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Paul Wexler

Paul Wexler is an American-born Israeli linguist and Professor Emeritus of linguistics at Tel Aviv University, known for his disputed hypothesis that Yiddish derives from a Slavic language.

born 1938Slavic origin hypothesis of YiddishModern Hebrew as a Slavic languageResearch on Jewish languages

Born: 6 November 1938, United States
Occupation: linguist
Education: Yale University, Columbia University

Paul Wexler was born in 1938 in United States

Paul Wexler was born on November 6, 1938, in the United States. His parents were of Ukrainian Jewish background, and he grew up in the United States.

He earned a B.A. at Yale University in 1960. At Columbia University he received an M.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1967, studying under Uriel Weinreich and George Shevelov. In 1967, at the University of Washington, he wrote a teaching grammar of the Aymara language for Peace Corps volunteers.

Wexler moved to Israel in 1969 and did basic training in the IDF in 1974. He became a professor of linguistics at Tel Aviv University. His research covers historical linguistics, bilingualism, Slavic and creole linguistics, Romani and Jewish languages.

In 1990 he published a book arguing that Modern Hebrew is a Slavic language, a form of Yiddish relexified with Hebrew words. He holds that Eastern Yiddish grew from a Judeo-Sorbian dialect. Other Yiddish linguists have largely rejected this hypothesis.