leaving the languages those ancestors spoke to the linguistic evidence. Italy supplies early Jewish settlements and learned traditions. Gaul and northern France supply their own Jewish settings and vernacular evidence. The Rhineland supplies communities, scholars, legal arrangements, and a Germanic contact environment. Later Italy and eastern Europe add further exchanges rather than merely preserving the results of one first migration.

The roads into Ashkenaz were therefore cultural roads as well as routes of settlement. Some carried people, some carried scholarship, some carried words, and some carried stories. The linguistic method can identify their crossings and distinguish several of their channels. It supports a history of sustained adaptation and exchange more firmly than it supports one itinerary presented as the ancestry of everyone who later spoke Yiddish.

### Principal research sources

- Max Weinreich, *History of the Yiddish Language*, complete English edition, ed. Paul Glasser, translated by Shlomo Noble with the assistance of Joshua Fishman (Yale University Press and YIVO, 2008; originally published in Yiddish in 1973). [YIVO edition listing](https://yivo-institute.myshopify.com/products/history-of-the-yiddish-language-volumes-1-and-2).
- Paul Glasser, “[Weinreich, Max](https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article.aspx/Weinreich_Max),” *YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe*.
- George Jochnowitz, “[The Extraordinary Complexity of the History of Yiddish](https://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/HistoryYiddish.html),” review of Weinreich, *Midstream* (2010).
- Alexander Beider, “[Romance Elements in Yiddish](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290884127_Romance_elements_in_Yiddish),” *Revue des études juives* 173.1–2 (2014), 41–96. [Journal bibliographic record](https://www.persee.fr/doc/rjuiv_0484-8616_2014_num_173_1_3125).
- Alexander Beider, [*Origins of Yiddish Dialects*](https://academic.oup.com/book/26848) (Oxford University Press, 2015).
- Alec Burko, “[The New Yiddish Dialectology: A Review of Alexander Beider’s The Origins of Yiddish Dialects](https://ingeveb.org/articles/new-yiddish-dialectology),” *In geveb* (2016).
- Raphael Finkel, [Refoyl’s Online Yiddish Dictionary](https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/dictionary.cgi), consulted by headword for the modern Yiddish comparisons.
- William F. Weigel, “[Eastern Yiddish](https://www.jewishlanguages.org/eastern-yiddish),” Jewish Language Project; quick facts updated by Isaac Bleaman.
- Auden Finch, “[Western Yiddish](https://www.jewishlanguages.org/western-yiddish),” Jewish Language Project.
- Marc Kiwitt and Julia Zwink, “[Judeo-French](https://www.jewishlanguages.org/judeo-french),” Jewish Language Project.
- Aaron Rubin, “[Judeo-Italian](https://www.jewishlanguages.org/judeo-italian),” Jewish Language Project.
- Duden, “[Pferd](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Pferd)” and “[schreiben](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/schreiben),” dictionary entries and etymologies.
- Ahimaaz ben Paltiel, *Chronicle of Ahimaaz* (1054), translated by Marcus Salzman (1924); [extract on the Arab invasions of southern Italy](https://deremilitari.org/2013/02/the-arab-invasions-of-southern-italy-according-to-the-chronicle-of-ahimaaz/), Society for Medieval Military History.
- Turismo Roma, “[Jewish Catacombs of Vigna Randanini](https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/jewish-catacombs-vigna-randanini).”
- Théodore Reinach, “[Une inscription latine et hébraïque conservée au musée de Narbonne](https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1889_num_33_5_69681),” *Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres* 33.5 (1889), 299–300.
- City of Cologne, Historical Archive, “[1700 Jahre jüdisches Leben in Köln und dem Rheinland](https://www.stadt-koeln.de/leben-in-koeln/kultur/historisches-archiv-mit-rheinischem-bildarchiv/1700-jahre-juedisches-leben-koeln-dem-rheinland).”
- “[Ashkenaz](https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article.aspx/Ashkenaz),” *YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe*.
- Judensand Mainz, “[Tombstone of Meschullam ben