Explorations in the history of the Semitic Component in Yiddish
Yiddish arose in Central Europe. Nevertheless, the language includes a Semitic Component comprising thousands of lexical items that is synchronically fused with the Germanic Component within Yiddish. Theories from the sixteenth century to the present have contended that Semitisms entered a previously (nearly) wholly Germanic language from sacred Hebrew and. Aramaic texts used in the traditional Yiddish speaking civilization known as Ashkenaz. The thesis challenges the text theory. The alternative proposed is the continual transmission theory claiming that the Semitic Component entered Europe in the vernacular of the original settlers who were, retroactively speaking, the first Ashkenazim. Questions concerning the origin of the Semitic Component are also relevant to the determination of the relative age of Yiddish and to the contested status of the protolanguage within historical linguistics. The Semitic Component of all known Yiddish dialects is characterized by a system of long and short vowels in open syllables, reduced to a system of short vowels only in closed syllabic position. The resulting morphophonemic alternations and unique segmental distribution are shared neither by the Germanic Component nor
Katz, Dovid
Linguistics
Explorations in the history of the Semitic Component in Yiddish. Yiddish arose in Central Europe. Nevertheless, the language includes a Semitic Component comprising thousands of lexical items that is synchronically fused with the Germanic Component within Yiddish. Theories from the sixteenth century to the present have contended that Semitisms entered a previously (nearly) wholly Germanic language from sacred Hebrew and. Aramaic texts used in the traditional Yiddish speaking civilization known as Ashkenaz. The thesis challenges the text theory. The alternative proposed is the continual transmission theory claiming that the Semitic Component entered Europe in the vernacular of the original settlers who were, retroactively speaking, the first Ashkenazim. Questions concerning the origin of the Semitic Component are also relevant to the determination of the relative age of Yiddish and to the contested status of the protolanguage within historical linguistics. The Semitic Component of all known Yiddish dialects is characterized by a system of long and short vowels in open syllables, reduced to a system of short vowels only in closed syllabic position. The resulting morphophonemic alternations and unique segmental distribution are shared neither by the Germanic Component nor
explorations history semitic component arise central_europe nevertheless language include semitic component comprise thousand lexical_item synchronically fuse germanic component within theories present contend enter previously nearly wholly germanic language sacred hebrew and aramaic text use traditional speaking civilization know challenge text theory alternative propose continual transmission theory claim semitic component enter europe vernacular original settler speak first questions concern origin semitic component also relevant determination relative age contest status within historical_linguistics semitic component know dialect characterize system long short vowel open syllable reduce system short vowel close syllabic position result alternation unique segmental distribution share neither germanic component