Yiddish at Columbia

Academic Yiddish > Teaching Yiddish in the 17th century

Johannis Buxtorfi thesaurus grammaticus linguae sanctae Hebraeae….Lectionis Hebraeo-Germanicae usus

Buxtorf, Johannes

Basel, 1629

893.14 B98

Yiddish began to be studied as an academic subject well before the 19th or 20th century.  In 1609, Johannis Buxtorf, a professor in Basel (well-known for his work on Hebrew grammar), added a section on Yiddish grammar to the Hebrew grammar he published.  Buxtorf promoted the study of Yiddish as an aid to learning Hebrew because of its similarity to German.

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