Hybrid German-Slavic Semantics of Yiddish Verbs with the Prefix tse-

Abstract

The aim of the research is to analyse the hybrid German-Slavic polysemy of Yiddish verbs with the prefix tse-. Scientific novelty lies in studying hybridisation of Yiddish as a synergy of the inherent properties of the original Middle High German language and the results of its contact with Slavic languages. The paper shows that the prefix tse- genetically goes back to the Middle High German ze[r]- and as a result of adstrate hybridisation, it also acquired the semantic properties of the Slavic prefix roz-/роз-/раз-. The research findings have shown that the German and Slavic components of the prefix tse- are reducible to the archiseme <split in two; apart>, which is contained in the Middle High German ze[r]-, the Slavic roz-/роз-/раз- and verbs with these prefixes, but it is found in the modern German zer- only partially, with a number of Yiddish verbs with tse- formed only on the basis of the Slavic model.