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Document Details : Title: Prayer, Ritual and Practice in Ashkenazic Jewish Society Subtitle: The Tradition of Yiddish Custom Books in the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): BAUMGARTEN, J. Journal: Studia Rosenthaliana Volume: 36 Date: 2002-2003 Pages: 121-146 DOI: 10.2143/SR.36.0.504918 Abstract : Traditional Jewish society in the pre-modern era is a fascinating area for an analysis of bilingualism, both oral and written. These Jewish communities, in which people often used two or more languages, have been described by Ch. Shmeruk as a 'linguistic and cultural polysystem', in which various cultural components were 'engaged in a relationship or a dynamic of mutual influences'. In the pre-modern Ashkenazi world, linguistic practice was based on a codified division between Hebrew and the vernacular. A contrast tended to be drawn between Hebrew, the province of the initiated and literate, and the vernacular, the oral tradition of folk, women and 'ignorant people'. In fact, these linguistic areas intermingled, overlapped and influenced each other, according to need, social situation or level of use. Even where a linguistic separation was strictly maintained, a certain porosity existed between the Jewish world and its cultural environment, whether German, Italian or Slav, and transfers occured between scholarly and popular culture. |
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