Yiddish: Turning to LifeWorldwide interest in Yiddish has often concentrated on its secular forms of expression: its literature, its theater, its journalism and its political-party associations. This all-encompassing study, covers these phenomena as well as investigating the demographic and political mushrooming of Yiddish-speaking Ultra-Orthodoxy, both in America and in Israel. As the title suggests, this volume attempts to show that Yiddish is now finally on the path towards recovery. The volume consists of 17 papers grouped into five sections: Yiddish and Hebrew: Conflict and Symbiosis; Yiddish in America; Corpus Planning: The ability to change and grow; Status Planning: The Tshernovits Conference of 1908; Stock-taking: Where are we now? Each section is prefaced by an introduction. In addition there are also five papers written in Yiddish. The work emphasises an empirical and theoretical approach to the growing Ultra-Orthodox sector, that until now, has largely been ignored. Fishman's interest in Yiddish (among other Jewish languages) has previously been difficult to access and it is hoped that the appearance of this book will go some way toward alleviating this situation. The volume also includes a statistical appendix bringing together data on Yiddish for the past 100 years from the Czarist Empire, the USSR, Poland, Israel, the USA, and other parts of the world. This extensive and enlightening study should be of interest to sociolinguists and all those engaged in efforts on behalf of small languages everywhere. |
Contents
Preface | 1 |
Conflict and Symbiosis | 11 |
Introduction | 13 |
two mutually clarifying perspectives | 19 |
a case studyof alternatives in language and ethnocultural identity | 37 |
Language interests in Israel today | 68 |
II Yiddish in America | 73 |
Candidates pay court to Hasidic and Orthodox Jews | 75 |
The Tshernovits Conference of 1908 | 231 |
the champion of Yiddish and Jewish cultural autonomy | 239 |
Nathan Birnbaums three Tshernovits Conferences | 248 |
the role of the Tshernovits Conference in the rise of Yiddish | 255 |
The Hebrew response to the Tshernovits Conference | 284 |
Where are we now? | 291 |
Starting with the future | 293 |
status needs and possibilities | 301 |
Yiddish in America | 81 |
Nathan Birnbaums view of American Jewry | 161 |
a serious and empirical approach to current problems | 172 |
The Ability to Change and Grow | 181 |
Introduction | 183 |
some examples of functional and structural pidginization and depidginization | 189 |
Why did Yiddish change? | 203 |
modernity and tradition in images of the good corpus | 217 |
How does Yiddish differ? | 313 |
The lively life of a dead languageor everyone knows that Yiddishdied long ago | 325 |
What could be the societal function of Yiddish in Israel? | 342 |
References | 351 |
Yiddish in the USA Israel The Czarist Empire the USSR Polandand Other Countries 20th Century | 377 |
List of Tables | 379 |
493 | |
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Common terms and phrases
American Jewry Ashkenaz bilingual Birnbaum century circles co-territorial context continued corpus planning cultural autonomy diaspora languages diglossia Eastern Europe Eastern European efforts elites English ethnic ethnocultural fusion languages Galicia German groups Hasidic Hebrew language identity ideological immigrant intellectuals Israel Israeli J.A. Fishman Jewish diaspora Jewish languages Jews Journal language planning language shift latter Lefin lexical linguistic literary Loshn Loshn-koydesh major maskilim Modern Hebrew mother tongue Mouton Nathan Birnbaum Nevertheless non-Jewish ofJewish organizations Orthodox particularly PEJLs period pidgin Poland Polish political population publications rabbinic religious result Russian social sociolinguistic sociology of Yiddish Soviet speaking speech community spoken status planning symbolic Table Talmud theJewish Total traditional translation Tshernovits Conference Ultra-Orthodox University variety vernacular vis-à-vis Weinreich writing Yiddish cultural Yiddish in America Yiddish language Yiddish literature Yiddish press Yiddish schools Yiddish speakers Yiddish theatre Yiddish writers Yiddish-in-print Yiddishist Yidishe shprakh Yivo York Zionist