Mother Tongue One Never Forgets

Jan 7, 2016 by

Mother Tongue One Never Forgets

[Many thanks to Leni Silberman for drawing my attention to the ScienceAlert article that describes the study discussed below!]   A growing body of linguistic literature, to which I have made a modest contribution (cf. Pereltsvaig...

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Why Did Yiddish Survive in Eastern Europe (for as Long as It Did)?

Nov 23, 2015 by

Why Did Yiddish Survive in Eastern Europe (for as Long as It Did)?

[Thanks to Martin Lewis, Michael Nosonovsky, Katya Shilova, and Elena Zusmanovich for insightful conversations that led to certain points in this post.]   In his essay “Yiddish? Why Don’t We Speak Judeo-French?”, George Jochnowitz...

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The Disappearance of Yiddish in Russia and Elsewhere in the FSU

Nov 22, 2015 by

The Disappearance of Yiddish in Russia and Elsewhere in the FSU

A century ago Yiddish was the predominant language of Jews in the Russian Empire; three of my four grandparents, born in 1900s-1920s spoke Yiddish as their mother tongue. Yet according to the 2010 population census, only about 30,000...

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Non-standard English on the Islands of the South Atlantic

Nov 18, 2015 by

Non-standard English on the Islands of the South Atlantic

[Note to Readers: This post was originally published in August 2012.] The Falkland/Malvinas Islands consists of some 780 islands in South Atlantic, with the total area of about 4,700 square miles, which is slightly larger than...

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Brittany, Another Independence-Seeking European Region

Nov 18, 2015 by

Brittany, Another Independence-Seeking European Region

[Note to Readers: This post was originally published in January 2014.] Brittany in northwestern France is one of several regions in Europe that is seeking increased autonomy, if not complete independence, and instructive parallels...

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Teaching Breton Language at Harvard

Nov 18, 2015 by

Teaching Breton Language at Harvard

[Note to Readers: this post was originally published in September 2013.] In an op-ed piece entitled “What You (Really) Need to Know,” published in the New York Times in January 2012, Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard...

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