Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:13:15 +0200
From: Julia Ulrich <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Paul Wexler: Historical Ling/Language Description
Mouton de Gruyter
Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs
Paul Wexler
TWO-TIERED RELEXIFICATION IN YIDDISH
Jews, Sorbs, Khazars, and the Kiev-Polessian Dialect
2002. 23 x 15,5 cm. xi, 713 pages. Cloth.
Euro 128.00 / sFr 205 / approx. USD 128.00
ISBN 3-11-017258-5
(Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 136)
This study applies the relexification hypothesis to the genesis of
Yiddish. The author believes Yiddish began as a Sorbian dialect
relexified to High German between the 9th-12th centuries. The present study, rich in data (much of
it presented as entries to a projected etymological dictionary), also suggests new diagnostic tests
for identifying relexification. The presence in Yiddish of East Slavic features (e.g. pseudo-dual,
gender and plural suffix assignment) suggests that the descendants of the Judaized Khazars also
relexified Kiev-Polessian (northern Ukrainian and southern Belarussian) in the 15th century to
Yiddish and German. Yiddish is thus a mixed West-East
Slavic language and the best proof that Khazar Jews were a major component in the ethnogenesis of
the Ashkenazic Jews. Two dramatic findings are that by comparing Middle High German and Slavic
vocabulary and derivational machinery, it is possible (a) to "predict" with high accuracy which
German components could be accepted by Yiddish and (b) whether lexicon was most likely acquired in
the first or second relexification phase or thereafter. Blockage of many
Germanisms also necessitated reliance on Hebrew and invented Hebroidisms. Thus the study also
contributes to an understanding of the genesis of (Slavic) Modern Hebrew, relexified from Yiddish in
the 19th century.
Contents:
Introduction
1. The Relexification Hypothesis in Yiddish
2. Approaches to the study of Yiddish and other Jewish languages
3. Criteria for selecting German and Hebrew-Aramaic and for retaining Slavic elements in Yiddish
3.1. Component blending in Yiddish
3.2. The status of synonyms in Yiddish
3.3. Constructing an etymological dictionary for a relexified language
4. Evidence for the two-tiered relexification hypothesis in Yiddish: From Upper Sorbian to German
and from Kiev-Polessian to Yiddish
4.1. Sixteen observations about the relexification hypothesis in Yiddish
4.2. German morphemes and morpheme sets fully accepted by Yiddish
4.3. German morpheme sets blocked fully or in part in Yiddish by the Slavic substrata
4.4. The status of individual German morphemes and semantically related sets in Yiddish
4.5. Slavic gender and markers of plural and dual in Yiddish
4.6. Unrelexified Upper Sorbian and Kiev-Polessian elements in Yiddish
5. Future Challenges
For more information please contact the publisher:
Mouton de Gruyter
Genthiner Str. 13
10785 Berlin, Germany
Fax: +49 30 26005 222
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.degruyter.com
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