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The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate / Martin Puchner.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2020]Edition: First editionDescription: 278 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781324005919
  • 1324005912
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction: Language Games -- Camouflage Names -- The Book of Vagrants -- A Picture Comes into View -- The Rotwelsch Inheritance -- The King of the Tramps -- The Farmer and the Judge -- An Attic in Prague -- When Jesus Spoke Rotwelsch -- Igpay Atinlay for Adults -- The Story of an Archivist -- Judgment at Hikels-Mokum -- Error-Spangled Banner -- Your Grandfather Would Have Been Proud of You -- Rotwelsch in America -- The Laughter of a Yenish Chief.
Summary: "Tracking an underground language from one family's obsession to the outcasts who spoke it in order to survive. Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know)--vagrants and refugees, merchants and thieves. This hybrid language was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." And beginning with Martin Luther, German Protestants who disliked its speakers wanted to stamp it out. The Nazis hated it most of all. As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language through his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names, that his own grandfather, an historian and archivist, had been a committed Nazi who hated everything his sons and grandsons loved about "the language of thieves." Interweaving family memoir with scholarship and an adventurous foray into the politics of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original journey narrative. In a language born of migration and hybridity, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential today"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 437.009 P977 Available 33111009759776
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 437.009 P977 Available 33111010412647
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know). This hybrid language, dubbed Rotwelsch, facilitated survival for people in flight--whether escaping persecution or just down on their luck. It was a language of the road associated with vagabonds, travelers, Jews, and thieves that blended words from Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Romani, Czech, and other European languages and was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." This renegade language unsettled those in power, who responded by trying to stamp it out, none more vehemently than the Nazis.

As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language from his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names buried in the archives of Harvard's Widener Library, that his own grandfather had been a committed Nazi who despised this "language of thieves." Interweaving family memoir with an adventurous foray into the mysteries of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original narrative. In a language born of migration and survival, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential in our volatile present.

"Tracking an underground language from one family's obsession to the outcasts who spoke it in order to survive. Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know)--vagrants and refugees, merchants and thieves. This hybrid language was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." And beginning with Martin Luther, German Protestants who disliked its speakers wanted to stamp it out. The Nazis hated it most of all. As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language through his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names, that his own grandfather, an historian and archivist, had been a committed Nazi who hated everything his sons and grandsons loved about "the language of thieves." Interweaving family memoir with scholarship and an adventurous foray into the politics of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original journey narrative. In a language born of migration and hybridity, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential today"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-259) and index.

Introduction: Language Games -- Camouflage Names -- The Book of Vagrants -- A Picture Comes into View -- The Rotwelsch Inheritance -- The King of the Tramps -- The Farmer and the Judge -- An Attic in Prague -- When Jesus Spoke Rotwelsch -- Igpay Atinlay for Adults -- The Story of an Archivist -- Judgment at Hikels-Mokum -- Error-Spangled Banner -- Your Grandfather Would Have Been Proud of You -- Rotwelsch in America -- The Laughter of a Yenish Chief.

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