Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 5.152
October 26, 1995

1) Hobn/zayn (Rick Gildemeister)
2) Hobn/zayn (Khayem Bochner)
3) Khapn (Mikhl Herzog)
4) Khapn (Golda Werman)
5) _The Man without a World_ (Ted Steinberg)
6) Yiddish for all jews?! (Ellen Prince)
7) Yiddish theater in Israel (Zvi Oster)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 15:10:50 EDT
From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu
Subject: hobn/zayn

I just want to add a little complication with the auxiliary words, to add
on just a smidge (as my grandmother from Mississippi olehasholem flegt
zogn) to what Khayem Bochner nicely laid out for us. One is rather
deceptive:

In the klal-shprakh you have for hobn:

infinitive: hobn     past participle   gehat

1. ikh hob           mir hobn
2. du host           ir hot
3. er/zi/es hot      zey hobn

In the dialects that say zUgn, khUlem, etc. you have infinitive hUbn but
"o" everywhere else. zey hobn gevolt hubn.

Then the past perfect. I've seen a litvish usage: er iz gevest gegangen
But Isaac Bashevis Singer says: er iz gehat gegangen.

In German dialects, the past participle appears three basic ways:

1. gzi (gezayn: the Middle High German vowel i-circumflex never changed
   to ay in Switzerland)
2. geweest (Standard Dutch for geven)
3. gven (like what other language we all love?)

Rick Gildemeister

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 95 10:08:57 -0400
From: bochner@das.harvard.edu
Subject: vider "hob" un "bin"

Judith Nadler suggests that the use of "hobn" or "zayn" in forming the
past tense depends on whether the main verb is transitive: "ikh hob
gegebn" vs. "ikh bin geshtanen".

Unfortunately, this is only half true, and actually not even quite that.

It is true that verbs that take "zayn" are predominantly intransitive.
All of the simple verbs (i.e. ones without a prefix) are, as far as I can
tell. I can think of a few with prefixes, however, that are transitive,
and still take "zayn": 'ikh bin oysgeshtanen groyse tsores', 'zey zenen
farbaygeforn mayn hoyz'. Still, it's a pretty good correlation.

But in order for this correlation to help you know when to use "zayn", it
would have to go the other way: you would have to know that if a verb is
intransitive, it will take "zayn". And that just doesn't hold up, alas.
'ikh hob gelakht', 'ikh hob getsitert', 'ikh hob gedrimlt': all
intransitive, all take "hobn", not "zayn". So you still have to learn
which ones take "zayn".

While we're on the subject of correlations, here's another one: all the
verbs that take "zayn" have past participles that end in "n":
"geshtanen", "gelofn", "geforn", "geven/gevezn", etc. No exceptions that
I know of. But, of course, there are lots of verbs whose participles end
in "n", but that still take "hobn": "gezen", "gevorfn", "gegesn", etc.

Ah, but those are transitive! How about intransitive verbs whose
participles end in "n", and that still take "hobn" to form the past? When
you get that picky, it gets harder to think of examples. But I bet there
are some; I leave it as an exercise for the reader ;-)

Khayem Bochner

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 17:55 EDT
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Khapn

Add to the repertoire:

_khap arayn_  for  _carpe diem_.

Consider that, given the etymology of Yiddish _khapn_, its paradigm is
anomalous.

Mikhl Herzog

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 95 9:29 +0200
From: rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il
Subject: Khapn

As to khapen, did you report that the salesmen who stood at the entrance
of East Side shops and tried to induce customers to come into the store
were called khapers [kidnappers?]?

Golda Werman

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 7:25 pm EDT (23:25:13 UT)
From: steinberg@fredonia.edu
Subject: _The Man without a World_

Does anyone here know anything about a movie called _The Man without a
World_ by filmmaker Eleanor Antin?  I saw it last week and it's one of
the strangest films I've ever seen.  Perhaps I was just gullible, but,
since it's a silent black-and-white film, I thought it was, as the
prologue explained, a lost Yiddish film.  Actually it was made in 1991. I
still can't decide if I liked it, but it was certainly intriguing.  If
anyone has more information about the film or about Eleanor Antin, I
would love to hear it.  Thanks.

Ted Steinberg

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 22:02:56 EDT
From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: yiddish for all jews?!

morrie feller writes:

>... Yiddish should be taught on as broad a scale as Hebrew, and that
>synagogues and Jewish community centers have to be convinced that Yiddish
>should be part of their curriculums.  This would also apply to Bureaus of
>Jewish Education (or their equivalent).

uh, hebrew is presumably the ancestral tongue of jews in general; yiddish
is a (more recent) ancestral tongue of jews from some parts of europe. if
all jewish children should be taught yiddish, then they should also be
taught ladino and judeo-italian and judeo-greek and judeo-persian and
judeo-arabic and judeo-marathi and... :)

btw, the museum of the diaspora on the grounds of tel aviv university has
a fascinating exhibit of texts from many (maybe a hundred) 'jewish'
languages.

ellen prince

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 16:08:08 EST
From: zoster@radiol.som.sunysb.edu
Subject: Yiddish Theater Productions in Israel

The subscribers of Mendele will probably be intersted to learn of two
interesting Yiddish productions in Tel Aviv.

"Khumesh Lider" by Yitzkhok Manger, directed by Shmuel Bunim,  with music
by Dov Zeltzer was performed on October 9,10, and 11 at the ZOA House. It
was also performed in Jerusalem on 10/12 and in Netania on 10/14/1995 "A
Goldfaden Khulem"- di originele muzikalishe forshtelung 21 kinstler will
be performed with simmultaneous Hebrew translation. Re-written by Yakov
Rothman. Performances were scheduled in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra'anana and
Netania from October 29 and 31 and November 15 and 21, 1995. The two
productions are presented by the newly formed Yiddish Theater In Israel -
"Yiddish-shpil" (in hebrew it is one word)

Zvi Oster

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End of Mendele Vol. 5.152