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Vernacular Voices : Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities / Kirsten A. Fudeman.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Jewish Culture and ContextsPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2011]Copyright date: ©2010Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) : 8 illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812242508
  • 9780812205350
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 492.4 7 22
LOC classification:
  • PJ4995.F8 F83 2010eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Notes on Translations and Transcription and Typographical Conventions -- Abbreviations -- Introduction. The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context -- Chapter 1. Language and Identity -- Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations -- Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors -- Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts -- Appendix 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song 'Uri liqra'ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
Summary: A thirteenth-century text purporting to represent a debate between a Jew and a Christian begins with the latter's exposition of the virgin birth, something the Jew finds incomprehensible at the most basic level, for reasons other than theological: "Speak to me in French and explain your words!" he says. "Gloss for me in French what you are saying in Latin!" While the Christian and the Jew of the debate both inhabit the so-called Latin Middle Ages, the Jew is no more comfortable with Latin than the Christian would be with Hebrew. Communication between the two is possible only through the vernacular.In Vernacular Voices, Kirsten Fudeman looks at the roles played by language, and especially medieval French and Hebrew, in shaping identity and culture. How did language affect the way Jews thought, how they interacted with one another and with Christians, and who they perceived themselves to be? What circumstances and forces led to the rise of a medieval Jewish tradition in French? Who were the writers, and why did they sometimes choose to write in the vernacular rather than Hebrew? How and in what terms did Jews define their relationship to the larger French-speaking community?Drawing on a variety of texts written in medieval French and Hebrew, including biblical glosses, medical and culinary recipes, incantations, prayers for the dead, wedding songs, and letters, Fudeman challenges readers to open their ears to the everyday voices of medieval French-speaking Jews and to consider French elements in Hebrew manuscripts not as a marginal phenomenon but as reflections of a vibrant and full vernacular existence. Applying analytical strategies from linguistics, literature, and history, she demonstrates that language played a central role in the formation, expression, and maintenance of medieval Jewish identity and that it brought Christians and Jews together even as it set them apart.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780812205350

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Notes on Translations and Transcription and Typographical Conventions -- Abbreviations -- Introduction. The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context -- Chapter 1. Language and Identity -- Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations -- Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors -- Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts -- Appendix 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song 'Uri liqra'ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

A thirteenth-century text purporting to represent a debate between a Jew and a Christian begins with the latter's exposition of the virgin birth, something the Jew finds incomprehensible at the most basic level, for reasons other than theological: "Speak to me in French and explain your words!" he says. "Gloss for me in French what you are saying in Latin!" While the Christian and the Jew of the debate both inhabit the so-called Latin Middle Ages, the Jew is no more comfortable with Latin than the Christian would be with Hebrew. Communication between the two is possible only through the vernacular.In Vernacular Voices, Kirsten Fudeman looks at the roles played by language, and especially medieval French and Hebrew, in shaping identity and culture. How did language affect the way Jews thought, how they interacted with one another and with Christians, and who they perceived themselves to be? What circumstances and forces led to the rise of a medieval Jewish tradition in French? Who were the writers, and why did they sometimes choose to write in the vernacular rather than Hebrew? How and in what terms did Jews define their relationship to the larger French-speaking community?Drawing on a variety of texts written in medieval French and Hebrew, including biblical glosses, medical and culinary recipes, incantations, prayers for the dead, wedding songs, and letters, Fudeman challenges readers to open their ears to the everyday voices of medieval French-speaking Jews and to consider French elements in Hebrew manuscripts not as a marginal phenomenon but as reflections of a vibrant and full vernacular existence. Applying analytical strategies from linguistics, literature, and history, she demonstrates that language played a central role in the formation, expression, and maintenance of medieval Jewish identity and that it brought Christians and Jews together even as it set them apart.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2022)