Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.294
January 26, 1995

1) Goethe un Yiddish (Moises Kijak)
2) Goethe's droshe (Ruben Frankenstein)
3) A romanized Yiddish-English dictionary (Yancle Gerger)
4) Khaver (Mendy Fliegler)
5) Yiddishkeit and Yiddish (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 17:56:58 ARG
From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar
Subject: Goethe un Yiddish

Taiere fraint,

in shaikhes mit der diskusie vegn Goethe's io oder nisht kenen idish, vil
ikh aikh recomendirn a balerndike arbet funem gelerntn Eliezer
Podriachik, gedrukt in zain bukh: "in profil fun tzaitn", Peretz farlag,
1978. in di zaitn 298-301, schraibt er fil eintzelaitn vegn Goethe's
lebn, zaine kentenishn sai fun hebreish, sai fun idish, un vegn di
shafungen oif idish vos er hot geshribn in zaine iunge iorn. s'iz a verk
vos iz kedai tzu leienen.

Zait ale gezunt.

P.S. mit etlekhe vokhn tzurik hob ikh zikh gevendet tzu aikh vegn a teme
vos interesirt mir: di oifshriftn oif sforim vos men git vi a matone.
meglekh az tzvishn aikh zenen faran bibliotekarn vos hobn di meglekhkait
araintzukukn in azelkhe sforim un lozn mikh visn vegn dem. a dank forois.
Aier argentiner fraint.

Moises Kijak

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 14:15:15 +0100 (MEZ)
From: frankens@mibm.ruf.uni-freiburg.de
Subject: Goethe's droshe

To Glenn Levine, Mikhl Herzog and all those who wanted to know more
about Goethe and Yiddish:

We know for sure that Goethe took lessons in Yiddish during the year
1761, at the age of 12. This is attested through the Housekeeping entry
of his father. His teacher was a former Jew, who converted to
Christianity by the name of Carl Christian Christfreund (Christ-amicus).
Goethe himself tells about it in his autobiographical "Dichtung und
Wahrheit". Actually he planned to write a novel about seven brothers and
a sister, scattered all over the world, communicating with each other in
their different languages: German, Latin, English, French, Italian and
the language of the youngest brother should have been "Judendeutsch" (the
term used those days for (West-)Yiddish). Goethe seems to have given up
this plan, which was never realized, but he learned all the languages
needed for the project. Recognizing that he could not really cope with
Yiddish without learning Hebrew and the Hebrew Alphabet - he then took
lessons in Hebrew as well and quite for a long period in the years
1762-1765. His teacher was now the rector of the Frankfurt Gymnasium -
Johann Georg Albrecht.

I can understand Mikhl Herzog`s disappointment because Goethe's text is
far from faultless, using "Goye" and "Goyen" instead of "Goy" and
"Goyim", "wer" instead of "mir" etc. This fact made some scholars to
doubt the autthenticity of the text and the authorship of Goethe, who
should have known better. But since the whole thing was a parody of the
young Goethe, maybe he mixed conciously Yiddish with the colloquial
Frankfurt Dialect. But look for example the use of the word "gepoeckert"
that is - "gepeygert" to perish (from the hebrew "peger"). The text is to
be found in any edition of the complete works of Goethe, for example
the one edited by Gerhard Sauder in the Carl Hanser Verlag, Muenchen
1987, Band 1.2, p. 191, or in "Der junge Goethe", edited by Hanna
Fischer-Lamberg in Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1963, Band I, p. 198.

Ruben Frankenstein

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 19:08:08 EST
From: hrmv59a@prodigy.com
Subject: Needed: a romanized Yiddish-English dictionary

Alzo, I would like a list that shows the following, as an example:

beshert........destined
baz..............mad
balagohla......wagon driver
mit...............with
etc
etc
 (in alphabetical order, of course)

I realize that such a list would be an "approximation" since many Yiddish
words have slightly different meaning to different people, however, such
a list, if one does not exsist, might be a nice project for Mendele. Such
a list would be helpful for those who have difficulty reading Hebrew.

Many Conservative and Reformed Prayer Books (Siddurim) transcribe certain
prayers, especially the Kaddish. I hope this clears up the
misunderstanding. By the way, I use the D.M.Harduf Dictionary and I read
Hebrew (and Yiddish) but haultingly. I can speak an Americanishe Yiddish
but some words have me stumped. Example: I saw the words "derfirt" or
"unternemung" in one of the postings and I did not know what they ment
and have no way to look them up, Do I look up daled, aleph or daled ein ?
Can you or anyone help in this matter.

Yancle Gerger

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 22:52:31 -0500
From: sroolik@aol.com
Subject: Khaver

Arnie, es iz take azoi, ven mayn futer iz geveyn a mitglider fun der
"partay" hobn zayne ale khevre fun zey zikh gerufen khaver. Ikh bin geven
a yingl oyf der farm, un shtendik gebrakht far im dus papir "Die
Frayhayt" ale khaverim hobn dus geleynt.

Mendy Fliegler

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 12:43:39 -0500
From: shirshan@aol.com
Subject: Yiddishkeit and Yiddish on Mendele

Because of Mendele (a gezunt aykh ale) I have just reread Cynthia Ozick's
short story, a maysterverk, "Envy; or, Yiddish in America." Filled with
Yiddishkeit that seeps, no flows, with the essence of the oysyelekh, does
it matter in the least if Edelshtein is Glatshtein or Grade or Dylan
Thomas?

What matters are Ozick's brilliantly honed words, Ozick's intensity,
Ozick's scalpel that reveals raw basic emotions, and they are all so
quintessential to Yiddishkeit, to soul, that it converts her English into
Yiddish feelings for me. (For all those who know mameloshn?) This posting
pertains to the discussion of maintaining Mendele as a list for Yiddish
content only, sending us to garner Yiddishkeit's blooms elsewhere. A
shayle: Given you know Yiddish, can you separate the fringe from the
talis? Is the glorious goldene pave less splendid when called the golden
peacock (in masterful hands like Ozick's)? Would Ozick's following words
from "Envy", calling upon Yiddish, the intrinsic Yiddish we harbor on
Mendele, appeal on a greater level of heart or intellect if said in
Yiddish? "...When a goy from Columbus, Ohio says, 'Elijah the Prophet'
he's not talking about Eliohu Hanovi. Eliohu is one of us, a folksmensh,
running around in second-hand clothes. Theirs is God knows what. The same
Biblical figure with exactly the same history, once he puts on a name
from King James, comes out a different person..."

A kush ir in kepele.

(Thanks to Harvey Spiro, my first Mendele friend, I have joined into
the fray {which Harvey says is short for fraylekh!})

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan
Boynton Beach, (amol iz do geven judenrein) Florida

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 4.294

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