This volume offers the first comprehensive study on the history of Middle Western Karaim dialects. The author provides a systematic description of sound changes dating from the 17th–19th-centuries and reconstructs their absolute- and relative chronologies. In addition, the main morphological peculiarities are presented in juxtaposition to Modern Western Karaim data.
The textual basis for this historical-linguistic investigation is a critical edition of pre-1800 Western Karaim interpretations of Hebrew religious songs called piyyutim (149 texts altogether). The reason behind this choice is that some of these texts are among the oldest known Western Karaim texts in general, and that until now no study has brought the Karaim translation tradition in this genre closer to the reader.