Journal

DI YIDISHE SHPRAKH. WHOLE NRS 1 MAR-APR 1927 2 3/4 5/6 7 8/9 10 16 17/18 19 21/22 23/24 & 25 NOV-DEC 1930 FINAL ISSUE NEARLY COMPLETE RUN OF 19 NRS. IN 13 ISSUES INCLUDING FIRST AND IMPORTANT FINAL ISSUE

1930 · 42139 — Kiev: Katedr far Yidisher Kultur ba der Ukr. Visnshaftl. Akademye Filologishe Sektsye 1930. Paper Wrappers. 1st edition. Original printed publisher’s color paper wrappers 4to large ca 72-116 columns ca 36-58 pages per issue. 28 cm. In Yiddish. Title translates roughly as “The Yiddish Language.†Succeeded in 1931 by “Afn shprakhfront.â€Di Yidishe Shprakh was a “Yiddish linguistic journal published in Kiev from 1927 to 1930. A bimonthly journal Di yidishe shprakh The Yiddish Language was published by the cooperative publishing house Kultur-lige and was the main philological publication of the Kiev Yiddish academic center. Its editor was the veteran Yiddishist Nokhem Shtif a founder of YIVO who had returned to Kiev from Germany in 1926. The journal’s inaugural issue March–April 1927 was published under the auspices of the Central Yiddish Bureau of the Ukrainian Commissariat for Education. With the next issue Di yidishe shprakh was an organ of the Chair and from July to October 1929 it was an organ of the Institute for Jewish later Proletarian Jewish Culture at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Initially defined as a 'journal for practical Yiddish linguistics' from May to June 1927 it appeared as simply a 'journal for Yiddish linguistics. 'Shtif distinguished three language registers: the vernacular of the old generation partly represented in the works of Sholem Aleichem and predecessors; the highbrow language of modern writers such as Dovid Bergelson; and the contemporary 'culture language' most notably of the press. Although Shtif sought to target speakers of the mass 'culture language' the journal’s circulation hovered around 500 copies read mainly by Yiddish teachers.Apart from Shtif who published articles on various language-planning problems the most active contributors to Di yidishe shprakh were Ber Slutski Ayzik Zaretski Elye Falkovitsh Lipe Reznik and Shimen Dobin. In early 1929 Moscow literary critic Aron Gurshteyn criticized the journal for its purist approach to language planning. In the July–October 1929 issue Shtif published his article 'Di sotsyale diferentsiatsye in yidish' The Social Differentiation in Yiddish heralding an intensification of Soviet linguists’ anti-Hebraist campaign. That issue of Di yidishe shprakh adopted completely reformed Soviet spelling omitting for example final consonant letters.Although the last—twenty-fifth—issue of the journal was dated November–December 1930 it included materials from the First All-Union Yiddish Language Conference convened in Kiev from 8 to 13 February 1931 that issue is present here. Published under the imprint of the Central Publishing House this issue also signaled the demise of the remaining vestiges of the Kiev Kultur-lige. Yoysef Liberberg’s article 'Far parteyishkayt in der yidisher visnshaft-arbet' For a Party Approach to Yiddish Linguistics marked a full break with YIVO scholars particularly with YIVO director Max Weinreich whom Liberberg ridiculed for presenting Yiddish as an emanation of the Ashkenazic Jews’ soul. The Yiddish Language Conference decided to change the name of the journal. Between 1931 and 1939 it appeared sporadically under the title Afn shprakhfront On the Language Front reflecting its new more aggressive and politically charged approach' Gennady Estraikh in YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe 2010. For more see David Shneer “Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture 1918–1930†Cambridge and New York 2004. SUBJECTS: Yiddish language -- Periodicals. Title also listed on covers in Russian “Ievreis'ka Mova†and German “Jiddische Sprachâ€. OCLC: 22840298. Most holdings in OCLC appear to be fragmentary. Covers are browning and fragile as expected but are otherwise very well preserved with very little edgewear. Internal text pages are also toning but remain relatively strong as pulp paper. Very important journal scarce in this degree of completeness Note that Estraikh suggests a circulation of only 500!. B YID-43-5-E. Kiev: Katedr far Yidisher Kultur ba der Ukr. Visnshaftl. Akademye, Filologishe Sektsye unknown