Daria Vakhrushova – författare

Elye Falkovitsh’s grammar, first published in Moscow in 1940, is one of the most important reference works of Yiddish linguistics. The new edition makes this rare work available for the first time since its publication. The work includes a theoretical description of phonetics, graphemics, lexis, and grammar and provides a comprehensive account of modern Yiddish. A formalist and synchronic description of the language system is supplemented by passages on the history of Yiddish and the development of individual forms. A central focus is on presenting Yiddish in the context of general linguistics.For this new edition, the Soviet orthography of the original text has been adjusted to conform to the now standard YIVO orthography. The edition includes a commentary that serves as a reference work for the various grammatical themes considered and sets out Falkovitsh’s approach in the context of contemporary Yiddish linguistics.Our edition sheds light on an important aspect of Soviet Yiddish linguistics that has been largely overlooked due to ideological prejudice. Four essays contextualize Falkovitsh’s life and work both linguistically and historically, situating his grammar in relation to Yiddish language projects inside and outside the Soviet Union.

One of the essential pillars of Yiddish literature since its beginnings in the 13th century has been translation. In the 20th century, the desire to belong to world literature stimulated Yiddish intellectuals to translate works of foreign literature into Yiddish – in a brilliant display of literary force. With a focus on Yiddish cultural spaces in the Soviet Union and Poland, the present volume is devoted to the transnational and ‘translational’ state of Yiddish literature in various places and periods. Alongside reflections on the craft of translation, the volume includes accounts of literary translations and the practices of self-translation and collective, intermedial and cultural translation. Twelve scholarly contributions illuminate the function and meaning of translation for this minority language as a Jewish national language and for Yiddish literature as world literature.