Description
Book SynopsisYiddish, the language of Eastern-European Jews, has so far been mostly described as Germanic within the framework of the traditional, divergence-based Language Tree Model. Meanwhile, advances in contact linguistics allow for a new approach, placing the idiom within the mixed language spectrum, with the Slavic component playing a significant role. So far, the Slavic elements were studied as isolated, adstratal borrowings. This book argues that they represent a coherent system within the grammar. This suggests that the Slavic languages had at least as much of a constitutive role in the inception and development of Yiddish as German and Hebrew. The volume is copiously illustrated with examples from the vernacular language. With a contribution of Anna Pilarski, University of Szczecin.
Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations and Tables Abbreviations 1 Max Weinreich and Slavic Component of Yiddish Michał Gajek 1 Introduction 2 Max Weinreich on Slavic-Yiddish Language Contact—Attempts at Revision 3 Slavic Elements in Subsystems of Yiddish 4 Discussion and Conclusions 2 Yiddish in the Framework of the Mixed Language Debate Ewa Geller and Michał Gajek 1 Introduction 2 Defining Terminology 3 Yiddish-Slavic Language Contact 4 Language Shift in Inception of Eastern Yiddish 5 Borrowing in Development of Eastern Yiddish 6 Yiddish as Mixed Language 7 Conclusions 3 Role of Slavic Matter Borrowings in New Pattern Grammaticalization Ewa Geller 1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Framework 3 Method 4 Analysis and Its Results 5 Conclusions 4 De-Construction of German-Type Compounds Agata Reibach 1 Introduction 2 Methods 3 Compound Types in Yiddish 4 Compounds in Yiddish Component Languages 5 Results 6 Conclusions 5 Core Vocabulary Borrowability Restrictions: Case of Semantic Field ‘Body’ Agata Reibach 1 Introduction 2 Methods 3 Results 4 Discussion and Desiderata Appendix 6 Convergence of Syntactic Structures of Yiddish and Polish Direct Interrogative Sentences: Remarks on Parametric Structure of CP and wh-Movement Anna Pilarski 1 Introduction 2 Methods 3 Analysis 4 Results 5 Conclusions 7 Yiddish as Donor Language for Polish Michał Gajek 1 Introduction 2 Methodological Issues 3 Yiddish Loanwords in Polish—Integration and Assimilation 4 Yiddishisms in Polish Vocabulary as Example of Low-Variety Influence 5 Conclusions and Desiderata References Index
