Information about Max Weinreich

Max Weinreich (1893/94 Goldingen, Courland (Kuldiga, Latvia) - 1969 New York City, USA) was a linguist, specializing in Yiddish, and the father of the linguist Uriel Weinreich.

Weinreich founded the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (originally called Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO)) in Vilnius (Vilna) in 1925, and was its director from 1925 to 1939. From 1940 he led it in New York.

Weinreich is often cited as the author of a criterion for distinguishing between languages and dialects: "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" ("אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט", "a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot"; in "der yivo un di problemen fun undzer tsayt"(YIVO and the Problems of Our Time), yivo-bleter, January-July 1945, p. 13), but he states clearly in that text that he was quoting something told to him by an unnamed auditor at one of his lectures. Earlier authorship has also been attributed to French sources.

Known publications

English

1. Hitler's professors : the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
2. History of the Yiddish language. trans. Shlomo Noble, with the assistance of Joshua A. Fishman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Yiddish and German

1. Bilder fun der yidisher literaturgeshikhte fun di onheybn biz Mendele Mokher-Seforim, 1928.
2. Das Jiddische Wissenschaftliche Institut ("Jiwo") die wissenschaftliche Zentralstelle des Ostjudentums, 1931.
3. Fun beyde zaytn ployt: dos shturemdike lebn fun Uri Kovnern, dem nihilist, 1955
4. Geschichte der jiddischen Sprachforschung. herausgegeben von Jerold C. Frakes, 1993
5. Di geshikhte fun beyzn beyz, 1937.
6. Geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh: bagrifn, faktn, metodn, 1973.
7. Hitlers profesorn : heylek fun der daytsher visnshaft in daytshland farbrekhns kegn yidishn folk. Nyu-York: Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, Historishe sektsye, 1947.
8. Mekhires-Yosef: ... aroysgenumen fun seyfer "Tam ve-yashar" un fun andere sforim ..., 1923.
9. Der Onheyb: zamlbukh far literatur un visnshaft, redaktirt fun D. Aynhorn, Sh. Gorelik, M. Vaynraykh, 1922.
10. Oysgeklibene shriftn, unter der redaktsye fun Shemu'el Rozshanski, 1974.
11. Der oytser fun der yidisher sprakh fun Nahum Stutshkov ; unter der redaktsye fun Maks Vaynraykh, c. 1950
12. Praktishe gramatik fun der yidisher shprakh F. Haylperin un M. Vaynraykh, 1929.
13. Shtaplen fir etyudn tsu der yidisher shprakhvisnshaft un literaturgeshikhte, 1923.
14. Shturemvint bilder fun der yidisher geshikhte in zibtsntn yorhundert
15. Di shvartse pintelekh. Vilne: Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, 1939.
16. Di Yidishe visnshaft in der heyntiker tsayt. Nyu-York: 1941.

Other possible publications (validity uncertain)

1. The reality of Jewishness versus the ghetto myth: The sociolinguistic roots of Yiddish by Max Weinreich In To honor to Roman Jacobson The Hague: Mounton 1967
2. History of the Yiddish language: The problems and their implications by Max Weinreich 1963?
3. Yiddish, Knaanic, Slavic: The basic relationships by Max Weinreich For Roman Jacobson The Hague, 1956 p. 623

Collected works

1. For Max Weinreich on his seventieth birthday; studies in Jewish languages, literature, and society. 1964

External links

• YIVO