Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.297 March 23, 1994 1) Migldik (Meylekh Viswanath) 2) Introduction (Rick Gildemeister) 3) Sources of current "natural" Yiddish (David Sherman) 4) Reflexive periphrastic verbs (Jeremy Stern) 5) Jewish lists (Hope Ehn) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 13:51:48 1994 From: VISWANATH@draco.rutgers.edu Subject: Migldik Dovid's statement re: "loy _shomati_ eyno rayo" is on the mark. However, I was somewhat disappointed. I don't see people on the other side of the argument being convinced. They might very well say to Dovid: your statement is no proof that migldik was used by yenem's bobe, either. The question is, what do we assume as a null. The matter would, however, be comparatively settled if someone could give cites from, say literature of the last century where 'migldik' was used, or better still evidence of its use in spoken yiddish. Meylekh 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 14:33:47 1994 From: Subject: Introduction I come from a Hanseatic Protestant family that established themselves about 150 years ago in Chile and Peru. My family was very involved in the Peruvian foreign service, and my grandfather represented the Peruvian government in Berlin up to World War II; it was there that my father was exposed to Yiddish. When I was 14, I discovered Yiddish and have been fascinated with the language ever since. People tell me I talk like a Litvak, probably because I learned the pronunciation of the literary standard. I also speak the stage standard and code-switch a lot back and forth, lemoshl: I always say "shteytl" instead of shtetl, but I always say "nokh" not nukh. Anyway, my father would give me samples of words he heard in Berlin. I pooh poohed his knowledge for the longest time, until I got interested in Mayrev Yiddish. It turns out that my father was right after all. For example, in Eastern (standard) Yiddish one says "revekh", and further South the pronunciation "reyvekh" was common. What my father learned was "rebakh" (note the b), which I found listed in a Juedisch-Deutsch text. Mayrev Yiddish is my current passion. Also, we talk a lot about Daytsh- merizmen; it worked both ways. Mayrev Yiddish crept into Dutch (sjofel = schoufel, meaning shabby) and into German (akhlen, to eat) and "Juss" meaning "ten"; the latter must be very old, old enough to have predated the Highland shift of final t to s. One final anecdote; my father had an uncle in Germany who spoke fluent Yiddish. He made up pet names for everyone. My father, now Enrique (we Hispanicized our names in solidarity with the Allies) was called Heinrich then, and his uncle called him Henekh; so if I have a Yiddish name, that's it (though we followed the German Christian minhag lehavdl of naming kids after their fathers). I look forward to being a member of Mendele. Rick Gildemeister 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 14:48:34 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Sources of current "natural" Yiddish Arre Komar mentions the existing communities that speak Yiddish and wonder what kinds of Yiddish they use today: > It is the duty of the academic to go out in the real world to learn > what is happening out there rather than theorizing in an ivory tower. If you're looking for source material and do not have an easy entree into the Chassidic world for field work, there are many cassette tapes available today, aimed at kids, which you could use for resources. Any seforim store in Boro Park has them. (Eichler's on 13th Ave. is just one example.) The speakers aren't using Yiddish in any self-conscious way -- they're using it to communicate with their target audience. We have a number of them (our kids enjoy them). There's a bit of English vocabulary dropped in, though not an overwhelming amount. The groups producing the tapes are, I believe, generally Satmar Chassidim, and the accent (vowel shifts etc.) is a Southern Yiddish. Sample titles you could look for include Der Alef-Bays Velt; Di Mitsve Kaytl; Avremeleh (a series with 4 tapes so far); Ikh Bin Alt Dray Yur. Of course, the content is generally religious and mitzvah-oriented. Our son goes to a Lubavitch cheder, where, ironically, he's one of only 2 boys in a class of 17 who actually speak Yiddish fluently. But the teachers use quite a bit of Yiddish in class, and the Lubavitch pronunciation is, of course, a "Russian" Yiddish. Again, there is recorded material around which any interested researchers could study. (Recordings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe might be difficult to work with, since he uses a vast quantity of Hebrew vocabulary in his talks. The "sichos" directed to women more "pure" Yiddish, however.) David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 16:14:26 1994 From: Subject: Reflexive periphrastic verbs A quick shayle concerning Yiddish verbs: How are reflexive periphrastic verbs conjugated in the present tense. So, would it be ikh bin zikh moyde or ikh bin moyde zikh for the verb zikh moyde zayn? My ear tells me the former, but I am not sure. Jeremy Stern 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 17:15:33 1994 From: Subject: Jewish lists Last night,l I discovered an E-mail list for Jewish music. It's apparently a new list, as it seems to have only 20 members so far. But if people log on and use it, it will grow. The list is called "jewish-music." To subscribe, address E-mail to . The message should say: SUBSCRIBE JEWISH-MUSIC Your Name . The list address for posting is . I have been trying to track down and verify all E-mail lists for classical music, early music, musicology, and ethnomusicology. This is the only list I have found related to Jewish music. There is a newsgroup, called "alt.music.jewish"; this list does not appear to be an echo of the newsgroup. I can't be sure about that, as I am still working on verifying mailing lists and thus have not had time to check out the newsgroup. I have discovered what appears to be the "mother lode" of Jewish lists. When I sent the command LIST to , I got back a list of about 75 Jewish lists run from that listserv. The message also included 71 lists run from other srvers, including MENDELE and the lists at the jerusalem1 system in Israel. Happy hunting! Hope Ehn ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.297 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. 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