126-417 Yiddish and German: The Uneasy Relatives

This subject is taught in German.

37.5 points of second/third-year subjects in German language. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed 37.5 points of European studies at second/third year, see Prerequisites.

Yiddish, the language of the Central and Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazim) is a language that has developed out of medieval German. During its development it has incorporated many Hebrew elements, such as its writing system and a lot of its vocabulary, but also elements of many Central and Eastern European languages. During their long co-existence as neighbouring languages as well as within a diglossia situation, Yiddish and German experienced a lot of mutual exchanges as well as other phenomena of language contact. The subject is an introduction to the linguistic structure and the cultural and sociological situation of historical and contemporary Yiddish from the viewpoint of German linguistics, sociolinguistics and contact linguistics. The centuries of symbiosis between Yiddish and different standards of German as well as the role of Yiddish as a gateway for the transfer of linguistic material from third languages into German sublanguages such as regional and group-specific varieties will provide an understanding of the interaction between neighbouring languages.