Alexander Harkavy

Alexander Harkavy (אַלעקסאַנדר האַרקאַווי, Александр Гаркави, Aleksandr Garkavi, May 5, 1863, born at Nowogrudok (נאַוואַרעדאָק), Minsk guberniya (governorate), Russian Empire (now Navahrudak, Hrodna, Belarus) - 1939, New York) was a Russian-born American writer, lexicographer and linguist.

Alexander was educated privately, and at an early age evinced a predilection for philology. In 1879 he went to Vilna, where he worked in the printing-office of the Romm Brothers. In 1882 he went to the United States, in 1885 to Paris; he subsequently returned to America, and settled in New York, where he resided in 1903.

He was one of the contributors to the Jewish Encyclopedia.

Work on Yiddish

It is partly due to Harkavy that Yiddish is now recognized as a language. His Yiddish dictionaries show that its vocabulary is as ample as that of the average modern language, and that, if lacking in technical terms, it is richer in idiomatic and characteristic expressions.

Works

Alexander Harkavy's most important works are:

• "Complete English-Jewish Dictionary" (1891);
• "Dictionary of the Yiddish Language: Yiddish-English" (1898);
• pocket editions of English-Jewish and Jewish-English dictionaries;
• "Amerikanischer Briefsteller" (English and Judæo-German, 1899);
• "Ollendorf's Method of English: in Yiddish" (1893);
• "Uchebnik Angliskavo Yazyka" (1892);
• "Torat Leshon Anglit", an English grammar in Hebrew (1894);
• "Ha-Yesh Mishpaṭ Lashon li-Sefat Yehudit?" (1896), in which he shows that Yiddish has the essential elements and forms of a living language;
• "Don Kichot", a Judæo-German translation (1897–98);
• Yiddish-English (6th edition), English-Yiddish (11th edition) Dictionary (1910);
• The Holy Scriptures (1916) reprinted 1936 & 1951;
• Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary (4th ed 1928) republished 1968.

Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia

• E. Harkavy, Dor Yesharim, New York, 1992;
• Eisenstadt, Ḥakme Yisrael be-Ameriḳa, p. 33;
• Ha-Leom (Harkavy's autobiography), vol. ii., New York, 1903.J. D. E

See also

• Harkavy
• YIVO

External links

• Alexander Harkavy in Jewish Encyclopedia on the Web (Russian)
• Scan of Frontispiece of the 1898 Pocket Edition of Harkavy's Jewish-English Dictionary

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