The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth CenturyWiener, Leo
History
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Wiener, Leo
Yiddish literature -- History and criticism
Various means have been suggested by the writers for the enrichment of
the Judeo-German vocabulary. Some lovers of Hebrew have had the bad
taste to propose the formation of all new words on a Semitic basis, and
have actually brought forth literary productions in that hybrid
language. Others again have advised the introduction of all foreign
words commonly in use among other nations. But the classical writers,
among whom Abramowitsch is foremost, have not stopped to consider what
would be the best expedient, but have coined words in conformity with
the spirit of their dialect, steering a middle course between the
extremes suggested by others. In America, where the majority of the
writers knew more of German than their native vernacular, the literary
dialect has come to resemble the literary German, and the English
environment has caused the infusion of a number of English terms for
familiar objects. But on the whole the language of the better writers
differs in America but little from that of their former home. There is,
naturally, a large divergence to be found in the language, which ranges
from the almost pure German of the prayers and, in modern times, of the
poems of Winchevsky, to the language abounding in Russicisms of
Dlugatsch, and in Hebraisms of Linetzki, from the pure dialects of the
best writers to the corrupt forms of Dick and Meisach, and the even
worse Jargon of Seiffert, but in all these there is no greater variety
than is to be found in all newly formed languages.[21] The most recent
example of such variety is furnished by the Bulgarian, where the writers
of the last fifty years have wavered between the native dialects with
their large elements of Turkish and Greek origin, a purified form of the
same, from which the foreign infection has been eliminated, approaches
to the Old Slavic of a thousand years ago, and, within the last few
years, a curious mixture with the literary Russian. Judeo-German not
only does not suffer by such a comparison, but really gains by it, for
all the best writers have uniformly based their diction on their native
dialects.
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