Yiddish: Turning to Life

YIDDISH: TURNING TO LIFE......Page 2
Title page......Page 4
Copyright page......Page 5
Table of contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
A "late bloomer"......Page 15
Teaching and editing efforts......Page 17
Topical foci......Page 19
I. Yiddish and Hebrew: Conflict and Symbiosis......Page 24
Introduction......Page 26
Introduction......Page 32
The multicomponential nature of post-exilic Jewish languages......Page 33
The dialect nature of PEJLs......Page 35
Language genesis: two substantially different scenarios......Page 37
Intragroup literacy: two different scenarios......Page 39
Comparison on Stewartian attributes......Page 42
Notes......Page 44
"Nothing new under the sun": a case studyof alternatives in language and ethnocultural identity......Page 50
The Haskole comes to Eastern Europe......Page 52
Menakhem Mendl Lefin-Satanover (1749-1826)......Page 54
Lefin-Satanover's Bible: translations into Yiddish......Page 55
The revolutionary nature of Lefin-Satanover's translations......Page 57
Tuvye Feder and the attack upon Lefin's translation......Page 59
Yankev Shmuel Bіk (1772-1831) and the defense of Yiddish......Page 62
Dénouement: Personal and linguistic......Page 66
Conclusions......Page 67
Notes......Page 73
Language interests in Israel today......Page 81
II. Yiddish in America......Page 86
Introduction Birth of a voting bloc: Candidates pay court to Hasidic and Orthodox Jews......Page 88
I. Early socio-cultural roles......Page 94
II. New social roles for Yiddish: 1861- 1914......Page 98
III. Yiddish in America: 1880-1914......Page 103
IV. Yiddish in Eastern Europe since 1914......Page 105
V. Yiddish in America since 1914......Page 108
VI. Theoretical recapitulation......Page 150
VII. Concluding sentiments......Page 158
Appendix: The Hebrew language in the United States......Page 161
Notes......Page 168
Nathan Birnbaum's view of American Jewry......Page 174
Notes......Page 183
Yiddish, modernization and re-ethnification: a serious and empirical approach to current problems......Page 185
III. Corpus Planning: The Ability to Change and Grow......Page 194
Introduction......Page 196
Introduction......Page 202
The case of Yiddish......Page 204
Contrast languages......Page 205
Toward Hebrew developments......Page 208
Toward-German developments......Page 209
Bipolar, double approach-avoidance......Page 210
Away-from-pidgin mentality......Page 211
Summary and conclusions re Yiddish......Page 212
General summary and conclusions......Page 213
Notes......Page 214
Why did Yiddish change?......Page 216
What change?......Page 217
Why did the type face change?......Page 218
Why did Yiddish-in-print move closer to spoken Yiddish?......Page 220
Why was the impact of New High Germanisms and of subsequent foreignisms curtailed?......Page 222
Why did a new standard "literary" spoken Yiddish develop?......Page 224
What does the Yiddish case teach us about the societal dynamics of language change?......Page 226
Notes......Page 227
The worm turns......Page 230
A triple error......Page 231
Modernization is not pursued in a vacuum......Page 233
But the tradition is not enough either......Page 234
Rationale and rationalizations......Page 235
Compromises, compromises, compromises......Page 237
Overdoing it......Page 239
"Notorious" failures......Page 240
A corpus planner's life is not an easy one (chorus: easy one): conclusions......Page 241
IV. Status Planning: The Tshernovits Conference of 1908......Page 244
Introduction......Page 246
Nathan Birnbaum's "second phase": the champion of Yiddish and Jewish cultural autonomy......Page 252
Cultural autonomy for Jews......Page 253
Birnbaum's failure in the elections of 1907......Page 255
Birnbaum and Yiddish: love without limits but without rejection of Hebrew......Page 257
The end of an era......Page 259
Notes......Page 260
Nathan Birnbaum's three Tshernovits Conferences......Page 261
Attracting a following to high culture functions for a language of everyday life: the role of the Tshernovits Conference in the rise of Yiddish......Page 268
The Tshernovits Language Conference: success or failure?......Page 270
Planning the conference......Page 271
Why was the Conference held in Tshernovits?......Page 273
Who attended the Conference?......Page 275
The Conference per se......Page 277
American reactions to the Tshernovits Conference......Page 280
Eastern European reactions to the Conference......Page 282
Reevaluating the Tshernovits Conference: shadow or substance?......Page 285
Theoretical Recapituations......Page 286
Notes......Page 290
The Hebrew response to the Tshernovits Conference......Page 297
V. Stock-Taking: Where are we now?......Page 304
Starting with the future......Page 306
Yiddish in Israel......Page 308
Yiddish in the Soviet Union after glasnost and perestroika......Page 309
Yiddish in the USA, secular and religious......Page 310
On the rumored death of other people's verities (God, modernity, Yiddish)......Page 311
The Max Weinreich heritage......Page 314
Perspective on the sociology of Yiddish......Page 315
Yiddish in small-group interaction: units and parameters......Page 316
Yiddish usage across social strata and sectors......Page 318
Language reflections of sociocultural processes......Page 319
Language constraints and language contributions to world view......Page 320
Multilingualism......Page 321
Language maintenance and language shift......Page 322
Language policy and language planning......Page 324
The communality across all Jewish diaspora languages......Page 326
Some functional and psychological uniquenesses of Yiddish......Page 328
Yiddish as the language of a modern Jewish secularism......Page 331
The strategy of Yiddish......Page 334
Notes......Page 335
An unlikely scenario......Page 338
Language death: objective and subjective......Page 340
When did Yiddish die?......Page 341
How does Yiddish live today?......Page 342
Death: an unsatisfactory and unsavory metaphor......Page 345
When culture-systems shatter......Page 347
What is "archaic" and why?......Page 349
Concluding sentiments......Page 350
Notes......Page 351
What could be the societal function of Yiddish in Israel?......Page 355
References......Page 364
Introduction......Page 390
Israel......Page 392
United States of America......Page 394
In this Appendix:......Page 395
Other Countries/World-Wide......Page 396
Czarist Empire, USSR and Poland......Page 398
Israel......Page 419
Israel 1961......Page 440
USA......Page 453
Other countries/worldwide......Page 505
INDEX......Page 506