Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.158 October 29, 1994 1) Yiddishe vs. Hebraishe Oysyes (Avrom Yitzkhok Blair) 2) Amul iz geven a bubitchkale... (Mendy Fliegler) 3) Translation (Jascha Kessler) 4) Only in my family.. (Soreh Benor) 5) Kwartin (Kayle Goodman) 6) Rote brik (Dan Leeson) 7) Yiddish software (Laurie Hollander) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 18:03:26 -0400 (EDT) From: ablair@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Yiddishe vs. Hebraishe Oysyes Tayer Fedder-Frayts, and potential fedder-fraynts: Please let me know when you communicate with me fir a fedder-frayt, whether you can write in Hebrew script (or type) or whether you want to use transliteration. All of you F-F's out there who are "incompatible" in this manner, please get in touch with me ASAP. Avrom Yitzkhok Blair, International F-F Chmn. (Hoo-Ha!) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 21:53:55 -0400 From: sroolik@aol.com Subject: Amul iz geven a bubitchkale... tayere mendlnikes, ikh hob far mehre yuhren gezikht dos kinder poeme mit die verter: "amuhl iz geven a bubitchkale iz zie gegangen in vald arayn ziekhn shpendelakh"..... Nu hob ikh es getrofn in Toronto ven ich bin geven tzu der 2ter Yidisher Internashyonaller Konferentz a pur vochen tzurik. Nor ikh hob es getrofen in a muzee, in der Bayss Tzedik synagogeh muzee in a shahfe farmakht unter gluz. Ikh bin shoin mehr vie tzvay un zekhtzik yuhr alt, un die poeme hot mir meyn mame dertzelt ven ikh bin geven arum 6 yuhr alt ober ikh gedenk nisht die andereh verter. Ikh bayt aykh chevreh, vie ken ikh krigen a kopie fun dem doziken poeme, khawtch ikh vet zeher dus badarft dertzeylen meine ayniklakh. mendy fliegler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 94 21:36 PDT From: ime9jfk@mvs.oac.ucla.edu Subject: Translation [re: Ausubel's translation (Vol 4.146)] I find this translation astonishing, or I am utterly stupid? One grandfather is not a scholar, but a lush; the other is a crook. So to name the child after either of these grandfathers, makes for great laughter, since they both have the same name. They are both, the grandfathers, useless. What gives here? Jascha Kessler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Oct 1994 01:10:31 -0400 (EDT) From: seb28@columbia.edu Subject: Only in my family.. In response to Dovid Braun's request: My mother used to (and still sometimes does) call me "bunshkie" (or "boonshke") as an endearing term. She has no idea why she started saying it -- she thinks she might have just made it up. But it certainly has that Yiddish sound. (It could be spelled "beis" "vov" "nun" "shin" "kuf" "ayin.") Has anyone heard this word before? And does anyone have ideas about its etymology? Soreh Benor 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Oct 1994 09:42:41 -0700 From: ac939@lafn.org Subject: Kwartin Bernard Greenberg's description of Zawel Kwartin was interesting enough to impel me to ask for a list of the works he referred to in his collection. Ikh vel araynkukn in dem inyon un efsher koyfn etlekhe "tapes". Ikh hob nisht kayn CD muz ikh kukn far "tapes". A daynk. Kayle Goodman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Oct 1994 09:50:53 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Rote brik, this time clearly I was quite unclear in my original posting on the matter of "Rote brik" so no wonder no one could figure out what I meant. Oi. Guilt. What I meant was this: When used as the name of a place, is there anything humorous about calling it Rote brik? That is to say, it is the Yiddish equivalent of Podunk, or some other tiny, insignificant village that has no activity of any kind? Thus, to say that someone is from Rote brik is to say that they are a hayseed or a hick. Is such a subtlety attached to that expression? That is how I should have expressed my question the first time around. The fact that I did not has left me with such guilt that I have, as my mother used to say in Yiddish, been in bed with the doctor for two weeks! (An exaggeration of course, but a way to transfer guilt to the listener who therefore must assume that my illness is due to his or her non-respon- siveness. It's an art for, the movement of guilt around the universe.) Dan Leeson 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Oct 94 15:54:41 -0400 From: laurie@silvertone.princeton.edu Subject: Yiddish Software Stanley Werbow referred to an old program called Mouse-Write, which came out of the Hillel at Harvard. If the Harvard Hillel had such a program, then they probably have an even better one now. Maybe they have even collaborated with Harvard's Yiddish Studies Program. That would be a real mechayah (sp?), because programs concocted at universities are usually made available through anonymous ftp at no charge once the originators perceive that there is a global need for their program. Surely we must have Harvardians on this list. Why don't y'all look into this, and see if you can get something going? I have been yearning for a word-processing program for Yiddish; I have access to Macintosh, IBM PC, and NeXT computers. Software for any and all platforms would be welcome, but I can't spend much. Laurie Hollander [An excellent recent survey by Mendelnik Steve Seidman is available by anonymous ftp (see the end of each issue for details). The file is software.faq. nm] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.158 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu