LINGUIST List 12.2334

Fri Sep 21 2001

Qs: Krakau/Cracow Yiddish, Italian Wh-islands

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. tomasz wisniewski, Krakau/Cracow Yiddish- is in (in part) West Yiddish
2. Toru Ishii, Italian Wh-islands

Dear linguists,

Some authors claim Cracow Yiddish is part SWY part WY. In Beranek
(Westjiddischer Sprachatlas) I found that MHG. ei>ay (SWY) MHG. ii>ay
(WY). M. Gebirtig in his songs rhymes Standard lib-shtub (SWY),
zayn-geweyn, and grois-mois (which do not rhyme in any real EY
dialect, but may rhyme in WY). Now there is a chance of poetic
licence, but frankly I doubt it. I can't find any published sources on
this dialect.

Could anyone comment on that?

Also, can anyone give me basic characteristics of Cracow Yiddish,
i.e. what happened to final voiced consonants, final er, what is the R
like, and what happened to MHG. vowels aa ee ii oo uu a e i o u ou ei
iu (what are Cracow equivelents of zogn, shney, dayn, groys, hoyz,
mame, weg, lip, hot, gut, boym, kleyn, fraynd).

I will be grateful for all responses.


Tomasz Wisniewski

tomwisnyahoo.com

Dear linguists,

 I have a query regarding Italian wh-islands which I hope some
native speakers of Italian can help me with.

 It has been observed by, among others, Rizzi and Cinque that unlike
English, Italian does not exhibit any wh-island effects especially
when the extracted wh-phrase is made "heavier" (or D-linked), as in
(1):

(1) A quale dei tuoi figli ti recordi/chiedi
 [quanti soldi hai dato]?
 'To which one of your children do you
 remember/wonder [how much money you gave]?'

 My question is: Does the existence of an overt pre-verbal subject
affects the possibility of wh-extraction out of an indirect question?
More specifically, I'd like to the following two questions, and want
to check the examples below with native speakers of Italian.

 First, as pointed out by Rizzi, unlike in indicative indirect
question where the subject must be null or inverted, the subject may
appear preverbally in subjective indirect question. Then, the
question is whether we can extract a wh-phrase out of a subjective
indirect question with a preverbal subject, as in (2):

(2) a. A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi [quanti
 soldi Gianni abbia dato]?
 'To which one of your children do you
 wonder [how much money Gianni gave]?'
 b. A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi [quanti
 soldi lei abbia dato]?
 'To which one of your children do you
 wonder [how much money she gave]?'

Is there any contract in acceptability between (2) and (3), where
there is no overt preverbal subject:

(3) a. A quale die tuoi figli ti chiedi [quanti
 soldi abbia dato]?
 b. A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi [quanti
 soldi abbia dato Gianni]?

 Second, unlike the other wh-phrases, "perch�" 'why' may appear
with a prevrebal subject in indirect question. Then, the question is
whether we can extract a wh-phrase out of an embedded "perch�"
question with a preverbal subject like (4). Especially, is there any
contrast in acceptability between (4) and (5), where there is no
preverbal subject? 

(4) A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi
 [perch� Gianni ha assegnato questo incarico]?
 'To which one of your children do you wonder
 [why Gianni gave this task]?

(5) a. A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi [perch�
 abbiamo assegnato questo incarico]?
 'To which one of your children do you wonder
 [why we gave this task]?'
 b. A quale dei tuoi figli ti chiedi [perch�
 ha assegnato questo incarico Gianni]?
 'To which one of your children do you wonder
 [why Gianni gave this task]?

Thanks a lot. I will be glad to post a summary if
there are enough responses.

Toru Ishii
Meiji University, Tokyo Japan
E-mail: tishiikisc.meiji.ac.jp