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Towards a New Understanding of Jewish Language in the Twenty‐First Century
Author(s) -
Benor Sarah Bunin
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00108.x
Subject(s) - judaism , yiddish , sociolinguistics , linguistics , repertoire , phenomenon , dialectology , haskalah , sociology , psychology , jewish studies , history , epistemology , literature , philosophy , art , archaeology
This article outlines some debates and issues in the field of Jewish linguistics and offers a research agenda for comparative analysis of Jewish languages. This agenda builds on previous research, especially on Yiddish and Judezmo (Judeo‐Spanish), but also incorporates data on the language of contemporary Jews (especially Jewish English), as well as theories and methods from variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Based on a new understanding of Jewish language as a distinctively Jewish repertoire rather than a separate system, this research agenda aims to provide a more nuanced and unified understanding of the phenomenon of Jewish language.