Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 189 May 2, 1993 1) "The Adventures of Menakhem Mendel" Pierre P. Lewis 2) Ya tebe dam (Alan Rutkowski) 3) Ya tebe dam (Mottll Lakin) 4) IdYid/id (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 30 10:38:00 1993 From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" Subject: Text for "The Adventures of Menakhem Mendel" Thanks to all who provided help on my question about the Adventures of Menakhen Mendel. I'll surely be writing to the National Yiddish Book Center. The unasked question (which edition) was important, and so is the answer, for my Yiddish is certainly not so good that orthographic differences won't cause trouble! I checked in the McGill library. They have no less than four sets of "ale werk fun sholem aleykhem"! Three are the folks-fond edition ('17-'25), one is the morgn-frayhayt edition ('37). All appear equivalent to me except for the numbering of the volumes. I checked the Menakhem-Mendel volume (2 or 10). I see the correspondence between the man and his wife, but nothing that looks like a play (or am I going to see a man and a woman on stage 'reading' the letters?!). A little book on Sholem-Aleykhem I'm reading now mentions this correspondence and also that the author reworked this material into an epistolary novel later (which, I presume, is what I see). Again no mention of a play. Is the play perhaps an adaptation for the stage by someone else than the author? Anyway, I think my best bet at this point might be to get in touch with the folks of the Montreal Yiddish Theater and ask them :-)! Unrelated question: anyone have an opinion on a book published in '64 by DTV (Germany) called "Jiddisch, Abenteuer einer Sprache"? Title is certainly enticing! A groysn dank, Pierre[le] Lewis BTW, I tried replying to Zachary directly, but my mailer (expectedly) didn't grok the address (...@rlg). What might it be as seen from Internet? Should I add .bitnet? 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 30 12:39:00 1993 From: Subject: YA TEBE DAM It occurs to me that this is a mild threat in Russian and a bigshot is one who can issue threats. Alan Rutkowski 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 30 17:01:58 1993 From: MLAKIN%DUKEMVS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Ya tebe dam The phrase "Ya-tebe-dam" in Yiddish is almost invariably (in my great and extensive experience of listening to my parents use it to us kids) accompanied or rather preceeded by the two words " a groisser" The words themselves are of course Russian and literally mean "I'll give you"! The entire phrase was taken to mean " You think you are such a hot shot or a big deal, don't you. However, in the original Russian the phrase suggests, "I'll give you what for"! So I think that the sentiment is admonitory. ie. watch yourself kid or you are going to get it! I don't believe that it was at all admiring, but in Jewish usage it sort of had a "chutzpenik" ring to it, as though you might possibly really be worthy of admiration from somebody's point of view, but certainly not from mine (ours)! It might evenhave shortly preceeded another warning "Ich vell dir bald aroplozen a por petch" or "Lomir zehen fun vanen die fis vaksen". Naturally, upon hearing the latter phrases I knew enough to make myself scarce! I have a question myself for any Mendelnikes who might be interested in how Yiddish might have sounded in White Russia or Lithuania several hundred years ago, say before the war with France. We know that spoken English was remarkably different in sound. Is there anything like a tape where someone has researched and then attempted to duplicate forms of speech of those earlier times in terms of word sounds and injections of Russian or Polish speech in specific terms? I realize that war and peace will not be decided on the basis of your responses but I'd like to have them anyway. A groissen dank! Mottel Lakin (Locally known as Motke der Ganif) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 30 15:11:10 1993 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: IdYid/id Traditionally, ALL Yiddish words beginning with a vowel, EXCEPT for the "e" vowel, are spelled with an initial aleph. This is simply a continuation of the Hebrew pattern which requires words to begin with a consonant. Both alef and ayin (which renders Yiddish "e") are consonants. No recourse to taboos is necessary. Mikhl ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.189