Mumme Loohshen was typed up in 1974/5 by my father Joseph Witriol (1912-2002). The 200 page manuscript was subtitled ‘An Anatomy of Yiddish’. In the preface my father wrote:
”This is the first linguistically oriented book on the Yiddish language as a whole, as opposed to monographs on specific aspects of Yiddish linguistics, to be written in English.”
I want to give some background and context to the book. I have changed as little as possible as I do not want to alter a work that reflects his style and personality. This was obviously researched and written in the pre-internet and PC era with consequent limitations.
There are technical aspects – for instance some references will be dated, e.g. referring to the Ukrainian SSR. Some unpublished works may now be available, and so on. He sometimes used complex and lengthy sentences which need careful reading. This is particularly true – and perhaps harder to avoid – when one is discussing the interplay between three or more languages. He also uses ‘difficult’ words and recherché foreign words and tags. This was not an affectation, but a natural aspect of his impressive vocabulary and literary knowledge. And they can be rather wonderful words like borborygmus. In part intentionally, partly for practical reasons, the work was written only in English so neither Yiddish nor Hebrew words are written in Hebrew characters.
Some of his articles and reviews are uploaded here as well as – eventually I hope - his unpublished ‘Autobiography of a Failure’ and journal which give insights into the domestic mundane as well as wider and tragic events he lived through.
