New speakers of Yiddish and questions of authentic language
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COST Ref. No.: |
COST-STSM-IS1306-20786 |
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STSM Applicant: |
Dr Michael Hornsby,Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Period: |
2014-09-01 to 2014-09-05 |
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Host: |
Bernadette O Rourke,Heriot Watt University,Edinburgh(UK) |
The focus of this STSM is an investigation into the linguistic practices of a private conversation/discussion group of Yiddish speakers who regularly meet in the city of Edinburgh under the auspices of Dr. Heather Valencia (formerly of the University of Sterling).
The work plan will initially involve a number of individual semi-structured ethnographic interviews with these new speakers/users of Yiddish. Further data will be gathered through participant observation in a study session in which these same speakers are in the process of attaining speakerhood in the language.
In particular, data will be sought on the following themes and their significance for the research participants:
- What is authentic Yiddish for them?
- Do they feel entitled to speak on behalf of, or for Yiddish - do they feel a sense of ownership in any way?
- Is this sense of ownership enhanced or affected by their own sense of ethnic identity, whether Jewish or not?
They will also be invited to construct, either orally or in writing, a language biography, in which they are asked to reflect on their journeys of becoming a speaker/user of Yiddish. The initial data will then be discussed with a colleague at the host institution, Dr. Bernadette O’ Rourke at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, in order to ascertain which threads could most usefully feed into the more general themes of COST Action IS1306 and in which ways they could be best disseminated further (publications, 2nd Symposium on New Speakers in Barcelona, 20-22 November 2014, etc).
