Language and Culture Archive of Ashkenazic Jewry, 1949-1997

Summary Information

Abstract

A collection of materials related to the research project of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (L.C.A.A.J./LCAAJ) produced from 1949 to 1997. The project was spearheaded by Columbia University's Yiddish department and the primary researchers involved in the project were Uriel Weinreich, Marvin (Mikhl) Herzog, Mordkhe Schaechter, Vera Baviskar, Robert Neumann, and Ulrike Kiefer. The materials include administrative records, fieldwork and research notes, materials relating to the publication of the second and third volume of the Atlas, as well as other research materials of Uriel Weinreich, and materials related to the publication of The Field of Yiddish. The materials are primarily in English, Yiddish and German.

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in 9 series.

• Series I: Administrative Records, 1955-1997
• Subseries I.1: Financial Records, 1955-1996
• Subseries I.2: Individual Correspondence and Personal Files, 1959-1994
• Subseries I.3: Collaboration, 1989-1997
• Subseries I.4: Publication, 1960-1996
• Series II: LCAAJ Fieldwork and Research, 1956-1992
• Subseries II.1: Field Survey, 1956-1969, undated
• Subseries II.2: Informants Information and Interviews, 1959-1992
• Subseries II.3: Visual Cues, undated
• Subseries II.4: Working Maps, circa 1959-1985
• Subseries II.5: Large Format Maps, undated
• Subseries II.6: Questionnaire, 1959-1971
• Subseries II.7: Edited Responses, 1966-1971
• Subseries II.8: Equipment and Computer Data, 1960-1974
• Series III: Collected data: Interview forms and processed data, 1966-1969, undated
• Subseries III.1: Interviews by page number
• Subseries III.2: Questionnaires by location
• Subseries III.3: Computer printouts of aggregated data, 1966-1969, undated
• Series IV: LCAAJ II, 1960-1993
• Series V: LCAAJ III, 1950-1993
• Series VI: U. Weinreich (Non-LCAAJ), 1959-1971(?)
• Series VII: Manuscripts and Publications, 1949-1991
• Subseries VII.1: The Field of Yiddish, 1965-1970
• Subseries VII.2: Offprints and Photocopies, 1955-1991
• Subseries VII.3: Manuscripts/Typescripts, 1949-1989
• Series VIII: Miscellaneous & Phonodisks, 1959-1992
• Series IX: Interview Audio

Description

Description

The collection consists of a variety of materials, such as notes, manuscripts and typescripts, correspondence, maps and other records related to the research surrounding the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry. The collection covers all periods of the Atlas project from its incipience based on linguistic research by Uriel Weinreich in the 1950s to the publication of three Atlas volumes and collaboration with German research institutions in the 1990s under the auspices of Marvin (Mikhl) Herzog. The collection contains a strong selection of material related to the fieldwork, research and preparation for publication of the linguistic Atlas, such as notes, data output, and maps generated by the analysis and processing of the linguistic data obtained in the interviews with native Eastern European Yiddish speakers. In addition to this core material the collection also contains administrative records related to the finances and funding of the Atlas project, other research material produced by Uriel Weinreich and manuscripts, typescripts and offprints of articles generated by researches involved with the Atlas project and published, for example, in the series The Field of Yiddish.

Content from Series III: Collected Data has been digitized. The answers to the questionnaire have been digitized, from three different formats: blue books, answer sheets, and printouts. These materials are available online here.

• Series I: Administrative Records, 1955-1997

  This series contains financial records and grant applications, correspondence with researchers and linguists, correspondence pertaining to the collaboration between the LCAAJ and other projects in the 1990s, as well as correspondence and press clippings pertaining to the publication of the Atlas volumes.

• Series II: LCAAJ Fieldwork and Research, 1956-1992

  This series contains notes, lists, maps, data sets, index cards, correspondence, and material objects pertaining to the fieldwork and subsequent research undertaken for the Atlas project.

• Series III: Collected data: Interview forms and processed data, 1966-1969, undated

  This series contains all of the transcripts from the interviews. The transcripts exist in three forms: (1) Blue books, which were used in the earliest part of the project to transcribe responses from informants; (2) Answer sheets, forms that were filled in with the data based on page number and question number; and (3) Printouts, which were produced from printing the data that had been entered from the handwritten data in blue books/answer sheets.

  Content from Series III: Collected Data has been digitized. The answers to the questionnaire have been digitized, from three different formats: blue books, answer sheets, and printouts. These materials are available onlinehere.

• Series IV: LCAAJ II, 1960-1993

  This series is an archive of the Atlas ' second volume. The series was left in its original order. This series includes documents and correspondence pertaining to the planning and publishing of the second volume, and material used for preparation of each chapter of the second volume. This subseries also includes notes on the base maps and the locations, on informants and on the questionnaire.

• Series V: LCAAJ III, 1950-1993

  This series is an archive of the Atlas ' third volume. The series was left in its original order. This series contains material pertaining to the foreword of the third volume, handwritten and typed legends, lists of maps and locations, and other notes used for preparing the third volume for publication.

• Series VI: U. Weinreich (Non-LCAAJ), 1959-1971(?)

  This series contains research material by Uriel Weinreich that is not directly related to the Atlas project. This series contains miscellaneous correspondence and correspondence pertaining to Western Yiddish by U. Weinreich. This series also contains notes and other research material on Swiss and Alsatian Yiddish, as well as index cards for a Western Yiddish dictionary and a Middle Yiddish dictionary.

• Series VII: Manuscripts and Publications, 1949-1991

  This series contains manuscripts, typescripts, photocopies and offprints by researchers such as M. Weinreich, U. Weinreich, and M. Herzog, including articles for the volume The Field of Yiddish.

• Series VIII: Miscellaneous & Phonodisks, 1959-1992

• Series IX: Interview Audio

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection has no restrictions, except for a few folders as marked in the finding aid.

Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.

The following boxes are located off-site: Boxes 1-195 and Boxes 217-280. You will need to request this material from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Language and Culture Archive of Ashkenazic Jewry; Box and Folder (if known); Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Selected Related Material-- at Columbia

Content from Series III: Collected Data of this collection has been digitized. The answers to the questionnaire have been digitized, from three different formats: blue books, answer sheets, and printouts. These materials are available online here.

EYDES (Evidence of Yiddish Documented in European Societies) . The audio for nearly all of the interviews is available online via EYDES.

Accrual

No additions are expected

Existence and Location of Copies

Content from Series III: Collected Data has been digitized. The answers to the questionnaire have been digitized, from three different formats: blue books, answer sheets, and printouts. These materials are available online https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/lcaaj.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Recordings & transcripts: Source of acquisition--Herzog, Marvin. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1995. Accession number--M-1995.

Gift of Dr Marvin Herzog, 1995.

Bibliographic References

Coverage complete -- Language and culture atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry. New York/Yivo Institute/c1992

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Sponsor Information

The processing of this collection was made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Processing Information

Recordings & transcripts Processed HR 03/24/1999.

This collection was processed by Sandra Chiritescu (GSAS 2021), 2016-2017. Andrew Sunshine assisted with preliminary processing.

Finding aid written by Sandra Chiritescu (GSAS 2021) July 2017.

Boxes B79, B80, and B81 have been deaccessioned as of 10/4/2021. Contents of boxes 213 and 215 were moved to other containers in the map series, and no longer exists.

Revision Description

2009-06-26 File created.

2017-11-07 XML document instance created by Catherine C. Ricciardi

2018-01-17 XML document instance updated by Catherine C. Ricciardi

2018-03-13 XML document instance updated by Catherine C. Ricciardi. Series II arrangement updated.

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

2020-07-17 Boxes B18-B39 added to Series IX

2020-08-21 Links added for first batch of digitized audio. kws

2020-09-14 Added boxes B40-B75 to Series IX

2021-03-24 Links added for second batch of digitized audio. kws

2021-08-23 Additional links added for digitized audio. kws

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Historical Note

In 1959 Uriel Weinreich, who was Atran Professor of Yiddish Studies at Columbia and Chairman of Columbia University's Department of Linguistics, began to develop a linguistic questionnaire of approximately 2000 questions which would serve as the basis for the development of a Yiddish language atlas. By the end of 1959 Weinreich and his doctoral student Marvin (Mikhl) Herzog had begun interviewing Eastern European Jews with the linguistic questionnaire. These interviews were conducted and recorded on tape and on question-answer sheets until 1972. In total, 5,755 hours of audio tape and ca. 100,000 pages of accompanying linguistic field notes were collected. Both native speakers of Eastern and Western Yiddish were interviewed. The archive does not, however, include transcriptions of the interviews. The data that constitutes the LCAAJ was collected from 603 locations in Central and Eastern Europe carefully chosen to reflect the distribution of the Yiddish speaking population on the eve of World War II. In a series of interviews lasting anywhere from 2.5 to 16 hours, informants answered questions on a wide variety of topics concerning Yiddish language and culture. After Weinreich's pre-mature death in 1967 Dr. Herzog became lead researcher of the Atlas project and Atran Professor of Yiddish. Beginning in the 1960s the linguistic interview data was evaluated and analyzed with early computer technology and the researchers produced a variety of maps and scholarly articles based on this data. In the aftermath of Weinreich's death, during the 1970s and 1980s, the research efforts surrounding the atlas project slowed down. After several efforts to find an American publisher had failed, Marvin Herzog secured the Max Niemeyer Verlag in Germany as a publisher for printed volumes of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry in the 1990s and subsequently published three out of a projected ten volumes in collaboration with German institutions and researchers Ulrike Kiefer (a former doctoral student at Columbia University) and Robert Neumann, who worked at the Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim. Marvin Herzog also secured funding for the archival preservation of the decades-old audio tapes in the 1990s. Dr. Herzog donated the Archive to the Columbia University Libraries in 1995. He passed away in 2013.