Martin Puchner is Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, author of The Written World, and general editor of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His latest work, The Language of Thieves, is now available.
From Lutherans to Nazis, linguistic authorities have long sought to understand and control Rotwelsch (and long cast aspersions at its many Yiddish loan words).