Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.185
November 16, 1994

1) Introduction (Leybl Goldberg)
2) Moishe Rosenfeld (Rick Gildemeister)
3) That YIVO romanization table (Shleyme Axelrod)
4) Hefker (Mikhl Herzog)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 16:38:00 -0500 (EST)
From: lgoldberg@worldbank.org
Subject: Introduction

Leybl (Lee) Goldberg is a 37-year old Yiddish kultur-tuer and educator in
the Washington, D.C. area.  Learned Yiddish from his Ukrainian-born
grandmother and studied in Weinreich program in Columbia Univ. in 1976.
Active in D.C. Yiddish activities for past four years (Leyenkrayz,
Yiddish of Greater Washington, Arbeter Ring Branch 1100); teaches Yiddish
language and Yiddish film at area JCC's; presently Board member of
Yiddish of Greater Washington; organizer of two Yiddish conversation
groups, including the AR-sponsored "Shmues-Krayz" which meets Tuesdays at
lunchtime in downtown Washington (visitors, new participants welcome!).
Current interests are improving his command of Ukrainian Yiddish dialect
and expanding availability of Yiddish radio and TV.  Lives with his wife,
Baibai, in Bowie Maryland; works as economist in Washington.

Leybl Goldberg

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 94 11:30:59 EST
From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu
Subject: Moishe Rosenfeld

Borukh habo, tayerer fraynd Moyshe. Mit etlekhe yorn tsurik hob ikh yedn
zuntik tsugehert ayer WEVD program, Di Forverts Sho. Itst hobn mir an
emese perzenlekhkayt tsvishn undz!

Veyst ir, az Ellen Prince, velkhe mit aykh hot geshtelt a Forverts Sho
vegn di zingern Sore Gorby, zi gehert oykh tsu di Mendelnikes un
Mendelnitses.

Ikh hob gezen ayer nomen un tsu zikh gezogt, dos ken nisht zayn der
zelbiker, hob ikh ongehoybn leyenen ayer "biografye". Ir kent nisht visn
vifl hanoe hot mir gegebn zen ayere verter.

Eyn mol hob ikh aykh gehert oyf der radio zeyer in der fri, un ir hot dem
oylem gegebn di letste nayes; un dan, hot ir ongehoybn redn vegn dem
veter. "Haynt vet zayn volkndik ... "

Nokh a mol, borukh habo, fraynd Moyshe!

Rick Gildemeister

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 13:18:04 -0500 (EST)
From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Subject: That YIVO romanization table

A couple of subscribers have thanked me for the romanization, YIVO-style
post of Vol. 4.170.  Please be aware that it's only historical accident
that it was my name that was attached to that volume of Mendele.  I made
the first draft, which was then reviewed by ellen prince, Mikhl Herzog,
Zellig Bach, and Arn Abramson.  Arn in particular undertook extensive
revision, and successive iterations passed between us before it finally
appeared as 4.170. (Prematurely, as it turned out:  our handling of the
double-consonant issue was incomplete, as has been noted here by Dovid
Braun [4.175--see also Arn's post in 4.179]).

Shleyme Axelrod

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 94  23:23 EST
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Hefker, again.

Fraynd Zelig:

Ir kent dokh ayer shtetl aleyn bashteyn but, let one of your fans add a
word or two in support of your efforts.

I know the jurical meaning of "hefker", more or less, but I learned it
only after I had learned its 'plain meaning' in Yiddish 'chaos',
'anarchy', 'lawlessness' (if only in a figurative sense), although we
learn, today, that even chaos is rule governed.

Is it a fact that property that does not belong to anyone is outside the
protection of the law? Your definition says it is not. Thus, when a
copyright expires, ownership rights to the work in question are
transferred to the "public domain" but the integrity of the work
continues to enjoy the protection of the law.

Your expression "Yiddish is not hefker" would suggest that while Yiddish
is "in the public domain", it is itself not anarchic, not "gezetslozik",
for anyone to do with as he pleases. It is not without the protection of
the laws which have governed its evolution. These have always been, and
will continue to be subject to change; but even change in language is not
anarchic--it proceeds along linguistically reasonable and, if not
entirely predictable, retrospectively explicable lines". It is not
governed by the whim of the individual.

Otherwise a language could not continue to function to facilitate
communication, as you say, plainly, simply, directly. Written or spoken,
it would fail the basic test of ready comprehension. Thus, not
withstanding the fact that a language is in the public domain, it is
still _protected_ by the established "laws", that a responsible member of
the speech-community is expected to follow.

Zayt gezunt, biz hundert un tsvantsik yor.

Mikhl Herzog

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 4.185

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