The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate

The Resource The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate
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The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate
Title remainder
my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate
Statement of responsibility
Martin Puchner
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"Tracking an underground language from one family's obsession to the outcasts who spoke it in order to survive. Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know)-vagrants and refugees, merchants and thieves. This hybrid language was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." And beginning with Martin Luther, German Protestants who disliked its speakers wanted to stamp it out. The Nazis hated it most of all. As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language through his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names, that his own grandfather, an historian and archivist, had been a committed Nazi who hated everything his sons and grandsons loved about "the language of thieves." Interweaving family memoir with scholarship and an adventurous foray into the politics of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original journey narrative. In a language born of migration and hybridity, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential today"--
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Provided by publisher
Biography type
contains biographical information
Cataloging source
DLC
Dewey number
437.009
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
PF5995
LC item number
.P835 2020
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography

Context

Context of The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate

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