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book jacket
BOOK
Title The language of thieves : my family's obsession with a secret code the Nazis tried to eliminate / Martin Puchner
Imprint New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. [2020]

LIBRARY / MAP CALL NUMBER STATUS MESSAGE
 Stadsbibl:Slottet vån 2 Språk & lättläst  430 engelska    DUE 24-04-16  ---
Edition First edition
Descript 278 pages illustrations 22 cm
Note Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-259) and index
"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"-- Provided by publisher
Subject Puchner, Martin, 1969-
Puchner, Martin, 1969- -- Family
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
1900-1999
Tyska språket
Nazister
Slang
Rotwelsch
German language -- Slang
Cant -- Germany
Thieves -- Language
Tramps -- Language
Language policy -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
College teachers -- United States -- Biography
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / German.
Cant.
College teachers.
Families.
Language policy.
German language -- Slang.
Language and languages -- Political aspects.
Thieves -- Language.
Tramps -- Language.
Tyskland
Förenta staterna
Germany -- Languages -- Political aspects
Germany.
United States.
Biografi
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Biographies.
History.
Classmark 437.009
Fbh
ISBN/ISSN 9781324005919 hardcover
1324005912 hardcover
9781324005926
electronic publication 9781324005926
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