Gesprochenes Jiddisch

This first book in the -Ancillary Study Series- accompanying the ongoing -Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry- provides a comprehensive and highly concrete introduction to the full range of linguistic, cultural, religious and historical topics inherent in the study of Yiddish-language documents. It takes its bearings from traditions of linguistic and cultural studies personified by such scholars as U. Weinreich, Labov and Herzog, seeks to break down unnecessary barriers between disciplines and offers an abundance of material of interest to students of German, history, cultural history and religion. -It would be hard to imagine a sub-discipline of linguistics that would not profit immeasurably from the stimuli that this book has to offer and equally difficult to picture a student of Yiddish who would not be encouraged by it to attain to a more balanced appreciation of the relation between the ideal and reality both in theoretical and practical terms.- (Erika Timm, Preface)"