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Alexander Harkavy (Александр Гаркави Aleksandr Garkavi, May 5, 1863, born at Nowogrudok, Minsk guberniya (governate), Russia (now Navahrudak, Hrodna, Belarus) - 1939, New York) was a Russian-American writer, lexicographer and linguist.

Alexander was educated privately, and at an early age evinced a predilection for philology. In 1879 he went to Wilna, where he worked in the printing-office of the Romm Bros. In 1882 he went to America, in 1885 to Paris; he subsequently returned to America, and settled in New York, where he resided in 1903.

It is partly due to Harkavy that Yiddish is now recognized as a language. His Yiddish dictionaries show that its vocabulary is as ample as that of the average modern language, and that, if lacking in technical terms, it is richer in idiomatic and characteristic expressions.

He was one of the contributors of Jewish Encyclopedia.

Contents 1 Works 2 Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia 3 See also 4 External link

Alexander Harkavy's most important works are:

• "Complete English-Jewish Dictionary" (1891);
• "Dictionary of the Yiddish Language: Yiddish-English" (1898);
• pocket editions of English-Yiddish and Yiddish-English dictionaries;
• "Amerikanischer Briefsteller" (English and Judæo-German, 1899);
• "Ollendorf's Method of English: in Yiddish" (1893);
• "Uchebnik Angliskavo Yazyka" (1892);
• "Torat Leshon Anglit", an English grammar in Hebrew (1894);
• "Ha-Yesh Mishpaṭ Lashon li-Sefat Yehudit?" (1896), in which he shows that Yiddish has the essential elements and forms of a living language;
• "Don Kichot", a Judæo-German translation (1897-98).

• E. Harkavy, Dor Yesharim, New York, 1992;
• Eisenstadt, Ḥakme Yisrael be-Ameriḳa, p. 33;
• Ha-Leom (Harkavy's autobiography), vol. ii., New York, 1903.J. D. E

• Harkavi
• YIVO

• Alexander Harkavy in Jewish Encyclopedia on the Web (Russian)