Lunch and Learn with Professor Sarah Benor at Hillel

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Tuesday, September 28 @ NOON
Boulder Hillel
2795 Colorado Avenue
Boulder, CO

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Free and Open to the public, Lunch included. RSVP's appreciated as space is limited.

 

Shpiel, Mensch, and Bentsh: Echoes of Yiddish in Contemporary American English.

Although a large percentage of American Jews are descended from Yiddish speakers, very few can converse in their ancestral language. Even so, the speech of Jews (and non-Jews) in early 21st-century America continues to exhibit significant influence from Yiddish, including words (e.g., bashert, keppie, bentsh, and daven) and grammatical constructions (e.g., "She's staying by us," "What do I know from that?"). In this lunch and learn program, Professor Sarah Benor (Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles), will discuss these echoes of Yiddish in American English. You will learn how language use varies among older Jews, younger Jews, and those involved in religious spheres. Special attention will be paid to new cultural forms, like Heeb Magazine and "The Hebrew Hammer."

Professor Sarah Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College, teaches about the social science of American Jews, as well as about language and culture. Her research interests include Jewish languages, American Jewish identity and culture, sociolinguistic variation, the linguistic construction of identity, language contact, ethnography, and Orthodox Jews. She is the founder, producer, and editor of the Jewish Language Research Website, and she is the founder and moderator of the Jewish Languages Mailing List. Her publications include "Do American Jews Speak a 'Jewish Language'? A Model of Jewish Linguistic Distinctiveness" (Jewish Quarterly Review) and "Jewish Languages." (Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.)

**Events require an RSVP as seating is limited due to fire code restrictions. Attending an event without an RSVP may require waiting until all those who have RSVP'd are seated or being turned away if the room has reached capacity. **

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