M Friday, August 22, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Dr. Max Weinreich's 'History of the Yiddish
Language,' a Monumental Linguistic Treasure
Dr. Max Weinreich left an of the notably scholarly
indelible legacy: "History of work was made by the
the Yiddish Language" former University of Michi-
(University of Chicago gan Prof. - Herbert Paper,
Press) is now available in an who said: "Max Weinreich
English translation.
did not limit himself to Yid-
Dr. Weinreich (1894- dish, but surveyed all
1969) made immense con- Jewish languages and laid
tributions to the the foundation for the field
preservations of Yiddish as of Jewish intralinguistics."
The translators, in a
a spoken and published lan-
guage. He authored a foreword, point out that
number of important works "Max Weinreich introduced
in Yiddish while a student a new concept into the study
at St. Petersburg and Mar- of Jewish cultural history:
burg universities and in the the way of the SHaS (Shisha
Sedarim — the "six orders"
years that followed.
In his lifetime he was into which the Mishna is di-
among the initiators who vided). This represents a
encouraged the publication Jewish world view, a dialec-
of the Yiddish dictionaries tic, a mode of living, a mode
and encyclopedias, aimed at of practice and a mode of
contributing to the speaking; in sum, a whole
preservation of Yiddish.
culture complex."
This history first was
His University of
Chicago-published "His- published in Yiddish by
tory of the Yiddish Lan- YIVO in 1973. The
guage" appears in a English translation ap-
scholarly translation by pears posthumously.
In his treatment of the
the YIVO researcher and
translator Shlomo Noble _ various Jewish dialects, his
and Yeshiva University multi-language studies, in-
Prof. Joshua A. Fishman. cluding Aramaic, as well as
The Weinreich history is the Ladino and other lan-
recognized as much more guage experiences, Dr.
than a history of a lan- Weinreich touched exten-
guage. It is an account of the sively upon the use of the
role and progress of Hebrew and the role of
Ashkenazic Jewry. Then Loshn-koydesh. Here is a
there is the linguistic fascinating excerpt from his
structure of the Yiddish evaluative comments on the
subject:
language that is so -ex-
We are dealing here with
pressively defined in this
Loshn-koydesh, not He-
work.
An important evaluation brew; we shall discuss the
period following the rise of
the modern sector sepa-
rately. The term loshn-
koydesh' (the sacred
tongue) suggests the direc-
tion in which to look for the
division of functions be-
tween the two languages of
traditional Ashkenaz.
Scrupulous Jews do not dis-
tinguish between Whole
and Merged Hebrew; for
them the Loshn-koydesh
component of Yiddish is also
Loshn-koydesh.
"In the bathhouse or in
the toilet they will not utter
the word `shabes' (Sabbath)
or `arba-kanfes' (fringed
garment); instead they will
say 'der zibeter' (the
seventh; 7.25) or 'di fer
(the four corners). But such
German-component words
as `yortsayt-likht' (memo-
rial candle) or `reynikeyt'
(scroll of the Torah) will also
be avoided in unclean or
improper places; on the
other hand, no one will hesi-
tate to utter the word 'ganef'
(thief) or `shoyte' (fool) in
these places.
"The difference then is
not between Loshn -
koydesh - component lin-
guistic units and non-
Loshn - koydesh - com-
ponent units; in some
situations designations
of objects associated with
sanctity are avoided.
Why then are the words
`der zibeter' or `di fir ekn'
so uttered? Because these
are not normal words of
the spoken language, not
even alternative words;
they are explicitly substi-
tutes.
"Hence it is necessary to
refute the assumption that
since the mediated lan-
guage is crowned with the
name Loshn-koydesh (sac-
red tongue) the other lan-
guage is loshn khol' (a secu-
lar tongue)."
Yiddish as it relates to the
Ashkenazic image has an
interesting definition in
Weinreich's history. He
wrote:
"Without communal
separateness there is no
separate language; hence
the rise of Ashkenaz was the
precondition for the rise of
Yiddish. Small groups of
immigrants become ab-
sorbed after a generation or
two in the mass of the sur-
rounding population, and
thereby also lose their own
language.
the
told,
"All
Ashkenazim were merely
tiny specks scattered
over large areas of the
non-Jewish world. Then
how, we must inquire,
has Ashkenaz become
more than 'Jews in Ger-
many?'
"Up to the 18th Century
this was not called in ques-
tion, neither among the
.
Jews themselves nor among
their neighbors. The Jews
had been a separate com-
munity from time immemo-
rial, and so they were also a
separate community in the -
German lands, not merely a
sum of individuals."
How does Yiddish relate
to German and wherein is
there an origin? There is
much in Weinreich's history
on this subject, and there is
a definition in this brief
quotation:
"Arriving in areas where
variants of German were
spoken, the Jews created
their own language. This
language preserved frag-
ments of Hebrew — fre-
quently in greatly modified
form — and also elements of
the vernaculars that had
been brought along. It in-
corporated parts of the lan-
guage of the coterritorial
population, but the stock
material was so trans-
formed that it became in-
digenously Jewish. And
when the major part of the
Yiddish-speaking commu-
nity moved many hundreds
of miles away, it took along
the language, developed it,
and later even transported
it overseas."
Just as Dr. Weinreich •
utilized the humorous for
his definitive explana-
tions of the Yiddish lan-
guage's influence, so also
does he indicate his re-
sort to the SHaS tradi-
tions of pursuing Talmud
traditions in emphasizing
"the immutability of a
custom."
Humor is spiced with
semantics in Dr. Weir
reich's delving into the oi
gin of the lighter vein lin-
guistics. The many anec-
dotes add to an understand-
ing of the Ashkenazic traits.
The many noted per-
sonalities in Yiddish lan-
guage history serve well to
illustrate the historic in the
Weinreich approach to the
basic achievements in lan-
guage development and to
the literary qualities of the
popular tongue.
Peretz, Mendele, Sholem
Aleichem, Sholem Asch, a
score of Yiddish literary
notables are quoted and re-
ferred to, making the his-
tory a complete review of
the language and those who
enriched it culturally, as
literature, as a spoken
tongue.
Dr. Weinreich's history of
Yiddish is one of the great
classics left as a legacy for
generations to come by a
great scholar whose life's
work was imbedded in the
analyses in this notable
work. In an era when great
efforts are beilig made to
give new life to Yiddish in a
campaign of language revi-
val, the studies researched
in this book make the effort
unmatched in literary his-
tory.
`Inside the Soviet Empire' Examines Reality of Russian Life
By ALLEN WARSEN
In "Travelling to Tbilisi,"
the opening chapter of "In-
side the Soviet Empire: the
Myth and the Reality"
(Times Books), author Nora
Beloff writes: For me, the
journey was a shattering
experience and I believe I
found out many things
which are not widely known
in the West and which
throw some light on those
corners of Soviet society
which the Russians prefer
to keep dark.
"I returned with the con-
viction that the secrecy
which still blankets the
Soviet Union is accounted
;or only partly by their fear
of foreign spies. The real
risk is that outsiders may
observe and expose the
backwardness (of) the
Soviet social and economic
(though not military) appa-
ratus."
It should be noted that the
author's travelling compan-
ion, guide and interpreter
was a Czech-born student,
Margaret Moss. Together
they travelled unescorted
into some of the Soviet
compromise between Negro
Union's far-flung outposts.
Lvov, also known as jazz and Russian schmaltz."
Lemberg, was their first
Kiev, the capital of the
stop. According to Miss Ukraine, was their next
Beloff, Lvov underwent a stop. There, they visited,
complete metamorphosis inter alia, two memorials:
during and following the War and the Babi Yar.
World War II. Between The first, a mammoth
the two world wars, the granite obelisk, is erected
city was an integral part behind the tomb of the Un-
of Poland and was inha- known Soldier in the Park
bited by Poles, Jews and of Eternal Glory where on a
Germans. In 1939, under tiled platform "groups of lit-
the Molotov-Ribbentrop tle girls were parading for
Pact, it was allocated to 15 minutes at a time.
"They wore white or-
the Soviet Union. ("The
record of this shameful gandy ribbons in their
deal is deleted from hair, navy blue skirts and
Polish and Soviet history khaki blouses buttoned
to the chin. Goosestep-
books.")
At present, Lvov's resi- ping rhythmically up and
dents are Ukrainians and down, they were un-
Russians since the Jews flinchingly solemn as the
perished in the Holocaust Grenadier Guard.
and the Poles and Germans
The other memorial, a
plaque, is dedicated to the
were resettled.
In the hotel where Miss victims of Fascist crimes." It
Beloff and her companion does not mention that the
were staying, they were re- vast majority of the tens of
fused to be served refresh- thousands of victims were
ments in their room because Jews.
they were not "grafins"
In connection with Babi
(countesses). And in the Yar, Miss Beloff relates this
same hotel's restaurant illuminating story: "When
"the band was playing a Edward Crankshaw
(famous English writer) vis-
ited the town (Kiev) in 1957,
soon after it was re-opened
to foreigners, he asked to be
taken to Babi Yar. At first,
his well turned-out Kiev-
born guide pretended he
had never heard of the
place. When Crankshaw in-
sisted, the man asked, "Why
do you want to go and see a
lot of dead Jews? There are
far too many here still alive
. . .
Before the Nazi invasion,
the author notes, there were
whole regions of the coun-
tryside populated by Jews.
"Today there are no more
Jewish villages and no
more fiddlers on the roof."
Zaporozhye (pre-
revolutionary Alexan-
drovsk) was the first
industrial city the author
and Miss Moss visited.
A center of automobile
manufacturing and textile
works, Zaporozhye gained
notoriety for its squalor,
pollution and Russia's
largest Lenin statue. Even
its river, the Dniepr, about
whose bright blue waters
songs were composed and
stories told, turned red from
contamination and was
nicknamed "Red River."
Though physically con-
taminated, Zaporozhye is
"ideologically pure." There
the nation-wide Lenin cult
is especially strong: "After
school graduation, or at a
wedding, girls in virginal
white come and lay carna-
tions at the idol's feet."
They visited next
Rostov-on-Don where the
author was surprised to
learn that students of jour-
nalism at the University of
Rostov believed that Bap-
tists sacrificed babies for
ritualistic purposes. Recal-
ling that for generations
anti-Semites have peddled
the story that "Jews kill
babies for the feast of
Passover," she asked the
students, "Perhaps you
were told this terrible lie
about Jews?" "No, not the
Jews," they replied.
Revealing is the
author's account of the
status of Soviet women.
According to the Soviet
Constitution, equality of
the sexes is guaranteed,
and discrimination in the
economic field is forbid-
den.
Despite these pro-
nouncements, the author
proves the opposite to be the
case. For instance; at road
repairs "the shovels were
always wielded by women
. . . the men sat at the
machines and gave orders."
"The men drive the trains;
the women repair the rails."
Stated briefly: "The
males dominate every in-
stitution from the Polit-
buro, down to the smallest
factory and farm."
The author summarizes
her conclusions in the
"Epilogue." They include
the following:
"The image: a revolu-
tionary society breaking
with the past. The reality:
an organism with inbuilt
resistance to change and
a younger generation
which looks to the West
for anything new and ex-
citing.
- "The image: a country
more peace-loving and
dovish than any in the
world. The reality: little
girls with ribbons in their
hair, goosestepping with
guns in front of war memo-.
rials. A country, too, which
indisputably spends a far-
higher proportion of its re-
sources and labor on its
armed forces than ar -
Western power."
"The image: a country
which champions - natior
liberation movements.
reality: a sternly unitarian
state which imposes Rus-
sian rule on nationally di-
verse populations . . . and
openly practices educa-
tional discrimination
against Jews."
A final note: At the end of
their journey at the Hunga-
rian border the two women
were detained for 24 hours
by the KGB, interrogated,
searched, accused of crimi-
nal offense, and forced to
write diaries of their trip
with apologies to the Soviet
government
The British Foreign
Office complained about
this outrage to the Soviet
authorities. Their reply: it
was a routine frontier
check.