Max Weinreich
Max Weinreich (
1893/
94 Goldingen,
Courland (
Kuldiga,
Latvia) -
1969 New York City,
USA) was a
linguist, specializing in
Yiddish.
He 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.
He is the father of
Uriel Weinreich, another famous linguist.
He is often cited as the author of a certain [controversial] criterion for distinguishing between "
languages" and "
dialects" - "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" ("אַ שפראַך איז אַ "יאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט", "a shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot"; in "der yivo un di problemen fun undzer tsayt",
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. A separate article discusses the
origin of the aphorism in greater detail.
English
# Hitler's professors : the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people by Max Weinreich. New Haven : Yale University Press, 1999# History of the Yiddish language / Max Weinreich ; translated by Shlomo Noble, with the assistance of Joshua A. Fishman. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Yiddish
# Bilder fun der Yidisher literaturgeshikhte fun di onheybn biz Mendele Mokher-Seforim ; mit 12 reprod / : Maks Vaynraykh. 1928 # Chrysander's Yiddish grammar of 1750. / Reproduced from the original with introductory remarks by Max Weinreich. 1958 # Das Jiddische Wissenschaftliche Institut ("Jiwo") die wissenschaftliche Zentralstelle des Ostjudentu / : 1931 # Der durkhgegangener veg : oytobiografye / mit a forvort fun M. Vaynraykh. 1950 # Fun beyde zaytn ployt : dos shturemdike lebn fun Uri Kovnern, dem nihilist / Maks Vaynraykh. 1955 # Geschichte der jiddischen Sprachforschung / Max Weinreich ; herausgegeben von Jerold C. Frakes. c1993 # Di geshikhte fun beyzn beyz / [microform]. 1937 # Geshikhte fun der Yidisher shprakh (History of the Yiddish language) : bagrifn, faktn, metodn / fun Maks Vaynraykh. 1973 # Hitlers profesorn : heylek fun der Daytsher visnshaft in Daytshland farbrekhns kegn Yidishn folk. Nyu-York : Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, Historishe sektsye, 1947.# Mayn heymshtetl Strikov ; geshikhtes fun a lebn in der alter heym un in Amerike / Avrohom Pinkhes Unger ; mit a forvort fun M. Vaynraykh. 1957 # Mekhires-Yosef : ... aroysgenumen fun seyfer "Tam ve-yashar" un fun andere sforim ... / Maks Vaynraykh. 1923 # Der Onheyb : zamlbukh far literatur un visnshaft / redaktirt fun D. Aynhorn, Sh. Gorelik, M. Vaynraykh. 1922 # Oysgeklibene shriftn / Maks Vaynraykh ; [unter der redaktsye fun Shemu'el Rozshanski]. 1974 # Der oytser fun der Yidisher sprakh / fun Nahum Stutshkov ; unter der redaktsye fun Maks Vaynraykh. c1950 # Praktishe gramatik fun der Yidisher shprakh / / [fun] F. Haylperin un M. Vaynraykh. 1929 # Shreib un grayzn a hantbikhl far . . . rikhtik oysleygn Yidish un speziel di Hebreishe elementn in d /: tsunoyfgeshtelt fun Dr. Maks Vaynraykh. 1926 # Shtaplen fir etyudn tsu der Yidisher shprakhvisnshaft un literaturgeshikhte / fun Maks Vaynraykh. 1923 # Shturemvint bilder fun der Yidisher geshikhte in zibtsntn yorhundert / fun Max Weinreich. # Di shvartse pintelekh / Max Vaynraykh. Vilne : Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, 1939.# Di Yidishe visnshaft in der heyntiker tsayt/ fun M. Vaynraykh. Nyu-York : [o. fg.], 1941.
Other possible publications (validity uncertain)
#
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#
History of the Yiddish language: The problems and their implications by Max Weinreich 1963?# Yiddish, Knaanic, Slavic: The basic relationships by Max Weinreich
For Roman Jacobson The Hague, 1956 p. 623
Collected works
# For Max Weinreich on his seventieth birthday; studies in Jewish languages, literature, and society. 1964
*
YIVO::
