The advantages of a blockage-based etymological dictionary for proven or putative relexified languages
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Paul Wexler
Abstract
Yiddish is generally regarded as a form of High German that underwent extreme Slavicization over some seven centuries. I believe, in contrast, that Yiddish is a mixed Slavic language that was created by two separate processes of relexification between the 9th–15th centuries: from Upper Sorbian and Kiev-Polessian (contemporary North Ukrainian and Southern Belarusian) to Middle High German and, secondarily, Classical Hebrew. The relexification was described in great detail in earlier studies of mine. The present paper shows (1) why an etymological dictionary of a relexified language must be radically different from that of a non-relexified language and (2) why such a dictionary is an ideal way to demonstrate the fact of relexification.
Abstract
Yiddish is generally regarded as a form of High German that underwent extreme Slavicization over some seven centuries. I believe, in contrast, that Yiddish is a mixed Slavic language that was created by two separate processes of relexification between the 9th–15th centuries: from Upper Sorbian and Kiev-Polessian (contemporary North Ukrainian and Southern Belarusian) to Middle High German and, secondarily, Classical Hebrew. The relexification was described in great detail in earlier studies of mine. The present paper shows (1) why an etymological dictionary of a relexified language must be radically different from that of a non-relexified language and (2) why such a dictionary is an ideal way to demonstrate the fact of relexification.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Structure
- The phonetics of tone in Saramaccan 9
- Tracing the origin of modality in the creoles of Suriname 29
- Modelling Creole Genesis 61
- The restructuring of tense/aspect systems in creole formation 85
- Syntactic properties of negation in Chinook Jargon, with a comparison of two source languages 111
- Sri Lankan Malay morphosyntax 135
- Sri Lanka Malay 159
- The advantages of a blockage-based etymological dictionary for proven or putative relexified languages 183
-
Part II: Variation
- A fresh look at habitual be in AAVE 203
- Oral narrative and tense in urban Bahamian Creole English 225
- Aspects of variation in educated Nigerian Pidgin 243
- A linguistic time-capsule 263
- The progressive in the spoken Papiamentu of Aruba 291
- Was Haitian ever more like French? 315
- The late transfer of serial verb constructions as stylistic variants in Saramaccan creole 337
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Structure
- The phonetics of tone in Saramaccan 9
- Tracing the origin of modality in the creoles of Suriname 29
- Modelling Creole Genesis 61
- The restructuring of tense/aspect systems in creole formation 85
- Syntactic properties of negation in Chinook Jargon, with a comparison of two source languages 111
- Sri Lankan Malay morphosyntax 135
- Sri Lanka Malay 159
- The advantages of a blockage-based etymological dictionary for proven or putative relexified languages 183
-
Part II: Variation
- A fresh look at habitual be in AAVE 203
- Oral narrative and tense in urban Bahamian Creole English 225
- Aspects of variation in educated Nigerian Pidgin 243
- A linguistic time-capsule 263
- The progressive in the spoken Papiamentu of Aruba 291
- Was Haitian ever more like French? 315
- The late transfer of serial verb constructions as stylistic variants in Saramaccan creole 337
- Index 373
