Yiddish Language Rights in Congress Poland during the First World War: The Social Implications of Linguistic Recognition

The official recognition of Yiddish language rights in Congress Poland during the First World War had significant implications for a territory with a mixed ethnic composition. This essay focuses on the rights of the Yiddish-speaking community to use its distinctive vernacular in administrative procedures and schooling, in comparison with other ethno-linguistic groups in the same region. The concept of language rights here reflects the German notion of Sprachenrecht, which may be translated as the legal regulation of the use of a language in public life as part of broader inter-ethnic regulations in a multi-ethnic country.