Research

Yiddish Sociolinguistics

For my dissertation, I am examining sociophonetic variation amongst members of the Yiddishist community, a community of non-native and native speakers who love the Yiddish language and choose to use it despite it not being the majority language in their daily lives. I am interested in how this variation comes about despite most speakers being exposed to standardized academic Yiddish, and how it patterns based on identities and language attitudes.

Image (left): Practicing Yiddish calligraphy at Yidish-Vokh in Copake, New York, August 2023.

Jewish English Sociolinguistics

This project, in collaboration with Caroline Hendy, explores how Jewish and non-Jewish Australians and Americans use English that comes from Jewish languages, especially Yiddish and Hebrew. We are in the process of analyzing results from an online survey of 611 participants.

Shown here is the portion of analysis focusing on two words with various possible meanings: shmooze and chutzpah.

Breslow, Emma. Shmooze and Chutzpah: A Comparative Analysis of Lexical Variation Across Ethnoreligious Identities. Paper presented at the 52nd New Ways of Analyzing Variation. Miami, November 7–9, 2024.

Woleaian Ethnobotany and Language Documentation

This project seeks to expand documentation of ethnobotanical knowledge in Woleaian, a Chuukic language spoken on the islands of Eauripik and Woleai in the Federated States of Micronesia. In particular, I am analyzing patterns in the naming and usage of roughly 110 plants. The data for this project was collected without being able to travel to Micronesia, and therefore involved the development of methods for doing ethnobotanical linguistic research remotely.

Breslow, Emma. Botanical Naming Strategies in Woleaian: A Remote Methods Analysis. Paper presented at the Language Documentation and Archiving Conference 2024. Berlin (Attended Online), September 4–6, 2024.

Woleaian: chele

English: velvet soldierbush

Heliotropium arboreum

Woleaian: maai

English: breadfruit

Hawaiian: 'ulu

Artocarpus altilis

Woleaian: shishi rafange

English: monarch fern

Hawaiian: lauaʻe

Microsorum scolopendria

Woleaian: talingale pache

English: turkey tail mushroom

Trametes versicolor