Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.292 January 23, 1995 1) Hasidim and Yiddish (Miriam Isaacs) 2) Apikoyres (Rick Turkel) 3) Ayn por shikh (Itzik Moskovitz) 4) Mzinke (Martin Davis) 5) Yiddish and German (Arre Komar) 6) Boston Globe Yiddish article (Dovid Braun) 7) Shalatn-shames (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 10:24:49 -0500 (EST) From: miriamis@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu Subject: Hasidim and Yiddish Vegn [Eliyahu] Yuni's bamerkungen vegn Yidish bai di khasidim (Vol 4.281), er hat take rekht az Yidish iz nokh alts bai zei a lebedike shprakh, khotsh dem vos es iz nit standardiziert, un gemisht mit andere shprakhn. Nor ven iz dos nit geven azoi bai di khasidim? Di Isroldike khasidim mishn arayn nisht a bisl Ivrit. Ikh denk, Yuni, di Yidishistn vos hobn bashribn di khasidim un hobm tife gefiln gegn di gor frimkeit un haltn oikh tife gefiln az Yidish darf zain a natsyonale, standardizirte, literarishe shprakh. Di probleym iz dokh, afile az mentshn viln nit es zol azoi sain, az di Yidishe shprak is nor a lebedike bai di khasidim, un far di literarishe, veltlikhe Yidn, zainen faranen eintsike mentshn, do un dort, iberhoypt di vos kenen leynen vos ikh hob du tzuzamengeklopt in shlekhte transkriptsie). Mir etlikhe vos staren zikh oyftzuhalten di shprakh, kenen zi nit oyfhaltn. A lebedike shprakh on a gas vu men nitst zi ken nisht lang gedoyrn. Bay di khasidim egzistiren a sakh geslekh, afile un di standartn, lernen zey zeyere kinder, zey dertselyn vitsn un dertseyln maynses. Bay zey shoynt men di shprakh, vi Herzog zogt, un men ken oykh shoynen a shprakh nisht gestandardizierterhayt. S'iz dokh a shprakh un an armei. Ikh hob oykh bamerkt in khasidishe shuln in isrol vi di khasidim vaysn yo vegn Yidishn literatur un zenen nisht in gantsn opgezundert fun di veltlikhe velt. Ikh volt gevolt visn mer vegn di Yidish redndige hasidim fun Toronto. Miriam Isaacs 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 95 12:20:39 EST From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: _Apikoyres_ Omeyn! to Mikhl Herzog's gloss of _apikoyres_ as "heretic." My late father-in- law, Harry Siller, z"l, had a wonderful story illustrating this, which I will relate in English. A man prides himself as being the biggest apikoyres in the world. One day he hears of a man in Shnipishek who is an even bigger apikoyres than he is, and he decides to go visit him. He arrives there early in the morning after a three-day walk, and he is directed to this man's house. There is no answer when he knocks, but since the door is ajar he enters quitely, only to find the target of his search standing in the room wrapped in a talis and tfilin and shokling. He waits for the man to finish davening, and then tells him of his surprise to find the person purported to be the biggest apikoyres in the world engaged in such activity. The man responds, "Well, I may be an apikoyres but I'm not a goy!" Rick Turkel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 11:03:34 +0800 (PST) From: hcedu012@huey.csun.edu Subject: Ayn por shikh Sometime between 1939 and 1943 at the Borokhov shule on division street in Chicago, Fishl Oderberg and I learned a song that goes something like this: Ayn por shikh hobn mir Ayn por shikh ikh un er Gayen mir in di letste mode un tsuzamen kain mol nisht Ven Archie daf gayn, bleyb ikh in shtub alayn Ven Archie daf gayn, bleyb ikh in shtub alayn Lebn mir in zalbanand In gliklach un farban bsholem bshas bvei harmonie ikh un er. Now the question is, is there more to this song I don't remember? Is it written anywhere with notes and music etc. I'd love to get hold of it. Itzik Moskovitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 95 15:41:54 EST From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: Mzinke Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan: "Di Mizinke" is the last remaining unmarried daughter. So when she has been "oisgegebn" all the daughters have been married off (and presumably the necessary "nadn" successfully obtained). Truly a time for rejoicing. Martin Davis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 17:45:40 -0500 (EST) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Yiddish and German I wish to thank Mikhl Herzog and Dovid Braun. they hit the nail on the head, indeed several nails but unfortunately only one head. Although my childhood language was Yiddish I had to study German in college. To survive I was compelled to unlearn Yiddish in many subtle ways. In later life it is the German that I have attempted to unlearn, but as you can see, not with great success. Incidently, in case you couldn't have guessed, the Yiddish dictionary that I employ is Harkavy. However, although it is totally accepting of so-called "daytchmerisms" it also happens to comport much more strongly with the Yiddish of my parents, relatives and childhood neighbors than does Weinreich. And in that respect I'm not misremebering since I have made an effort to check with siblings and Brooklyn friends. Arre Komar Bronx, NY 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 20:03:32 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Boston Globe Yiddish article The Boston Globe Magazine of Sun. Jan. 22 contains an article "Mazel [sic] Tov: A Yiddish Revival [sic]". One paragraph is devoted to yours truly, containing two quotations. I would like it publicly known that the first quotation is mine, although totally out of context ("It takes chutzpah to consider Yiddish dead") and the second is not even a quotation -- or perhaps a quotation of somebody else, but not me. As such, I won't even print it, but I do dissociate myself from it. As I told the reporter, a historian of modern Ashkenazic Jewry was recently talking to me about Yiddish and at one point said, "Well, everyone knows that Yiddish is a dead language." This was especially surprising coming from this individual since the person is well-informed about contemporary Jewish society and, in addition, is known to be a defender of the rights of minorities and of the underdog in general. As far as I was concerned, dismissing two statistically significant subpopulations and one valiant but statistically insignificant subpopulation of Jewry is khutspe, especially since it came from an individual who is (or should be) knowledgeable of the statistics. (The subpopulations are, of course, a. the ultra-Orthodoxy, b. senior citizenry, c. non-ultra-Orthodox, non-seniors who use Yiddish regularly with their families.) This person agreed, with little resistance, that indeed if you are 60 and over, that doesn't qualify you as dead; and if you observe your religion in a particular way, you also should not be considered dead. Just because these communities are marginal wrt mainstream society should not kill them. Dovid Braun 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 00:20 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Shalatn-shames Sam Juni, we _should_ make it an international affair. The more the merrier. I have a friend in Israel who's been badgering me for two years to tell him the etymology of this word. Did I once pose a query on Mendele about it? In any event, let's get the budding Toronto linguist in on the act to (does he have a name?); and your Mexican mishpokhe, too. Do they all speak Yiddish? Carpathian Yiddish? A treasure! Which of the Carpathian towns are they all from? Back to the _shalatn-shames_. My definition is actually quite different than yours. A "gopher" is, after all, someone you send. A _shalatn-shames_ is distinguished by the fact that you don't have to send him; _er geyt shoyn aleyn_. In other words _er iz eyner vos tut nit-getene toyves_. Test that on the fount of all knowledge--your mother. Mikhl Herzog _____________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.292 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 subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. 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