Yiddish

Biography of a Language

Bibliographic Data

ID23459657
AuthorsJeffrey Shandler (corresponding author)
Year2020
Publication date2020-11-02
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueYiddish (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780190651961.001.0001
OpenAlexW4250858278
Open LibraryOL34683118M
ISBN9780190651961
LanguageEN
Citations received8

This book provides an introduction to Yiddish, the foundational vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, both as a subject of interest in its own right and for the distinctive issues that Yiddish raises for the study of languages generally, including language diaspora, language fusion, multilingualism, language ideologies, and postvernacularity. By approaching the study of Yiddish through the rubric of a biography, rather than following a more conventional chronological, geographical, or ideological approach, this book examines the story of Yiddish thematically. Each chapter addresses a different “biographical” topic concerning the character of the language and how it has been conceptualized, ranging across time, space, and speech communities. These chapters interrelate discussions of the language’s origins, characteristics, and development with the dynamics of its implementation in Ashkenazi culture from the Middle Ages to the present. These thematic chapters also examine the symbolic investments that Jews and others have made in Yiddish over time, which are key to understanding both general perceptions and scholarly analyses of the language, especially in the modern period.

Diaspora · Hebrew · Ideology · Judaism · Linguistics · Minority language · Multilingualism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vernacular · Yiddish · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Middle eastern philology · Yiddish (Langue) · Yiddish language

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