Solomon Asher Birnbaum, also ''Salomo Birnbaum'' ( yi, שלמה בירנבוים ''Shloyme Birnboym'', December 24, 1891 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– December 28, 1989 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

) was a Yiddish linguist and Hebrew

palaeographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

.Birnbaum, Salomo (Solomon Asher Birnbaum)
(2002). In: ''Handbuch österreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren jüdischer Herkunft, 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert''. Ed. Österreichische Nationalbiblithek, Vienna. Vol. 1, A-I. Munich: Saur. p. 126.

Biography

Birnbaum (1891-1989), born in Vienna, was the oldest son of Nathan Birnbaum and Rosa Korngut. He was an

Austrian Jew The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewis ...

of West Galician descent. Solomon Birnbaum served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

, and then studied and attained a doctorate from the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

, specializing in

languages of Asia A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...

. From 1922 to 1933, he was an external lecturer of Yiddish at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

. After the rise of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in Germany, in 1933 Birnbaum emigrated to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

with his wife, Irene Grünwald,Birnbaum, Jakob
(2002). In: ''Handbuch österreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren jüdischer Herkunft, 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert''. Ed. Österreichische Nationalbiblithek, Vienna. Vol. 1, A-I. Munich: Saur. p. 125. and his children, in 1933. From 1936 to 1957, Birnbaum was a lecturer on Hebrew paleography and epigraphy at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He taught Yiddish at the same time at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University of London, from 1939 to 1958. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Birnbaum worked in the postal censorship for the British authorities. In 1970, he immigrated to Toronto,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Solomon Birnbaum is the father of Jacob Birnbaum, who, after his emigration to New York in 1963, helped to found the Soviet Jewry Movement.

Publications

* ''Praktische Grammatik der jiddischen Sprache'', Vienna and Leipzig, 1918; ''Grammatik der jiddischen Sprache'', Hamburg: editions 1966, 1979, 1984, 1988 * ''Leben und Worte des Balschemm'', 1920 * ''Das hebräische und aramäische Element in der jiddischen Sprache'', 1921 (dissertation) * "Die jiddische Sprache," in: ''Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift'' (1923) * "Die Umschrift des Jiddischen," in: ''Teuthonista'' (1933) * "The Age of the Yiddish Language," in: ''Transactions of the Philological Society'', London (1939) * "Jewish Languages," in: ''Essays in Honour of the Very Rev. Dr. J.H. Hertz'', London, 1942 * ''Yiddish Phrase Book'', published by The Linguaphone Institute for The Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, London, 1945 * "The Cultural Structure of East Ashkenazic Jewry," in: ''

The Slavonic and East European Review ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', the journal of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (University College London), is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Slavonic and East European Studies. It was estab ...

'', London (1946) * "The Verb in the Bukharic Language of Samarkand," in: ''Archivum Linguisticum'', 2 (1950/51) * "How Old are the Cave Manuscripts?" in: ''

Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international ...

'' (1951) * ''The Hebrew Scripts'', 2 vols., Leiden, 1954–57, 1971 * ''Die jiddische Sprache'', Hamburg 1974, 1986, 1997 * ''Yiddish – A Survey and a Grammar'', Toronto, 1979 * "Zur Geschichte der u-Laute im Jiddischen," in: ''Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie'' (1981) * ''Yiddish, A Survey and a Grammar'', 2nd edition, with additional essays etc by David Birnbaum, Eleazar Birnbaum, Kalman Weiser, Jean Baumgarten. Toronto, 2016

References

* Erika Timm, Eleazar Birnbaum, David Birnbaum (eds) "Salomo/Solomon A. Birnbaum: Ein Leben fuer die Wissenschaft/A Lifetime of Achievement", Berlin/Boston, 2011. (2 vols). 62 articles over a range of over 60 years by Solomon A. Birnbaum on the linguistics of Yiddish (and other Jewish languages), and on Hebrew Palaeography. Contains a biography (in both German and English), and bibliography of books and articles in English, German and Yiddish. * David Birnbaum, "Salomo Birnbaum's experiences at Hamburg University", in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, August 22, 2018, {{DEFAULTSORT:Birnbaum, Solomon 1891 births 1989 deaths Austrian Jews Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Austrian emigrants to Canada Linguists from Austria Linguists of Yiddish Grammarians of Yiddish Yiddish-speaking people Military personnel from Vienna 20th-century linguists