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Why There May Have Been Contacts between Slovenes and Jews before 1000 A.D.

Picture of Medieval Jews

Why There May Have Been Contacts between Slovenes and Jews before 1000 A.D.

Paul, Wexler (Tel-Aviv University)

Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies, 1, KU ScholarWorks, The University of Kansas, (1997)

Abstract

The traditional view of Jewish settlement history in Europe posits migrations from the Mediterranean region through northern France and Italy into Bavaria and the Rhineland by the end of the first millennium. The Judaized dialects of German (known as Yiddish) were allegedly created when these Romance-speaking Jews switched toregional German dialects. Yiddish has traditionally been defined asa Judaized form of High German dialects. This paper will demonstrate how linguistic evidence allows us to postulate an innovative theory about the migration of Jews (both Palestinian emigres and indigenous European converts) — namely, through the Balkans into the bilingual Sorbo-German lands by the late first millennium A.D. In this view, Yiddish was created by Balkan Jewish emigres speaking one or more Balkan languages: Romance, Greek and/or South Slavic. Contrary to the common view, Yiddish is best seen as a dialect of Sorbian which eventually became relexified to Middle High German (thus resulting in a Slavic language with an overwhelming German vocabulary). The article specifically emphasizes evidence from the Slovene territory.

Abstract – In Slovenian

Običajno se domneva, da so se Židje do konca prvega tisočletja selili iz Sredozemlja prek severne Francije in Italije na Bavarsko in v Porenje. Judaizirana nemška narečja (znana kot jidiš) naj bi se oblikovala, ko so ti romansko govoreči Židje prevzeli nemška narečja. Tako se jidiš običajno pojmuje kot judaizirana oblika visokonemških narečij. V prispevku je pokazano, kako jezikoslovni dokazi omogočajo vzpostavitev nove teorije o selitvi Židov (tako palestinskih emigrantov kot domorodnih evropskih spreobrnjencev), namreč da so sedo poznega prvega tisočletja n.š. prek Balkana selili na dvojezična lužiškosrbsko govoreča ozemlja. S tega stališča bi morali jidiš oblikovati balkanski židovski emigranti, ki so govorili enega ali več balkanskih jezikov: romansko, grško in/ali južnoslovansko. V nasprotju z običajnim pojmovanjem je na jidiš najbolje gledati kot na narečje lužiščine, ki je bilo naposled preleksikalizirano s srednjevisokonemškim besedjem (kar je na koncu imelo za posledico slovanski jezik s prevladujočim nemškim besediščem). Prispevek poudarja dokaze, ki izhajajo s slovenskega ozemlja.

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Click here to read this article from Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies

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