Description

Written entirely in Yiddish, this innovative and accessible language text provides opportunities for intermediate level students of Yiddish to improve their conversational skills, grammar, and vocabulary. It includes numerous written exercises designed to clarify difficult language problems, as well as conversational exercises that invite role play and discussions of readings from Yiddish literature, folklore, and the social sciences. David Goldberg reviews structural essentials from the first year of study of Yiddish, then introduces a full range of more advanced topics in Yiddish grammar and lexicography. Lessons provide opportunities and linguistic strategies to form questions and answers; posit, defend, and challenge logical assertions; express agreement or disagreement with varying degrees of emphasis; interrupt or take turns in conversation; and request or supply clarification. Convenient resources include lists of colloquial expressions and idioms, numerous Yiddish proverbs and folk sayings illustrated in appropriate conversational contexts, and 1,500-word English-Yiddish and Yiddish-English glossaries. The book also features a selection of exercises based on materials written by the eminent Yiddish grammarian and educator Yudl Mark in the 1930s and 1940s.