Yiddish: a Survey and a Grammar Is a General Introduction to Yiddish and Ex- Amines the Origin, History and Grammar of the Language
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professor birnbaum was formerly on the staff of the University of London. Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar is a general introduction to Yiddish and ex- amines the origin, history and grammar of the language. It traces the development of Yiddish from its beginnings to the present, and explores its composition, phonological history, linguistic aspects, and the dialects that constitute it. The grammar provides a picture of the language as an integrated whole, along with specimens of Yiddish in transcription. The book embodies the results of more than sixty years of research and pioneer- ing scholarship on the part of one of the world's leading scholars in Yiddish studies. It has been prepared with not only scholars in mind but also intelligent lay readers and university students who are beginning the study of Yiddish. *an outstanding new accomplishment in Yiddish linguistics in a great many respects ... a magnificent contribution to Yiddish studies ... No serious approach to the teaching of the study of Yiddish can afford not to consult Professor Bimbaum’s book.’ Chaim Ginninger, formerly of Columbia University * It is a summary of the life's work of an outstanding and original scholar in the field of Yiddish studies. There is no doubt that Professor Bimbaum’s book will serve as a very good introduction to Yiddish and to its cultural background. No book in English of this range and authority on Yiddish is available.’ Chone Shmeruk, Hebrew University of Jerusalem SOLOMON A. BIRNBAUM Yiddish A Survey and a Grammar MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS MANCHESTER Published in Great Britain by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL © University of Toronto Press 1979 ISBN o 7190 0769 0 Printed in Canada To the memory of my father NATHAN BJRNBAUM the first western champion of Yiddish, and of my mother ROSA BIRNBAUM his devoted wife Preface In 1912, when I started to work on Yiddish, a language which I had acquired a few years earlier, modem research on it was only in its beginnings. There were the writings of such scholars as Moritz Griinwald, L. Sain6an, L. Wiener, A. Landau, and J. Gerzon, and the publications - of a non-linguistic nature - of M. Steinschneider, M. Griinbaum, F. Rosenberg, M. Gtidemann, L. I^andau, M. Ginsburg/P. Marek, I. Bernstein, F. Falk and M. J. Pines, but not a great deal more. During the sixty-five or so years that followed, Yiddish studies spread slowly but steadily, gradually gaining momentum, as a glance at the Bibliography of this book will show. Much of the work that has been done and that is being done now is of high, and often extremely high, quality. Some scholars have devoted their entire lives to the study of Yiddish, among them Ch. Ginninger, A. Harkavy, J.A. Joffe, J. Leftwich, J.J. Maitlis, Y. Mark, S. Niger, N. Prilutzki, M. Schaechter, M. Weinreich and U. Weinreich. The aim of this book is to provide a general introduction to the Yiddish language. It examines the origin, history and grammar of the language, tracing its develop- ment from its beginnings to the present, and exploring such aspects as its compo- sition, phonological history, linguistic elements and the dialects that constitute it. The grammar attempts to provide a picture of the language as an integrated whole. Specimens of Yiddish in transcription down through the centuries are also included, as is an extensive bibliography. The manuscript has been prepared with students of Yiddish as well as scholars in mind. Many readers of this book probably have no intention of learning the language but rather of using the survey as a source of information about Yiddish. It is hoped that Parts t-1u will serve this purpose adequately. In these chapters the Yiddish has not been printed in its own (Hebrew) alphabet. For these readers a transcrip- tion, i.e., a phonemic rendering, is desirable and in fact to be preferred from a viii Preface Unguist’s point of view as well, because the spelling of Yiddish, as of most languages, is phonetically far less accurate than a phonemic rendering. Chapters 1 to 6 of Part II are based on two sets of public lectures that I gave at the University of London, the first a series of Special University Lectures in Comparative Philology in 1934, and the second a series in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the same University in 1938. The section, ‘The Age of the Yiddish Language,’ was published in the Transactions of the Philological Society in 1938. It was to have been published in book form and was already set in type when the printing firm fell victim to bombardment during the London Blitz. Since then the galley proofs have lain in my desk, and being immersed in other work, I did nothing about having them published. Substantial changes and additions have been made for inclusion in this book. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and with the assistance of the Publications Fund of University of Toronto Press. I have much pleasure in expressing my appreciation to these bodies. My special thanks are due to Dr R.M. Schoeffcl of the University of Toronto Press for the great care he has expended on this publication. Finally - and above all - I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my wife, Irene, for the devoted help she has given me, as always, in the making of this book. S.A.B. Contents PREFACE vii THE TRANSCRIPTION ALPHABET xiii ABBREVIATIONS XV Part One: Introduction 1 JEWISH LANGUAGES 3 A I CLASSIFICATION 3 b / l a n g u a g e s o f je w s a n d JEWISH LANGUAGES 9 ן 'Mixed languages ‘ ‘CreoJized languages' 4 Race 9 Valuation 4 1The national spirit ' 10 C'orruptedlanguag'es 5 Conservatism 10 J'argons' 6 Loyalty 11 Dialects 6 Migration 12 ‘ ‘ Judaeo-pluslanguages 7 Ghetto 12 L,anguage's 8 The group-forming factor 13 Religion and script 13 Secularized Jewish language 14 Jewish linguistics 14 2 THE CULTURAL STRUCTURE OF EAST ASHKENAZIC JEWRY 16 The East Ashkenatim 16 Cultural structure 18 Social structure 17 Territorial concentration 18 x Contents Cultural community 19 The East Askkenaxit dress 23 Cultural autonomy 19 Secularization 24 Religion 19 Nationalism 24 Literature 23 Ckassidtsm 26 Part Two: A Brief S u r v e y of the Yiddish Language 1 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF YIDDISH 33 THE ENLIGHTENMENT 34 WORLD 38 Western Europe 34 The poUtual aspect 38 Eastern Europe 36 The learned world 39 TRADITIONALISM 38 STATISTICS 40 YIDDISH AND THE OUTSIDE THE FUTURE 42 2 THE AGE OF YIDDISH 44 THE PRACTICAL CRITERION 44 A Literary West Yiddish 46 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITERION 45 B Spoken East Yiddish 51 THE LINGUISTIC CRITERION 46 THE SOCIOLOGICAL CRITERION 57 3 THE ELEMENTS OF YIDDISH AND THEIR PHONOLOGICAL HISTORY 58 THE SEMITIC ELEMENT 58 Synthesis o f tht German elements 76 Vocabulary 58 THE SLAVONIC ELEMENT 76 לל The Hebrew element 5Q Czech The Ashkenazit accent system 65 Polish 77 THE ARAMir ELEMENT 66 Byelo-Russian 78 THE ROMANCE ELEMENT 66 Ukrainian 78 לTHE GERMANIC ELEMENT 67 Russian 8 Comparison with Middle High International spords 78 לGerman 67 OTHER ELEMENTS 9 The Central German element (m hg ) 71 NEW HIGH GERMAN 7Q The Upper German element 74 4 SYNTHESIS 82 MORPHOLOGY 82 WORD FORMATION 84 SEMANTICS 83 AFFIXES 84 xi Contents 5 SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT 86 PHONOLOGY 86 SHIFT IN SYNTACTICAL SEMANTICS 86 CONNECTION 91 ISOLATION 86 THE ABSOLUTE INFINITIVE 92 ANALOGY 88 WORD ORDER 92 RISE OF NEW WORDS 90 6 T H E D IA L E C T S 94 West Yiddish 94 DIALECT STATISTICS 99 Historical Map o f the Yiddish STANDARD PRONUNCIATION tOO Dialects 95 STANDARD LANGUAGE IOI Central Yiddish 96 DIALECT TABLE OF THE East Yiddish 96 VOWELS IOI APPENDIX I: OLD YIDDISH OR MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN ? 106 THE LINGUISTIC PROBLEM 106 FOR OLD YIDDISH 109 THE PROBLEM OF THE MHG STANDARD SPELLING TRANSCRIPTION 107 AND THE TRANSCRIPTION THE TRANSCRIPTION ALPHABET ALPHABET III A P P E N D IX 2 : DOUBLE U, DOUBLE WAW AND DOUBLE YODH 112 YIDDISH 113 ZARPHATIC 118 HEBREW AND ARAMIC IN ITALKIAN I IQ ASHKENAZIC SOURCES IM D ilDYti 120 HEBREW AND ARAMIC IN CATALANIC (20 ZARPHATIC SOURCES 11$ PARSIC 121 HEBREW AND ARAMIC IN BAVL1C 121 ITALKIAN SOURCES 116 TEMANIC 122 HEBREW AND ARAMIC IN THE TALMUDIC SOURCE 122 ORIENTAL SOURCES II7 THE QUMRAN SCROLLS 123 A PPE N D IX %■ THE SOURCES OF THE NEW EAST YIDDISH VOWELS 127 A P P E N D IX 4 : TOPONYM 1CAL L IS T 135 xii Contents Part Three: Specimens o f Yiddish over Eight Centuries WEST YIDDISH I46 EAST YIDDISH 169 CENTRAL YIDDISH 166 Part Four: An outline of Yiddish grammar Table of Contents appears on p. 1g3 Part Five: Bibliography Table of Contents appears on p. 310 Index to the Bibliography 380 G E N E R A L IN D E X 389 The Transcription Alphabet T he figures indicate the numbers in the alphabetic list on pages 201-209 an<^ 214-215 where the pronunciation is given. a 8 h 18 00/ 34 d 9 i 4 » ou 35 aa 10 i 41 p 68 aa(i) 11 i 43 T 74 oi 45 ii 43 s 60 oi 46 j *3 { 75 b 12 i i 27 t 39 c V k 50 u 6 £ 40 1 53 u 24 d 15 li 54 uu 7 dz 16 m 55 uu 28 dz 17 n 57 V !3 e 63 ni 59 X 38 i 62 0 4 y 25 a 65 oi 31 z 36 f 69 oi 33 z 37 g >4 00 5 Abbreviations At Aramic LH Liturgical Hebrew Ashk Ashkenazic MHG Middle High German BR Byelo-Russian NA North American CG Central German NEY New East Yiddish CY Central Yiddish NHG New High German CE Christian Era NLG New Low German Cz Czech OE Old English EY East Yiddish OHG Old High German EYN East Yiddish, Northern OWY Old West Yiddish EYS East Yiddish, Southern OY Old Yiddish EYSE East Yiddish, Southeastern P Polish EYSW East Yiddish, Southwestern R Russian Eng English Sem Semitic Fr French SI Slavonic/Slavic Ger German Sp Spanish Gk Greek Uk Ukrainian H Hebrew UG Upper German HG High German WY West Yiddish Lat Latin Y Yiddish LG Low German Zar Zarphadc PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1 Jewish Languages A I CLASSIFICATION It is a well-known fact that there are at present and have been in the past, a number of linguistic structures which are to be met with only among Jews.