Max Weinreich
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Max Weinreich (Russian: Мейер Лазаревич Вейнрейх; April 22, 1894 Kuldīga, Russian Empire, now Latvia — January 29, 1969, New York City, USA) was a linguist, specializing in the Yiddish language, and the father of the linguist Uriel Weinreich.
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[edit] Biography
Max Weinreich (Meyer Lazarevich Veynreykh) began his studies in a German school in Kuldiga, transferring to a Russian gymnasium in Libava after four years. He then lived in Dvinsk and Łódź. Between 1909 and 1912 he resided in Saint Petersburg, where he attended I.G. Eizenbet's private Jewish gymnasium for boys.[1] He was raised in a German-speaking family but became fascinated with Yiddish and founded the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (originally called the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut — Yiddish Scientific Institute) in his apartment in Vilnius in 1925, and was its director from 1925 to 1939.
Weinreich was in Denmark with his wife, Regina Shabad Weinreich (the daughter of a notable doctor and Jewish leader in Vilna Zemach Shabad), and older son, Uriel, when war broke out in 1939. Regina returned to Vilnius, but Max and Uriel stayed abroad, moving to New York City in March 1940. His wife and younger son Gabriel joined them there during the brief period when Vilnius was in independent Lithuania. Weinreich became a professor of Yiddish at City College and re-established YIVO in New York.
Weinreich is often cited as the author of a criterion for distinguishing between languages and dialects: "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" ("אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט", "a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot"), but he was explicitly quoting an auditor at one of his lectures.
[edit] References
[edit] Publications
In English:
- History of the Yiddish Language (Volumes 1 and 2) ed. Paul (Hershl) Glasser. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.[1]
- Hitler's professors: the Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes Against the Jewish People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.[2]
- History of the Yiddish language. trans. Shlomo Noble, with the assistance of Joshua A. Fishman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. [Footnotes omitted.]
In Yiddish and German:
- Bilder fun der yidisher literaturgeshikhte fun di onheybn biz Mendele Moykher-Sforim, 1928.
- Das Jiddische Wissenschaftliche Institut ("Jiwo") die wissenschaftliche Zentralstelle des Ostjudentums, 1931.
- Fun beyde zaytn ployt: dos shturemdike lebn fun Uri Kovnern, dem nihilist, 1955
- Geschichte der jiddischen Sprachforschung. herausgegeben von Jerold C. Frakes, 1993
- Di geshikhte fun beyzn beyz, 1937.
- Geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh: bagrifn, faktn, metodn, 1973.
- Hitlers profesorn : heylek fun der daytsher visnshaft in daytshland farbrekhns kegn yidishn folk. Nyu-York: Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, Historishe sektsye, 1947.
- Mekhires-Yosef: ... aroysgenumen fun seyfer "Tam ve-yashar" un fun andere sforim ..., 1923.
- Der Onheyb: zamlbukh far literatur un visnshaft, redaktirt fun D. Aynhorn, Sh. Gorelik, M. Vaynraykh, 1922.
- Oysgeklibene shriftn, unter der redaktsye fun Shmuel Rozhanski, 1974.
- Der oytser fun der yidisher shprakh fun Nokhem Stutshkov; unter der redaktsye fun Maks Vaynraykh, c. 1950
- Praktishe gramatik fun der yidisher shprakh F. Haylperin un M. Vaynraykh, 1929.
- Shtaplen fir etyudn tsu der yidisher shprakhvisnshaft un literaturgeshikhte, 1923.
- Shturemvint bilder fun der yidisher geshikhte in zibtsntn yorhundert
- Di shvartse pintelekh. Vilne: Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, 1939.
- Di Yidishe visnshaft in der heyntiker tsayt. Nyu-York: 1941.
[edit] Festschrift
- For Max Weinreich on his seventieth birthday; studies in Jewish languages, literature, and society, 1964.
[edit] Sources
- David E. Fishman, The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture, University of Pittsburgh Press (2005), ISBN 0822942720.
- Gershon David Hundert, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, Yale University Press (2008), ISBN 0300119038.
