The prefixed verb system genesis in Yiddish: extralinguistic factors and intralinguistic tendencies

This article looks into the stages of the prefixed verb system genesis in Yiddish and a number of extralinguistic and intralinguistic factors accompanying the process. Old Yiddish acquired Middle High German prefixes which by that time had stopped functioning as adverbial relational elements. The Middle Yiddish prefixed verb system, under a Slavic influence, underwent a "semantic assimilation" by means of: 1) calquing (productive word formation): bageyn zikh (mit/on) 'treat smb./do without': ba-geyn ~zikh < Pol. ob-chodzic ~ sig; and 2) adapting the Slavic aspect, which had a lexical-semantic character: Yiddish prefixed verbs (PVs) describe aktionsarten that can be divided into: a) those expressing the Slavic perfective aspect: - general-resultative (on-, iber-): ongreytn 'prepare' (Pol. przygotowac), iberleyenen 'read to the end' (Pol. przeczytac); - completive (der-): dershraybn 'finish writing' (Pol. dopisac); - sative (reflexified PVs with on-): ongeyn zikh 'walk long enough' (Pol- nachodzic sig); - cumulative (on-): onbrengen 'carry [a lot of smth.]' (Pol. nanosic); b) those neutral to the Slavic aspect: - inchoative (far-): farreykhern 'start smoking' (Polish zapalic); - manipulative (unter-): unterlekn zikh 'weedle' (Ukranian pidlyzuvatysja (тдлизуватися)); - intensive-resultative (reflexified PVs with der-): derfregn zikh 'make inquiries' (Pol. dopytywac si?). The new meaning developed in prefixes that were phonetically and semantically similar to the Slavic ones. For example, on- acquired the perfective function like the Slavic na-: kormen 'feed': on-kormen 'feed well enough' (Pol. karmic : nakarmic). Both of the stages were accompanied by some intralinguistic laws as well. a) As early as the beginning of the Old Yiddish period, there were some words in Yiddish that could not be found in German, e.g., farlaykhtern 'facilitate/ease'. b) Yiddish acquired some PVs not registered in German or Slavic languages, e.g., onhobn: on-hobn ketslekh 'give birth to a lot of kittens'. c) German separable-inseparable prefixes developed as separable in Yiddish: durkhgeyn 'go (through)': ikh gey durkh durkhn vald 'I'm going through the forest' (Germ. 'durchgehen and durchhge-hen). In the 19th century, under the influence of Haskalah, Yiddish began to acquire "Daytshmeriz-men", i.e. words too much like German. However, as a result of strong purism, Standard Yiddish has only six Daytshmerish PVs that should be considered as complex verbs with a bound first component: - ibertsaygn (Sty. 'ibertsaygn) 'persuade' and iberrashn (Sty. 'iberrashn) 'surprise' (Germ. tiber'zeugen and tiber raschen); - unter'haltn 'entertain', unter'handlen 'negotiate', unter'shteyn zikh 'dare' and unter'zukhn 'examine' (Germ. unter'halten, unter'handeln, sich unter'stehen and unter'suchen). Characteristic of the New Yiddish stage, Daytshmerish had no influence on the language system. Standard Yiddish, which took shape in the 1890s, completed the formation of the Yiddish prefixed verb system that had its genesis in the Middle High German superstratum and came under an interferential and adstratum influence of the Slavic languages.

Keywords

Authors

References