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My name is Tomasz Majtczak*, I am employed at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. My academic interest centres round philology, historical linguistics and etymology, chiefly Old, Classical and Middle Japanese, Old Turkic, as well as Yiddish.
* Pronounced [ˈtɔmaʃ ˈmajt͡ːʃak], or MIGHT-chuck.
More on myself can be found on Academia, my university’s Repository and its USOSweb. I also have an ORCID and a Google Scholar profile, as well as a Twitter account.
The main purpose of this website is twofold. First, to collect the links to Internet resources, mostly dictionaries and encyclopaedias, which I find useful and trustworthy, and which others may want to utilise too. Second, to make instantly available the results of some ongoing research, which would otherwise remain in my drawer for a long time, or even for ever.
אַ מענטש, זאָג איך, איז געגליכן צו אַ סטאָליער: אַ סטאָליער לעבט און לעבט און שטאַרבט, און אַ מענטש לעבט און שטאַרבט.
“שלום־עליכם, „טבֿיה דער מילכיקער
“A man,” I say, “is like a carpenter: a carpenter lives and lives and dies, and a man lives and dies.”
Sholem Aleichem, “Tevye the Dairyman”
Człowiek – powiadam – jest podobny do stolarza: stolarz żyje i żyje, i umiera; i człowiek żyje i umiera.
Szolem Alejchem, „Tewie Mleczarz”
Hublshpener הובלשפּענער is a Yiddish word for ‘wood shavings’, directly related to German Hobelspäne.
One also says lakhn mit hublshpener לאַכן מיט הובלשפּענער ‘to laugh through tears’.
Among the synonyms of this word is hublinkes הובלינקעס.