Uriel Weinreich

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Uriel Weinreich
BornMay 23, 1926 (1926-05-23)
Linguist
EmployerColumbia University

Uriel Weinreich (

Yiddish: אוריאל ווײַנרײַך Uriel Vaynraykh, [urˈiːəl ˈvajnrajx]; May 23, 1926 – March 30, 1967)[1] was a Jewish–American linguist
.

Life

Uriel Weinreich was born in

Wilno Jewish family. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University[2][3] and went on to teach there, specializing in Yiddish studies, sociolinguistics, and dialectology. He advocated the increased acceptance of semantics
and compiled the iconic Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary, published shortly after his death.

Weinreich was the son of the linguist Max Weinreich and the mentor of both Marvin Herzog, with whom he laid the groundwork for the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ), and William Labov. Weinreich is also credited with being one of the first linguists to appreciate the phenomenon of learner language, interlanguage, 19 years before Larry Selinker coined the term in his 1972 article "Interlanguage". In his benchmark book Languages in Contact Weinreich first noted that learners of second languages consider linguistic forms from their first language equal to forms in the target language. However the essential inequality of these forms leads to speech which the native speakers of the target language consider inferior.

He also co-wrote, with his students Labov and Herzog, the 1968 book-length paper "Empirical foundations in historical linguistics", which identified five aspects of language change that are intended to describe phenomena of language change. They have become a major sociolinguistic benchmark of description.[4]

He died of cancer on March 30, 1967, at Montefiore Hospital in New York,[5][6] prior to the publication of his Yiddish–English dictionary.

Writing about Weinreich in his history of Yiddish, Words on fire, Dovid Katz said:

"Though he lived less than forty-one years, Uriel Weinreich ... managed to facilitate the teaching of Yiddish language at American universities, build a new Yiddish language atlas, and demonstrate the importance of Yiddish for the science of linguistics."[7]

Publications

See also

  • Yiddish language

References

  1. ^ Uriel Weinreich at Findagrave.com
  2. ^ Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development; Columbia College (Columbia University) (1967–1969). Columbia College today. Columbia University Libraries. New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
  3. ^ "URIEL WEINREICH, A LINGUIST, DIES; Columbia Professor Taught and Wrote on Yiddish Past". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  4. ^ Meyerhoff, Miriam (2012). Sociolinguistics: an introduction (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
  5. ^ "Uriel Weinreich, A Linguist, Dies – Columbia Professor Taught and Wrote on Yiddish Past". The New York Times. April 1, 1967. p. 32. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  6. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  7. ISBN 978-0-465-03728-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
    )

External links
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