Hybrid Characteristics of Prefixed Verbs in Yiddish

Abstract

The research objective was to show the hybrid characteristics of prefixed verbs in Yiddish caused by its contact with Semitic and Slavic languages. The Yiddish system of verb prefixes, in particular, those with hybrid polysemy, is a phenomenon when the German form and German content acquired a very similar Slavic meaning. As a result, such prefixes retained the features of their German equivalents, while modifying their semantic, morphosyntactic, and word-formation potential. This phenomenon affected some Yiddish verbs under the impact of contacts with adstratum languages and intralinguistic tendencies. The present research featured Yiddish verbs with the ariber- prefix. The analysis revealed that Slavic adstratum semantic characteristics caused the hybridization of the Yiddish system of verb prefixes. As a result, Yiddish prefixed verbs were able to describe and conceptualize situations left out by the German language, but indicated by Slavic languages. To describe the same situation, the same base word in Yiddish could be combined with a larger amount of prefixes than in German and Slavic languages. Thus, synonymous series of prefix verbs in Yiddish occurred as a result of the hybridization of its German-based system with elements borrowed from Semitic and Slavic languages.

Keywords

• germanic languages
• slavic languages
• hybridity
• semantics
• conceptualization of the situation. archiseme
• situatheme
• synonymy