Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 2 no. 94
November 9, 1992
 
1) Anski (Mikhl Herzog)
2) An-ski (Alice Nakhimovsky)
3) Grammatical mood (Mikhl Herzog)
4) On greetings (Itzhak Finger)
5) Shtraymel (Joe Frisch)
6) Our productive subscribers, cont. (Alice Nakhimovsky)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92  18:10 EST
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu
Subject: For Sarah Stein

Sarah Stein: If you're interested in Anski's Ethnographic
Expedition, you'd be well advised to consult with Professor
Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett. I don't know if she's on
the Mendele circuit but you can write to her at
Kirshenblatt@nyuacf

Also, there's a woman in the Columbia University bursar's
office, Fay St whose father, Rechtman, was (I believe) a
member of that expedition.

Mikhl Herzog.
 
2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 09 Nov 1992 08:43:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: ANAKHIMOVSKY%COLGATEU.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.92

This is for Sarah Stein, with respect to, and respects to,
An-sky:  it would be great if you could do your thesis in
tandem with someone from the Russian dept, as An-sky wrote
a great deal in that language.  He started out as a Russian
populist and remained bicultural even after his loyalties
shifted.  Osip Mandelstam (the great Russian poet) has some
curious reminiscences of him - he calls him a mix of a
Jewish folklorist and Gleb Uspensky (a Russian populist)
and describes him as "bent over from an excess of Russian
populism and Jewishness" (something like that - if memory
serves me).  Great topic!

Alice Nakhimovsky.

[Also a good topic for psychologists interested in
autodidacts or quick studies.  Anski first learned the
Russian alphabet at age 17 and almost immediately began
writing for the narodnik press. nm]

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92  22:03 EST
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu
Subject: For Martin Haase

Concerning "mood" in Yiddish: In addition to the major
grammars (Zaretski, Moscow, 1926; Falkovitsh, Moscow, 1940;
Yudel Mark, NY ?), see the articles in the very important
Soviet journal "Di yidishe shprakh" (1927-1929, I think),
continued as "Afn shprakhfront".

Mikhl Herzog.

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 92 16:38:59 PST
From: jfinger@mv.us.adobe.COM
Subject: On Greetings

1. Why is the expression "Gut morgn" rather than "Guter
   morgn" (if one means to say, "It is a good morgn") or
   "Gutn morgn" (if one wants to say, "I wish you a good
   morgn")?

   The same question applies to "Gut shabbes". People do
   say "a gutn shabbes" (which makes sense to me), but just
   "gut shabbes". Why does the "gut" not get a suffix in
   this case?

2. And why is "ovnt" treated differently, that is, "Gutn
   ovnt", meaning, "I wish you a good evening"? After all,
   "morgn", "shabbes" and "ovnt" are all masculine.

3. The above question also applies to the feminine "wokh":
   Why is it "Gut wokh" and yet "A gute wokh"?

-- Itzhak "Jeff" Finger --

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 14:12:17 -0800
From: jfrisch@euler.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: shtramels

Concerning Payrets Matt's commentary about the fur tails used
as trim for a shtramels, I would like to add an old yiddish
proverb(?)

  man kayn nicht machen a shtramel fun a chaser shwantzel.
  of course the same idea as the silk purse, but more fun.

Joe Frisch

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 08 Nov 1992 09:51:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: ANAKHIMOVSKY@COLGATEU.BITNET
Subject: productive subscribers

Since you asked, and since no one else is likely to bring
it up, here's mine:  Russian-Jewish Literature and
Identity, Johns Hopkins, 1992.

Alice Nakhimovsky

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End of Mendele Vol 2.94