[Mesorah] Hirhurim: Oh, Oy, Ow

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jun 06, 2011 at 10:41:32AM -0500, Michael Hamm wrote:
: I have heard a postwar Lubavitcher pronounce a cholam as /ej/ (as in
: the English word 'safe'), and a tzere, too, and could not tell any
: difference between them...

Rav Dovid Lifshitz gave shiur in havarah Yisraelit.

RDL would walk into the room with a cheery "shuLOIM BUchurim, mah
NISHmuh"?

Then he would take off his hat and coat and switch to Israeli.

But when he got frustrated trying to get a point across he would revert
to other languages. Typically the scale was: Litvishe havarah, Yiddish,
English, as things progressed.

I once managed to get him to object, "Lei, lei, lei, di Ran iz nisht
azei. The Ran is saying..."

But I couldn't remember clearly enough to recall if the "lei" was exactly
the same as a tzeirei. Or if the masses blurred the two, but purists
knew differently. Which is why I dragged in the Teimanim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 48th day, which is
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