Reviewed by Peter Freeouf, Chiang Mai University

This grammar is an exact reprint of a work that first appeared in Vienna in 1917. The author is best known and frequently cited by English-speaking scholars for his later work Yiddish: A survey and a grammar (1979), which in some respects represents an expanded version of the German original. The book was reprinted using Fraktur typeface, suggesting the older style of German printing.

This book comprises a densely packed description of modern East Yiddish at the period of its greatest geographical spread and largest number of speakers, coinciding with an explosion of literary, educational, and scholarly use of the language. It begins with a short introduction (5–10) that briefly describes the state of limited scholarship in Yiddish at the time. The section that follows provides a detailed description (11–33) of the Hebrew-alphabet-based writing system, the sounds of the language, phonemic transcription, Yiddish handwritten forms, and notes on the differences between the orthography and pronunciation of the extensive Hebrew-Aramaic and Indo-European elements of Yiddish. This fusion of elements from two different language families is characteristic of Yiddish, and the contrast therein is crucial in a study of the written form of the language. This is something the author stresses, as do most contemporary scholars of Yiddish, as opposed to laying emphasis on much older German scholarship, which was mainly interested in the Germanic element in Yiddish and its significance in German dialects and historical studies. This section contains exercises for practice reading individual words and sentences in Yiddish orthography, which are accompanied by transcription.

The following section of the book (33–57) describes the nominal and verbal morphology of Yiddish. The strong verbs are divided into their Germanic classes, making for easy comparison with other Germanic languages. Syntax is covered in the next section (57–70). The readings section (70–101) contains selections by three of the most prominent writers in Yiddish of modern times, namely I. L. Peretz, Mendele Mocher Sforim, and Scholem Aleichem; each selection is followed by a translation.

There is an extensive Yiddish-German vocabulary (102–75) with indications of correct pronunciation of the Semitic forms. Grammatical information is provided for most of the entries. The glossary is followed by a various lists (176–81), including a list of the most common Yiddish abbreviations, a brief description of the Hebrew numeral system, a list of common variant forms of the Semitic vocabulary, a list of the most common East Yiddish given names, and a list of common geographical names. A tabular summary of the Yiddish phonological system is provided and concludes with a short bibliography (185–88) of the main works dealing with the contemporary Yiddish of the time, with the latest entry dated 1917.

Students and scholars of Yiddish can be thankful to the publisher for returning to print a classic in the history of Yiddish scholarship, one that has long been out of print and mainly available in libraries. This is a nicely printed and bound volume that will be useful to anyone interested in Yiddish and capable of reading the older printed style of German.