My Desert is Hotter: The Poetry of Rivke Basman Ben-Hayim

Annotated translation from Yiddish to English of Rivke Basman Ben-Hayim's poems

An Annotation of Zaretski's "Praktishe Yidishe Gramatik".

Praktishe yidishe gramatik is far more than a comprehensive compilation of facts about Yiddish--though it is that too. It was, and is, interesting for its innovativeness and for the data it presents. Sometimes the explanations for the data are only partially validated; sometimes there is only a hint of a possible explanation. As Praktishe yidishe gramatik's achievements are manifold, so the aims of this critical annotation are manifold. At times we discuss the cross references that occur within the grammar; at times we summarize the general discussion and mention more recent references to the same or similar questions. Wherever Zaretski's innovativeness bears comment, we stop and comment. We point out, for example how Zaretski uses the notion of cyclical rule in phonology and how he presages modern developments by suggesting re-write rules that convert "underlying" semantic structure into surface sentences. Wherever Zaretski presents only partial validation for his hypothesis, we subject his hypothesis to more complete validation. Thus we examine his head-modifier explanation for stress placement in noun compounds in the light of more data to see when it holds up-- and when it does not. Wherever Zaretski mentions topics that are of interest and then ab and ons them, we attempt to pursue them somewhat further. Thus, when Zartski says that certain words are used to convey the speaker's attitude, we attempt to specify the attitude and see what syntactic and semantic properties are shared by the whole class of attitudinals. and finally, wherever Zaretski presents data that need explanation and outlines a possible explanation, we pursue his suggestion to see where it leads us. Thus, we find that by using his notion of 'place' in word order and attempting to account for the data he presents, we come upon a functional explanation of word order and a new underst and ing of the notion of topic in Yiddish.Ph.D.LinguisticsUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159801/1/8402346.pd

Germanic heritage languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change

This book presents new empirical findings about Germanic heritage varieties spoken in North America: Dutch, German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, West Frisian and Yiddish, and varieties of English spoken both by heritage speakers and in communities after language shift. The volume focuses on three critical issues underlying the notion of ‘heritage language’: acquisition, attrition and change. The book offers theoretically-informed discussions of heritage language processes across phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics and the lexicon, in addition to work on sociolinguistics, historical linguistics and contact settings. With this, the volume also includes a variety of frameworks and approaches, synchronic and diachronic. Most European Germanic languages share some central linguistic features, such as V2, gender and agreement in the nominal system, and verb inflection. As minority languages faced with a majority language like English, similarities and differences emerge in patterns of variation and change in these heritage languages. These empirical findings shed new light on mechanisms and processes