Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.245 February 7, 1996 1) Parent-to-Child Yiddish (Bernard Katz) 2) Myron Cohen (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Gvald (Elyet Hersh Gertl) 4) Brisitse (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Brisitse (Elyet Hersh Gertl) 6) Yiddish summer programs (David Goldberg) 7) Slogans (Morrie Feller) 8) _Bridges_ (Ruvn Millman) 9) Pluperfect (Meyer Wolf) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 14:43:32 -0500 (EST) From: bkatz@uoguelph.ca Subject: Parent-to-Child Yiddish Mendy Fliegler dermant zikh fun a yor tsurik ven de Konferents far Yidishe Klubn iz geven in Toronto, un fregt vegn nomen fun der shul vos hot gehat a muzey mit etlekhe bikherlekh in Yiddish far kinder. Dos iz geven di Beth Tzedec Synagogue, 1700 Bathurst Street, Toronto (416) 781-3511. Fregt far S. Simchovits, er iz eyner fun di dozentn dortn un a Yidisher poet un shrayber, un er vet gleikh visn vos zenen di bikher. Bernard Katz Guelph, Ontario 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 16:21:35 -0500 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Myron Cohen anybody? I'd like to locate any recording of Myron Cohen telling his Yiddish jokes and stories. Can anybody tell me if they know of any such sources? A sheynem dank. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 19:22:56 -0800 (PST) From: egertel@ccvax.fullerton.edu Subject: Gvald! In opruf af Shoshana Balaban-Wolowiczes kashes vegn vort _gvald,_ hot dos vort etlekhe taytshn: alyn meynt es avade "koyekh" in beyzn zinen ("force" oder "violence" af english, lemoshl). _Shrayn gvald,_ vi azoy zi hot shoyn derklert in ir ayen-briv, "shrayn az emetser zol emetsn rateven" ("cry for help") oder poshet, "shrayn" ("scream"). Vos men zogt af english, "for heaven's sake!" ken men oystaytshn _gvald geshrign!_ af mame-loshn. Kh'meyn, az inem lidl, "Sha Shtil" redt men humoristish un efsher a bisl ironish oykh az me zogt "Makh nisht keyn gvald," heyst es, az me zol nisht makhn keyn tumul, nisht keyn rash, nisht keyn gepilder un nisht keyn tareram oder andersh gezogt, "me zol nisht makhn keyn tsimes." Vi shlekht hot der rebe getantst? Oy, ot dos veys ikh nisht? A frage far unzere lid un muzik mevinim oder folkloristn! [Belaz: In the song cited by Shoshana Balaban-Wolowicz, _gvald_ probably has a funny and perhaps even ironic tinge with the words "makht nisht keyn gvald' --I errantly wrote "makh nisht" instead of "makht" above-- as if to say, "Hush, don't make a tumult or a fuss. I will leave it to the song and music experts or the folklore experts among us to determine if the rebbe's dancing was might raise a "hue and cry!"] Zayt zhe mir moykhl di ale farshidene toesn oybn i af yidish i af english: kh'hob nisht gevist az kh'bin azoy mid: a teyrits far di bentshlikht vet ir avade zogn! Elyet Hersh Gertl Fulerton, Kalif' 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Feb 96 17:13:54 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: What is a bris-itse? In Vol. 5.244 Yankev Lewis asks about the "ceremony" or celebration of "bris-itse which he found in Weinreich as a "celebration connected with girl's birth (a regional folk custom)". He asks about what various groups do these days in the case a baby girl is born. I have no personal experience with that as all our children are of the male persuasion. I know that in Israel, among those who are not Orthodox, it has become quite common to celebrate a "brita" (the feminized form of Brit, the Israeli way to pronounce "bris"). It is really the same as a brit for a boy just leaving out the painful part. Michael Shimshoni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 19:41:34 -0800 (PST) From: egertel@ccvax.fullerton.edu Subject: Brisitse Mekoyekh Yankev Lewises a briv vegn brisitses, hot men gor letstns zer a sakh vegn ot der teme arumgeredt af "H-Judaic," der elektronisher zhurnal vos hot tsu tun mit limudim bay yidn. Tomer vilt ir, Yankev, vel ikh zen tsi me diskusirt nokh vayter mekoyekh dem inyen un tomer yo, ken ikh aykh ibershikn di shayekhdike numern. Nor kh'bin dokh zikher az andere Mendelelayt veln bald aleyn in ot di elektronishe zaytlekh fun _Mendele_ arumredn di teme brisitses. Elyet Hersh Gertl Fulerton, Kalif' 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Feb 96 10:29:24 EST From: david.goldberg@smtpgwy.mla.org Subject: Summer programs? Can anyone supply the addresses of teachers at various Yiddish summer programs: Brussels University, Bar Ilan, Paris (what institution?), etc? A dank af foroys, David Goldberg 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 12:17:30 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Slogans I recently saw a bumper sticker which intrigued me. It said: No Jesus, no peace, Know Jesus, know peace. I thought that a slogan of similar form for Yiddish might be fun to think up. Someone might consider this to be a "narishkeyt", but anyway here goes: No Yiddish, no nakhes, Know Yiddish, know naches. Some of you probably can come up with better examples. Morrie Feller Phoenix 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 14:20:56 -0500 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Bridges Mendeleyners: Me hot mir dos gebeytn shikn. Dos volt ir efsher farinteresirt. ************** Could you post the following announcment to folks who may be interested in submitting? I hope you are familiar with _Bridges_, but in case not, in most issues we publish Yiddish with English translation. Would love to have some new stuff in the under 30 issue. Writing and Art by Jewish Women Under 30 A rising wave of young women are exploring their lives through writing, yet are often frustrated in their efforts to get published. By focusing a special issue on their writing and art, we hope to facilitate the more regular inclusion of work by younger women. Deadline for manuscripts is April 30, 1996. Send duplicate copies of all manuscripts and self addressed stamped envelope for either return of manuscript or letter of acceptance or rejection. Bridges, PO Box 24839, Eugene OR 97402. phone/fax 503-935-5720 e-mail p0123@psilink.com Ruvn Millman 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 16:08:05 -0500 From: wolfim@chelsea.ios.com Subject: Pluperfect From the exchange set off by Ellen Prince's remarks on the pluperfect, it seems that there are a number of puzzling developments in the Eastern Yiddish tense system which seem to result from the loss of the historical preterite (which itself was a pan-Yiddish process): 1. The loss of the hobn/zayn distinction in the past auxiliary appears to have gone to completion in some areas. As far as we can tell, Southern Yiddish and hard-core Litvish speakers (as opposed to Litvish speakers from Raysn) maintain the distinction; the boundaries of the region of loss are not known. 2. The historical pluperfect, with the hobn/zayn distinction in both auxiliary verb and auxiliary participle, appears to have survived among hard-core Litvish speakers. Southern Yiddish speakers have the distinction in the auxiliary verb, but have only gehat as the auxiliary participle. Among Litvish speakers gevest is sporadically found as the auxiliary participle. 3. The future perfect, with the hobn/zayn distinction in the auxiliary verb, appears to have survived among hard-core Litvish speakers but has disappeared elsewhere. 4. The conditional formed with the auxiliary `volt' takes the historically expected infinitive among hard-core Litvish speakers; everyone else forms the conditional with volt and the past participle. This must be seen in light of the relic of the subjunctive which served to form the conditional in Central Yiddish until the early 19th century: `het' + past participle (as can be seen, for instance, in Etinger's Serkele). There was no hobn/zayn distinction in the conditional auxiliary, only het. In Northeastern Yiddish, among speakers who use the participial conditional, gevest is sporadically found in place of geven (so I understand from Ellen Prince's observations on Olsvanger). Any others that can be added to the list? Meyer Wolf ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.245