Table Of Content“Once again, Natalie Zemon Davis has given us a beautifully written and meticulously
researched study illuminating a historical period through the story of one individual. Lazare
Sainean (1859–1934)—philologist, folklorist, Jew, convert, scholar of Rumanian, French, and Listening
Yiddish—was repeatedly denied citizenship and academic positions and yet, as Zemon Davis
l
convincingly argues, was able to cross cultural and geographic boundaries.”
i to the
Anita Norich . Collegiate Professor Emerita, University of Michigan s
t Languages
“A very important contribution to the study of the history of the Yiddish, Romanian, and e
French linguistics, of Romanian and general East European and Balkanic folklore, and of the n
history of the Jews of Romania in the period of the polemics for emancipation in the last two i of the
decades of the 19th century. The book is very useful for philologists, folklorists, historians of n
People
Romanian Jewry and of Romania.” g
Lucian-Zeev Herșcovici . National Library of Israel t
o
t
“Known under the name of Lazăr Șăin, Lazăr Șăineanu (from 1883) and Lazare Sainéan h
e Lazare Sainéan on
(from 1901), the renowned linguist and folklorist is an interesting addition to Natalie Zemon
Davis’s study of figures who crossed cultural and geographical boundaries. This book, which l
Romanian, Yiddish,
a
often reads like a novel, emphasizing the author’s qualities as a storyteller, follows one man’s
n
destiny in late nineteenth-century Europe, as one of many Jewish life stories. The book explores
g and French
identity as constructed by its subject, but also as recast by the historian.”
u
Maria Silvia Crăciun . Babeș-Bolyai University a
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g
“‘My life was crossed by so many disappointments’ declared Lazare Sainéan. In a book written
e
with erudite empathy, Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the successive disappointments of Natalie Zemon Davis
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this extraordinary scholar. Her rigorous and touching work allows us to listen the vigorous and
o
tormented voice of a man who dedicated his intellectual life to encounters, loved two nations f
t
and three languages, and, however, remained everywhere a foreigner.” h
e
Roger Chartier . Emeritus Professor at the Collège de France, p
Annenberg Visiting Professor in History at the University of Pennsylvania e
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A b o u t t h e A u t h o r l
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Natalie Zemon Davis is Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton Univer-
sity and is currently associated with the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Her
many publications include The Return of Martin Guerre, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and
N
their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France; Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between
a
Worlds, and Leo Africanus DiscoversComedy: Theatre and Poetry across the Mediterranean. In 2010, ta
she received the Holberg International Prize from the government of Norway for her work in the li
e
humanities. Named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2012, she was awarded the National Z
e
Humanities Medal by President Obama in 2013. m
o
n
D
a
v
i
Central European University Press ISBN 978-963-386-593-4 90000 > s
Budapest – Vienna - New York
Sales and information: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ceupress.com
9 789633 865934
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Listening
to the
Languages
of the
People
Lazare Sainéan on
Romanian, Yiddish,
and French
***
Natalie Zemon Davis
Central European University Press
Budapest – Vienna - New York
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©2022 Natalie Zemon Davis
Published in 2022 by
Central European University Press
Nádor utca 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Tel: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ceupress.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the permission of the Publisher.
ISBN 978-963-386-593-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-963-386-594-1 (ebook)
On the cover:
detail from “Nederlandse Spreuken” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559
Cover and book design by Sebastian Stachowski
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davis, Natalie Zemon, 1928- author.
Title: Listening to the languages of the people : Lazare Sainéan on
Romanian, Yiddish, and French / Natalie Zemon Davis.
Description: Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press,
[2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022026347 (print) | LCCN 2022026348 (ebook) | ISBN
9789633865934 (hardcover) | ISBN 9789633865941 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Şăineanu, Lazăr, 1859-1934. |
Philologists--Romania--Biography. | Philologists--France--Biography. |
Philology--Political aspects. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY /
General | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies | LCGFT: Biographies.
Classification: LCC P85.S126 D38 2022 (print) | LCC P85.S126 (ebook) |
DDC 410.92 [B]--dc23/eng/20220613
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026347
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026348
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Š Contents
Note on Transliteration vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part One: Romania
Early Years: Studies and Friendships 3
The Field of Linguistics 9
First Publications 14
The Science of Judaism: Advancing Emancipation 16
Semasiology 18
Paris, Gaston Paris, and the Jours d’Emprunt 20
Leipzig and the Neogrammarians 25
Research on Yiddish 28
The Dialectological Study of Judeo-German 32
Spreading the Word on Yiddish 40
B.P. Hasdeu, Anti-Semitism, and Jewish Relations 43
University Lectures and New Books 48
V. A. Urechiă and the First Rejection of Naturalization 52
Favorable Reviews and Marriage 55
Basmele Române 59
The Basmele Wins a Prize 70
Second Defeat of Request for Naturalization 72
Self-Defense and Studies in Folklore 75
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The Dicționar Universal 81
Non-Zionist Jew and His Circle of Friends 86
Paris, London: Gaster and Zionism 92
Paris: Nordau and Zionism 95
The Rejection of Zionism, the Dreyfus Affair 103
Baptism and Its Consequences 106
The Oriental Influence on Romanian Language and Culture 116
Șăineanu and Other Jews 120
The Last Months: Publication and Defeat 124
Repairing and Describing His Life: The Philological Career 126
Part Two: France
The New Émigré 133
Living and Making a Living; Some Translations 139
Judeo-German for the French Scholar 146
The Popular Languages of France 149
Rabelais 152
Les Sources Indigènes and Disappointment 156
Summing Up 159
Languages and “the People” in the 1920s and 1930s 160
Two Jewish Critics on Sainéan’s Life 162
Abbreviations 165
Bibliography 167
Index 179
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Š Note on Transliteration
I have followed current practice in the translation of Romanian works into
English in using diacritical marks on Romanian names and titles of publica-
tions.
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Š Acknowledgments
Listening to the Languages of the People was a long time in the making. With the
book’s attention to the work of Lazare Sainéan in three languages, Yiddish,
Romanian, and French, I have turned to many scholars for their comments and
bibliographical suggestions: Hans Aarslef, Svetlana Alpers, Sorin Antohi, Oana
Baboi, Jean Birnbaum, Menachem Butler, Denis Crouzet, Alexandru Dutru,
Victor Eskenasy, Lucian-Zeev Herşcovici, Christina Kramer, Mircea Platon,
David Sorkin, Céline Trautmann-Waller, and Katherine Verdery. Constantin
Iordachi and Gábor Klaniczay read the entire manuscript and made very help-
ful suggestions for its improvement. I am also appreciative of the assistance
given me by the Center for the Study of Romanian Jewry at the Hebrew Uni-
versity of Jerusalem and of the lively discussions around my paper provided by
the Nationalism Studies Program at the Central European University, the
Department of History at the University of Delaware, the Herbert D. Katz
Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the
Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at
the University of Toronto.
Linda Kunos, senior editor of the Central European University Press, has
been of enormous assistance in readying this book for publication, and I am
deeply honored that Listening to the Languages of the People happens to be the
five-hundredth book published by the Central European University Press. John
Puckett put his keen eye to work in editing the text. My literary agent Jennifer
Weltz offered support and good advice at many moments. To all of them
I extend my warmest thanks.
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