Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 36
July 3, 1991
 
1) Introduction (Jeff Kaimowitz)
2) Usage, cont. (Yankel Kessler)
3) Geography, etc. (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 91
From: Jeff Kaimowitz (jkaimowi@trincc)
Subject: Introduction

My name is Jeff Kaimowitz.  I am curator of the
Watkinson Library, a  research and rare book library,
at Trinity College, Hartford, CT.  My  academic train-
ing is in classics, in which I have a Ph.D. with a
specialty  in Latin.  Both my father's parents were
native Yiddish speakers (from  Lomza, Poland), but
except for certain rather questionable epithets  fa-
vored by my grandfather (i.e., mazik for me,
katshkedreidl for my  sister), I heard little Yiddish
when growing up.  My father seems to have  had a simi-
lar experience, for he told me he learned most of the
Yiddish he  knows as a Sammy fraternity brother at
Syracuse University.  Over the  years, I have become
interested in Yiddish language and literature and am a 
long time member of the National Yiddish Book Center. 
What Yiddish I know  comes from the German I learned as
a classicist and a run through the Weinreich  textbook. 
I am finding Mendele a real treat.

    
Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz            Bitnet: jkaimowi@trincc
Curator, Watkinson Library      Phone: (203) 297-2266
Trinity College Library
Hartford, CT 06106 

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 91 11:55 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: RE: Vol 1.35 Usage

Okay, thanks for the lebn advice. Oif Koypuris, in my
family, as with the hardl uck man, Moyshe koypuris, was 
few degrees more intense than af tselokhes, no u se, in
vain, lost case, etc. Of course, in my family,
Bessarabian, East of the Dniester, things were always
very sardonically negative+, as in Gorki's Xtian f
amily, in MY CHILDHOOD, where I first learned that what
I took to be Jewish mis eries and foul talk, and vio-
lent laughter were all present in his poor family t oo,
pure Russkies. That was a lesson, and enlightened me in
my 22nd year. Kessler
 
3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 91
From: Noyekh Miller (nmiller@trincc)
Subject: Bessarabia and other matters

Kessler, alter khaver: I think you'll be more likely to
find Bessarabia on the _west_ side of the Dniester.  It
was an important matter to my family because in cross-
ing it they knew they were finally out of the Soviet
Union.  (The leader was an American, said my mother:
you could tell by his pointed shoes.)  If your family
is from east of the Dniester then they were Podolian. 
A simple test: do you have a distinct word for a male
cat?  If you say 'kuter', you're from Bessarabia.  If
on the other hand your vocabulary is gender-free with
respect to felines you're probably not.

All of this subject to correction by Mikhl Herzog and
other sharfe kep.

Moyshe kapoyre.  A wonderful name with a great history.
It was used most recently to my knowledge by someone
who wrote frequently to the Washington Post (critical
letters of course); the editors never caught on.  When
I was a kid the Forverts had a humor page that featured
the adventures of M.K. and Yente Telebende.  Before
that there's the fascinating chapter in Ilya
Ehrenburg's "Julio Jurenito", chillingly prophetic.

Dave Sherman: My Yiddish panel agrees that 'al pi tues'
is fine (though one Litvichke indignantly insists that
it's 'al pi taves').  My family used 'nisht-meynendik'
to cover some of the meanings.  

Noyekh
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End of Mendele Vol 1.36