Langue juive ou jargon : Les dénominations du yiddish en Pologne avant 1939

Abstract

The complex attitude of Yiddish and Polish speakers, Jewish and non-Jewish, towards Yiddish, is reflected in the way the language is named. These designations evolve along the years, often following international – and particularly German – terminology. This evolution is not confined to a merely linguistic question: it reveals deep identity splits and is strongly linked to ideological and political choices. This article provides a detailed analysis of this evolution in newspapers and literature as well as in dictionaries and encyclopaedias. It explains the variations of point of view subtly implied by each terminological choice.

Keywords

• colloquial language
• Polish Jews
• jargon
• dialect
• linguistics
• Yiddish language