______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.243 February 23, 1994 1) Introduction (Odem Vaytman) 2) Kein bischen Risches (Yitzhak Kertesz) 3) Speech synthesis (Arn Abramson) 4) Vos zol m'heysen a "gay" af yidish? (Meyshe-Yankel Sweet) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 18:19:18 1994 From: Adam Whiteman <74031.775@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem alemen. Do shraybt Odem Vaytman (Adam Whiteman) fun Nyu York. Mit tsvey vokhn karik hobn mir - tsum sof - gekeyft a modem nokh kimat 8 yor arbetn mit kompyuters un yidish. A bisl vegn zikh. Ikh veyn in Nyu York mit mayn vayb Perl (Paula) Teitelbaum un unzere tsvey tekhter - Shifra un Leah. Mir firn a yidish redndike huys un zenen activ in der Yidish Lige, Yugntruf un Pripetshik. Fun fakh bin ikh a kredit analitiker far Moody's Investors Service mit a spetsialitet fun finansn fun aeroportn. Farshteyt zikh, az aeroport finantsn un idish xobn nit kin sakh beshutves eyner mitn tsvetyn ober .... in October hob ikh hob zikh getrofn mit eyne fun di directorn fun di Montrealer aeroportn, vos vayzt uys iz a Vilner yid! A por mentshn hobn geredt vegn di Yidishe kompyuter terminen vos mirn gedrukt in Yugntruf mit a por yor karik. Ikh bin greyt tsuneyfzamlen yener grupe tsu arbetn af E-Mail terminen. Zayt azey gut un shikt tsu di terminen vos ir vilt faryidishn un ayere firleygn. Vegn Dona Dona - in November bin ikh gezesn in der kretchme in der Delhi Oberoi Hotel in India. Tsvishn di lider vos der pianist hot geshiplt - merstns fun zey nit zeyer gutgeshpilt - iz geven Dona Dona. Letste Nayes - Mit a tsvey vokhn karik hobn mir geleynt in Forverts az di tsaytung Letste Nayes halt zikh baym farmaken. Vos iz di letste nayes vegn Letste Nayes? Mit dem endikt zikh mayn debyut. Ikh kuk aruys af a fule interesante shmusn. Odem Vaytman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 18:59:02 1994 From: "Yitzhak Kertesz" Subject: Kein bischen Risches Dr. Herzog, adjectives in Aramaic are normally in the "QAttil" form, so much so, that there is a yod indicating the short i (Qattiyl). TzAddik, CHAkkim, SAggiy (numerous), and many more, including RAshshi'a: that is resh-patach-shin (dagesh)-chirik-ayin-chataf patach. See: Beyer, Klaus 'Die aramaeischen Texte vom Toten Meer' Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984, p. 435. The feminine form adds -tav-kametz-aleph/hey (depending on orthogr.) CHakkimtah, Tzaddiktah, Rashshi'a:tah see also Levy's Talmudic dictionary. in Hebrew, of course, the feminine of rasha' is re:sha'ah Levy mentions "malkhut hare:sha'ah" (resh-sheva-shin-kometz-ayin-kometz-hey) 2. re: Mechutantah my question is, how do you know that this is Hebrew with Aramaic ending, and not straight Aramaic? i.e. How else would be: mechutenet + -ah (def. article) On the other hand, according to Levy, the entire mechutan business is "spaetrabbinisch" which is his way of saying post-Talmudic, or medieval. Thus, I think, it can be anything. Yitzhak Kertesz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 23:49:55 1994 From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: Speech synthesis To: Michael Braten The DECTALK program available for ENGLISH is possible because of years of research into the acoustic analysis of English speech, the testing of perceptual hypotheses by means of synthetic speech, and the development of rules for the synthesis of intelligible English speech. I am not aware that anyone has done this for Yiddish. One scientist, Dr. Asher Laufer of the Department of Hebrew Language, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the only one I know about who has done extensive work on the synthesis of modern Hebrew. Perhaps he can tell you whether such a system is available for practical use. I don't have his e-mail address here at home or in my computer directory. I may be able to get it for you tomorrow. Arn Abramson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 23:52:02 1994 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Vos zol m'heysen a "gay" af yidish? It's puzzled me for quite a while that there still seems to be no contemporary term for gay/lesbian people in Yiddish. The Forverts still uses "homoseksualist", which has the same negative (i.e., medicalized, distancing) connotations as "homosexual" does in English. Most languages that I know of have dealt with this problem either by just adopting the English word, with perhaps a twist of spelling (e.g., gai in French), translated it (khush in Hindi), or used an already existing native word for gay person (flikker in Dutch, schwul in German). In Yiddish "gey" is already a commonly used verb form, which complicates matters. How about either a translation "a freylikher", or the good old (American?) Yiddish "feygele"? Although used contemptuously for the most part, it could certainly be proudly reclaimed, like "queer"--it's a nice image, and the diminutive gives it an affectionate sound. Does anyone know the etymology of this word, or seen it used in Yiddish literature? Anyway, appreciate people's comments and suggestions--if we get a consensus, we can submit it to the Yiddish Academy (YIVO?, Morkhe Schaekhter?). By the by, any other gay/les/bi Yidishistn out there? Love to hear from any "freylikhe khaverim". Meyshe-Yankl (Michael Sweet) ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.243 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Mendele: Yiddish literature and language