Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.161 November 3, 1995 1) Standard yiddish (Ellen Prince) 2) Standard yiddish (Arn Abramson) 3) Adina Cimet at Shmueskrayz (Ruvn Millman) 4) Soviet Yiddish songs (Anna Shternshis) 5) Who wrote this poem? (Anno Siegel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 01 Nov 1995 20:05:14 EST From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Comments on standard yiddish i feel like the rabbi in the old yiddish joke, the one who hears two opposing sides of some argument. after hearing the first one, he says, 'you're right.' then, after hearing the second one, he says 'and you're right.' (and then the rebbetzin butts in, 'what's the matter with you? they're arguing opposite sides -- they can't both be right!' to which the rabbi replies, 'and you're right, too.') i thought eliayahu's post on standards and how they are viewed (or not) by the speaker-in-the-street was brilliant, better than any treatment of it that i've seen in an intro to linguistics textbook. and just now i thought khayem's reply about the democratizing nature of standards was equally brilliant. i'm saving both posts and hereby warn you that they may someday show up (with proper acknowledgments, of course) in my intro to linguistics course... thank you both for taking the trouble to post them! ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 01 Nov 95 23:52:15 EST From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu Subject: Standard Yiddish and Khayem Bochner My heart congratulations to Khayem Bochner for his refreshingly clear and revealingly personal thoughts on the matter of standard Yiddish, orthography, textbooks, and dictionaries. These are old questions in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics that all developing nations have had to face. It would seem that even for Yiddish, a language without a state, many of the same processes have taken place. Arn Abramson 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 23:35:46 -0500 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Adina Cimet at Shmueskrayz "Two Generations of Jewish Writers in Mexico" A talk with Adina Cimet de Singer Adina has a Ph.D. in Sociology, Columbia University. She will the guest speaker at Yugntruf's upcoming "shmueskrayz," the Yiddish discussion group. Adina's comments are always very special, this is a Yugntruf activity not to miss! Tuesday Nov. 7th at 7:00pm in Deutsches Haus, 420 West 116th Street. Call or e-mail for RSVP (212) 280-1168 or bl67@columbia.edu. Admission $1, $2 and $3. * * * "Di Shprakhn fun di Tsvey Doyres Yidishe Shraybers in Meksike" A reyde mit Adina Cimet de Singer Adina hot a doktorat in "Sociology" fun Columbia Universitet. Zi vet zayn der gast redner bay Yugntrufs kumendik shmueskrayz. Adinas komentar iz alemol gor interesant, dos vet zayn a Yugntruf aktivitet nisht tsu farfeln! Dinstik der 7ter Nov., 7:00n"m in Deutsches Haus, 420 West 116ter gas. Kling on oder shrayb el-post far an RSVP (212) 280-1168 or bl67@columbia.edu. Arayntrit $1, $2 and $3. You can write to me if you have any questions. Ruvn Millman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Nov 95 22:05 +0300 From: shternshis@glas.apc.org Subject: Soviet Yiddish songs I am going to write my master paper about Yiddish songs of Soviet Union written in the first two decades of 20th centure. Mostly I am intereested in revolutionary songs, political Communists song etc. like the songs which were collected by Berezhkovsky and published in Moscow in 1934. I would like to study the contence of these songs according to the song which were sang in Soviet Russia about many political leaders Lenin, Stalin etc. It is interesting also to see how Jewish ideas were transformed in Soviet or simply so-called proletarian songs. For example the idea of "Gan-eyden" remained inYiddish translation of "International". Also what seems curious is that Edelshtad whose song were also polupar in Soviet Russia wrote the songs where he compared the struggle of Jews in Egypt to proletarian movement ("In dem land fun piramidn") and other songs. However these ideas are not so polular in this type of songs. The songs from Berzhkovsky collection are mostly veryy similar to Russian songs, only the names of "kapitalistn" are Jewish, which of course not typical for Soviet songs. My aim is to find very typical Jewish idea in such kind of "proletarian= international" songs which made them different from the songs of other national proletarian movements . The song "Oy, ir narishe cionistn" is typical in this sense. I would be very glad if there would be any comments about this subject. Anna Shternshis (student of Russian State University of Humanities) 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Nov 95 14:31:52 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Who wrote this poem? About 15 years ago I read a poem in Yiddish about Yiddish. It was appended to a book about Yiddish music which I have since lost. I think I still know the words quite accurately but have completely forgotten the title and the author. Can someone help? The book used an ad hoc method of transcription geared towards a German readership, so I'm not at all sure about the spelling. ir fregt tsi yidish iz a shprakh, gramatish un negidish. ikh ken aykh zogn nor a zakh: dem yidens shprakh is yidish. tsu zukhen ligt nisht in mayn fakh fun vanen verter shtamen. ikh veys nor, ikh hob lib mayn shprach, di loshn fun mayn mamen. es mugn geybn undzer pney far undzer shprakh kan groshn. mir lakhn zikh ale oys fun zey un redn mameloshn. Anno Siegel Berlin, Germany ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.161 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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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