Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.031
June 19, 1994

1) Introduction (David Gasser)
2) Handwriting (Khayem Bochner)
3) German and Yiddish (Zev bar-Lev)
4) Schlemiel (Yitzhak Kertesz)
5) Pique (Mikhl Herzog)
6) Jacob Pat (Gaston L. Schmir)
7) Sholem Asch; Jacob Pat; a proposal (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 15:53:25 1994
From: david_gasser@merck.com
Subject: Introduction

As someone with absolutely no formal introduction to Yiddish (I speak
Dutch fluently but my parents never spoke Yiddish), I still understand
quite a bit when it's spoken.  I have only rarely seen it written.  I
have more trouble reading the (transliterated into English) language.
Are dictionaries published in English characters?  Are there conventions
for the transliteration?  Can you recommend any material which I could
use to teach myself?  I'm a quick study with languages and would really
like to speak Yiddish well.

I would appreciate your insights.  Thanks.

David Gasser

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 13:55:15 1994
From: bochner@das.harvard.edu
Subject: re: handwriting

Bear in mind that handwriting is very individual. In Yiddish this is
particularly true with respect to cursive combinations of letters (ayin
plus reysh, nun plus daled, etc), and this is a particularly difficult
area for those of us who were taught that to write every letter
separately ;-)

In the cases I've dealt with, familiarizing myself with the handwriting
has been enough to transform something that was impenetrable at first to
something only moderately difficult ;-)

Treat it like breaking a code: start with the short words. Most of them
will be common words, and at least some of them should be unmistakable.
Treat them as clues: if you find a clear case of "der", for instance,
that tells whether this writer links ayin and reysh together. If they do,
then that explains the funny curlicue at the ends of lots of other words.
Now maybe that helps you come up with a good guess about a word you
couldn't decipher before. That gives you another clue. And so on. After a
while you learn all the special tricks in this particular handwriting,
and it becomes reasonably clear. Wherever it isn't smudged or scribbled;
the worst thing is a smudge on top of a word you don't know ...

The best thing is to find someone who learned to read & write in Europe,
and have them help you get started.

Good luck,

Khayem Bochner

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 15:12:40 1994
From: zbarlev@zeus.sdsu.edu
Subject: German and Yiddish

a little example to back up mark devlin's insightful comments on German &
Yiddish: a friend of my mother's, whose Yiddish is mostly a little
remembered from when she was a child, traveled around Germany very easily
using her Yiddish.  often there was no comment at all, just communication
such as it was.  but occasionally she was asked where in Germany she was
from! (apparently the response to her answer was non-remarkable.)

Zev bar-Lev

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 15:20:50 1994
From: BM.LBH%RLG.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: Schlemiel

> As a sort of appendix, I would add that there _are_ a number of Yiddish
> words that have been borrowed into German.  The ones I am aware of are
> among those familiar to most Americans: Chuzpe, Schlamassel, Schlemiel
> (as they are spelt in German).

Mark Devlin,

what is your proof that the last two were borrowed Y>G and not G>Y?

I don't think anybody doubts the origins of "Chupze" (greetings, Ms.
Szabo), but the other two?

Yitzhak Kertesz

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jun 17 15:24:43 1994
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU
Subject: Pique

A recent sequence of postings on Mendele prompted me to relate the
following in a private message to one of our subscribers. hamEYvn yOvin!

	Maks Vaynraykh, olevasholem, hot amol dertseylt az der khilek
tsvishn an english-reyder un a yidish-reyder iz vos an english reyder,
ven er hert a vort vos er farshteyt nit, farshemt zikh, makht a shvayg,
un zukht in verterbukh. Vos tut ober a yidish-reyder in aza fal? Er
shraybt on a briv in der redaktsye fun Forverts (oder, haynt tsu tog, in
Mendele) un zogt "s'iz nito aza vort".

To my constant delight, Yiddish "as she is spoke" continues to reveal
itself in often upredictable and always colorful ways, defying
authoritative pronouncements about what is or is not a Yiddish word.

Mikhl Herzog

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat Jun 18 10:11:58 1994
From: glschm@minerva.cis.yale.edu
Subject: Jacob Pat

With reference to Jacob Pat, mentioned by Noyekh Miller in Mendele 4.030,
the following information appears in News of the YIVO (Yedies fun YIVO),
no 98, June 1966:

"Jacob Pat [1890-1966] was born in Bialystok...He became of the pioneers
of the Yiddish school in Poland and executive secretary of the TSISHO
(Central Yiddish School Organization....He was a delegate to the first
World Conference of YIVO in Vilna [1935].

Zint di mit tsvantsiker yorn is er geven a firndiker tuer fun Bund, a
shtendiker mitarbeter fun der varshever Folkstsaytung un fun a rey
literarishe oysgabes...Zint 1942 biz ... 1962 iz er geven
ekzekutiv-sekretar fun yidishn arbeter-komitet. Er iz geven initsiator,
mitgrinder vi oykh forzitser fun alveltlekher yidishn kultur-kongres.
Yakov Pat iz geven zeyr a frukhperdiker shrayber...hot er geshribn
kurtser un gresere dertseylungen, etlekhe bikher bashraybungen tsu der
friiker geshikhte fun Bund, a groyser tsol kinder-mayselekh (zint 1918)un
einakters farkinder, lernbikher fun yidish un yidisher literatur, vi oykh
etlekhe drames. Zayn letst bukh Khaneke (1965) iz a dertseylung far
kinder vegn der untererdishn bavegung in bialystoker geto."

Jacob Pat was the author of Ash un fayer (Iber di khurves fun poyln),
CYCO, New York, 1946, which also appeared in English translation, Ashes
and fire, International UP, New York, 1947.

Gaston L. Schmir

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun Jun 19 14:12:05 1994
From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu
Subject: Scholem Asch; Jacob Pat; a proposal

From our department of no-sooner-asked-than: Regarding Dan Leeson's
request (Vol.4.023; see also Pinyeh Weichsel's post in Vol.4.025), there
is a brief note in the latest issue of "Afn Shvel", no. 294, telling of
Henne Berliner-Fishtal's succesful defense of her dissertation
(institution not named) entitled "The Change in Scholem Asch's
Reputation".

(Incidentally, I was a personal witness to that change as a young man.
Details some other time.)

Many thanks for Gaston Schmir's quick reply as to who Jacob Pat was.
And as is the way with such things, no sooner had I announced my
ignorance than I found in Jacob Glatstein's posthumous (1972) _In der
Velt mit Idish_ a loving memorial to Jacob Pat.  But according to JG,
Pat was not simply a shtendiker mitarbeter of the Folkstsaytung but at
one point editor.  In the U.S.he became an editor of Tsukunft.

I'll say it again: what the world needs is--at the very least--a
biographical dictionary of the world of Yiddish letters.  There is no
reason why this could not be a group effort.  Mendele can easily deposit
in its archives directory any and all articles about Yiddish writers that
readers submit.  Such a dictionary would certainly be and remain
incomplete and even fragmentary, but it would be a start.

Better yet, if one or more of our knowledgeable readers would be willing
to serve as an editorial board for the project, we might get somewhere
reasonably quickly.

Vos zogt ir, chevra?

Noyekh Miller

______________________________________________________
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