Gradual Language Death: The Case Of Bessarabian Yiddish

Timofey Arkhangelskiy () and Natalia Tyshkevich ()
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Timofey Arkhangelskiy: National Research University Higher School of Economics
Natalia Tyshkevich: National Research University Higher School of Economics

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: In this paper we present our fieldwork data from the Bessarabian Yiddish, formerly the main language of the Jewish population of Moldova. Social upheavals of the 20th century caused huge migration of Jews from Eastern Europe, leading to separation of survivors from their community. This situation has dramatically influenced their linguistic knowledge of Yiddish, showing structural changes characteristic for language loss. These changes include significant increase in variability and structural simplification due to paradigmatic leveling and influence of the dominant language. The paper presents two case studies that investigate these effects on different levels of language organization: the diminutive formation model and the periphrastic verbal construction

Keywords: language death; Yiddish; diminutives; periphrastic constructions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-his
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Published in WP BRP Series: Linguistics / LNG, December 2015, pages 1-17

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:36/lng/2015

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