original was a photo by Roman Vishniac--where is that image from?
At 9:18 AM, Alieza said…
The pic is from an online art gallery and I think it;s for sale if you like it. Sorry I don't know anything real or interesting about it- you can check out the link if you like.
http://www.rogallery.com/Altman_Norm/Altman-Talmud-Scholar.htm
Alieza
At 4:36 PM, Anonymous said…
Hi Aleiza,
I think you are onto something interesting here, and I agree with Jake that something in the openess of pondering voice leans more the piece more towards an arty social science. Personally, I always get a kick when you are talking to a 20 or 30 year old American Jew and she starts selecting words as if she were somewhere between an early 20th century Yiddish speaking immigrant and an Israeli from the 1970's. I too have been guilty of this explanatory mode. Can anyone tell me who this exact combo is modelled on. And of course, there is no greater innocent contemplation than the Israeli, "emmmm". The American "mmm" just don't got the same charm
Adam S.
At 8:10 PM, Grey said…
Well, people see for yourselves...
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:uEgwCHb7LNsJ:http://www.artblog.net/images
At 8:12 PM, Grey said…
Damn it, I meant to do this!
http://www.artblog.net/images/2005/02/03/vishniac2.jpg
At 1:40 PM, Buy Levitra said…
Great article! Thanks.
At 7:19 PM, Phentermine said…
Thanks for interesting article.
At 10:23 AM, Anonimous said…
Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will bookmark!
Post a Comment
<< Home