Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish

我们研究的首要目标是首次深入描述全球哈西德派社区使用的意第绪语的语法特征，分析其对语言学理论的影响，并以斯坦福德山社区为案例研究调查哈西德派意第绪语的社会语言学背景。意第绪语是过去一千年东欧犹太人的日常语言。在两次世界大战期间，意第绪语由三种传统方言和一种标准化方言组成。大屠杀和随之而来的历史事件导致说意第绪语的人数大幅减少，以至于它已成为一种濒临灭绝的语言。今天，以意第绪语为主的是哈西德派（犹太教中一个严格的正统精神运动）的追随者。说意第绪语的哈西德派社区分布在全球，最大的中心在以色列的耶路撒冷和特拉维夫地区，美国的纽约地区，比利时的安特卫普和伦敦的斯坦福德山。即使在学者中，也很少有人意识到意第绪语在这些哈西德派社区中被用作日常语言。因此，关于哈西德派意第绪语使用的研究很少，没有一个提供详细的语法描述。我们的项目建立在对斯坦福德山哈西德派意第绪语语法的初步研究基础上，该研究揭示了许多与传统方言和标准意第绪语截然不同的特征，表明这是一个独特的意第绪语变体，有自己的规则。我们提出的项目的第一个目标是通过对全球六个哈西德派社区（包括绝大多数哈西德派意第绪语使用者）使用的意第绪语口语和书面语进行深入研究来扩展这些发现，以探索这些社区的语言是否构成一个有凝聚力的语言系统，哈西德派意第绪语。在我们的初步研究中，我们发现了一个相互关联的语法变化网络，强烈表明它们之间存在隐含关系。这种语法转变发生的速度如此之快（在一代人的时间内），如此普遍（改变语言的类型特征），以至于它构成了一种非常罕见的现象。我们的第二个目标是考察这种迅速、普遍和相互关联的变化对语言学理论的意义。我们项目的第三个目标是，以斯坦福山社区为例，确定支撑这种语言发展的社会语言学背景。我们将调查说话者的语言态度，他们的熟练程度，多语言，意第绪语教育和说话者对书面语言的态度。我们的研究将与学者相关，包括专门研究日耳曼语言的语言学家；语言的变化与接触；少数民族语言和濒危语言；以及犹太研究、种族灭绝研究和宗教研究学者。我们的工作也将对当代哈西德派意第绪语使用者的生活产生直接影响：首先，通过将哈西德派意第绪语的独特性置于中心舞台，我们将为使用者提供一个框架，使他们能够第一次概念化和认识到他们语言的特殊价值，并对其历史和发展有更深入的了解。二是提高学者和公众对哈西德派意第绪语的认识。我们将继续与演讲者进行个人接触，并通过一系列公共活动，包括促进哈西德派和非哈西德派之间的文化和知识交流的社交晚会，以及通过与哈西德派慈善机构在青年遗产项目上的合作来实现这一目标。我们还将举办两个意第绪语节和一个向公众开放的学术会议，以庆祝这一非凡的语言。

The overarching aim of our research is to provide the first in-depth description of the grammatical features of the Yiddish used in Hasidic communities worldwide, to analyse their implications for linguistic theory, and to investigate the sociolinguistic context of Hasidic Yiddish using the Stamford Hill community as a case study. Yiddish was the everyday language of Eastern European Jews over the last millennium. In the interwar period, the Yiddish landscape comprised three traditional dialects and a standardised variety. The Holocaust and concomitant historical events contributed to a major decrease in the number of Yiddish speakers to the extent that it has become an endangered language. Today, Yiddish is overwhelmingly spoken by followers of Hasidism (a strictly Orthodox spiritual movement within Judaism). Yiddish-speaking Hasidic communities are dispersed globally with the largest centres in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv area in Israel, the New York area in the US, Antwerp in Belgium, and London's Stamford Hill. Even amongst scholars there is little appreciation of the fact that Yiddish is used as a daily language in these Hasidic communities. Consequently, few studies exist on Hasidic Yiddish language use, and none offer detailed grammatical descriptions. Our project builds on a pilot study on the grammar of Stamford Hill Hasidic Yiddish, which revealed a number of characteristics that differ dramatically from the traditional dialects and Standard Yiddish, demonstrating that this is a distinct variety of Yiddish with its own rules. The first objective of our proposed project is to expand on these findings by conducting an in-depth examination of the spoken and written Yiddish used in six Hasidic communities worldwide (together comprising an overwhelming majority of Hasidic Yiddish speakers) to probe the question whether the language of these communities constitutes a cohesive linguistic system, Hasidic Yiddish. In our pilot study, we have uncovered an interconnected web of grammatical changes strongly suggesting an implicational relationship between them. The rate at which this grammatical shift occurred was so rapid (within the space of a single generation), and so pervasive (changing the typological character of the language) that it constitutes a remarkably rare phenomenon. Our second objective is to examine the significance of such rapid, pervasive and interconnected changes for linguistic theory. The third objective of our project is to determine the sociolinguistic context underpinning this linguistic development using the Stanford Hill community as a case study. We will investigate speakers' language attitudes, their proficiency, multilingualism, Yiddish language education, and speaker attitudes to the written language. Our research will be relevant to scholars including linguists specialising in Germanic languages; language change and contact; minority and endangered languages; as well as to Jewish Studies, Genocide Studies, and Religious Studies scholars. Our work will also have a direct impact on the lives of contemporary Hasidic Yiddish speakers: First, by putting the unique nature of Hasidic Yiddish centre stage, we will provide speakers with a framework to enable them for the first time to conceptualise and recognise the special value of their language and to gain a deeper understanding of its history and development. Second, we will raise awareness of Hasidic Yiddish among scholars and the general public. We will do this through continued personal contact with our speakers, and through a number of public events including a series of social evenings facilitating cultural and knowledge exchange between Hasidic and non-Hasidic people, and through collaboration with a Hasidic charity on a youth heritage project. We will also hold two festivals of Yiddish and an academic conference open to the public to celebrate this extraordinary language.