Why do the Byzantine Jews refer to a בית כנסת as a “kenessa”?
Why do the older Beta Yisra’el Jews call a כהן “kahenat”? Why do the same Beta Yisrael Jews call the תורה “Orit” and שבת “Sanbat”?
Why do some pedantic people in Israel write “בר המצווה” when the term is a carryover from Judeo-Aramaic and should thus have no הא הידיעה? (It would be incorrect, for instance, to write בעל התריסין and the like, but I have met Israeli Hebrew teachers who are ignorant in rabbinic literature and insist upon “בר המצווה”.)
Why do most people vocalize רבי as רַבִּי or רֶבִּי when, as the יעב”ץ demonstrates in לחם שמים, the word should be pronounced רְבִּי?
Why did the Jews of Kaifeng vocalize the שם הוי-ה as “Yiweh”?
Why do subliterate people in Israel say אוֹתְכֶם and אוֹתְכֶן?
Why have most Israeli publishers of siddurim done away with the מתג, which indicates proper syllabic stress? This causes most people to exchange מלעיל for מלרע and vice-versa.
Why do most Hebrew professors not know that the actual word “מלרע” is itself מלעיל?
Why do most people pronounce וּלְיִשְׁרֵי לֵב as “U-Le-Yish-Rey …” when the שוא beneath the למ”ד is a שוא נח, meaning that the word
is “Ul-Yish-Rey”?
Why in the Kaddish de-Rabbanan, do most people say מְזוֹנֵי רְוִיחֵי when the correct wording is מְזוֹנָא רְוִיחָא?
Why do most people pronounce the first two words of the Kaddish as יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ when the גר”א demonstrated that those two specific words are not Judeo-Aramaic but לשון הקדש and should thus be pronounced יִתְגַּדֵּל וְיִתְקַדֵּשׁ? (See ס’ מעשה רב.)
Why do most people say כִרְעוּתֵהּ when, as the גר”א demonstrates, the כ”ף should have a דגש? (The word should be כִּרְעוּתֵהּ. Again, see ס’ מעשה רב.)
Why do people say הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא when, as the late Professor Gerson Cohen proved in an in-depth study, the term is a hebraized version of קֻדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא, a usage in the Targum? (קֻדְשָׁא is the nominal form, meaning that the Hebrew must be הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, which it was until centuries ago.)
Why do most people pronounce the קמ”ץ קטן like a קמ”ץ גדול? And why do most people mispronounce the קמ”ץ גדול as a פת”ח when the pronunciation “aw” traditional to the Ashkenazic and Yeminite Jews is the correct one?
And why do the Sephardim traditionally pronounce the קמ”ץ preceding a חטף קמ”ץ as a short ō, making the sound of words like צָהֳרַיִם “Tza-Ho-Ra’im”? After all, the word is the dual form of צֹֽהַר (“window,” “aperture”). Is it correct to transmute the חוֹלָם to a קמ”ץ גדול?
You see, Avi, in the life of a language, there will inevitably be changes in pronunciation as the people habituate to what they hear around them. Further, rules of grammar are intermittently forgotten or ignored, which causes the language to evolve. This is all part of how languages emerge, live, and die.
You are not the first ostensibly frum person to call out Yiddish for an aspect of human experience common to all times and climes. This often stems from an inherent dislike some post-War Jews have for the language, being the vernacular of most victims of the Holocaust נ”ע הי”ד and therefore reminiscent, they believe, of weakness and shame. I have heard otherwise intelligent students at YU make such barbs about Yiddish and this has always been disturbing.
This is pure ignorance on the part of such people. Yiddish is a beautiful language with its own rhythm and spirit, and with a labyrinthian grammar and literature that can rival any other in the world. Actually, to a child of survivors ע”ה like me, it is hurtful to read the verb “butcher,” which you chose as the headline here. As I have shown you, there are plenty of questions to be asked of various communities when it comes to the grammar and pronunciation of Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic.
And with that, let me say that מאַמע לשון is sacred to me. When I read and speak Yiddish, I am connecting on a very deep level with my beloved parents ע”ה and with my hundreds of family members נ”ע הי”ד who were, to use your word, butchered. My heart is filled with pride and joy when I learn משניות with the Yiddish commentary of the late genius Dr. Symcha Petrushka ע”ה, which a certain very popular Modern Hebrew commentary on the Mishnah plagiarized. In my library, I have nineteen tractates of ש”ס with a Yiddish translation and commentary, including the tractates elucidated by Rabbi Dr. Yankev-Meyer Zalkind ע”ה and some others, which are hard to acquire. I especially love the Yiddish Gemaras of R’ Shelomo Drillich זצ”ל and R’ Shemuel Hibner זצ”ל. (These great rabbis were both natives of Poland. They led congregations on the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn respectively.)
זאָל אידיש נאָך לעבּן, and may we all open up our minds and hearts a little more.