Five. The Merchants’ Tongue

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. List of Illustrations ix
4. Preface and Acknowledgments xi
5. Note on Spelling and Translations xvii
6. Introduction. A Jewish Language in a Christian World 1
7. Part I. Yiddish in the Service of Christian Theology
8. Introduction. Christian Hebraism and the Study of Yiddish in Early Modern Europe 19
9. One. Yiddish in the Judenmission 22
10. Two. “From the Jews’ own books” Yiddish Literature, Christian Readers 39
11. Three. Blasphemy, Curses, and Insults Yiddish and the Jews’ “Hidden Transcript” 48
12. Four. Ancilla theologiae 65
13. Conclusion. The Study of Yiddish and Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Modern Germany 76
14. Part II. Yiddish in the Service of Jewish Deception
15. Introduction. Yiddish in the Socioeconomic Sphere 81
16. Five. The Merchants’ Tongue 83
17. Six. The Thieves’ Jargon 99
18. Conclusion. Yiddish as Antilanguage 118
19. Part III. The Discourse on Yiddish in Early Modern Germany
20. Introduction. Between Hebrew and German: The Depictions of Yiddish in Christian Writings 125
21. Seven. German of the Jews 127
22. Eight. Yiddish and German in the Judenmission 155
23. Nine. Christian Hebrew and Jewish Yiddish in Early Modern Germany 172
24. Conclusion. Yiddish-Speaking Orientals: Language Shift and the “Verbesserung der Juden” 185
25. Conclusion 191
26. Notes 205
27. Bibliography 237
28. Index 255