Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.191 April 30, 1998 1) "Silver Platter" in Yiddish? (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 2) Looking for Undzer Lid (Yoel Epstein) 3) wassershlogn (Barbara Borts) 4) Lutzky poem (Harriet Feinberg) 5) Der Bavebter Yid in PDF format (Morris Feller) 6) Yiddish typewriter (Morris Feller) 7) Yiddish diminutives (Alexis Manaster Ramer) 8) sufiks -te (Mordkhe Schaechter) 9) -te feminine suffix (Harvey Spiro) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 09:27:37 EDT From: Lights4607 Subject: "Silver Platter" in Yiddish? With the world celebrating Israel's 50th anniversary Thursday, April 30, the official day of Yom Haatzmaut for this year, I would like to share with you this beautiful poem written in celebration of the then newly established state. It would be interesting to know if there is a Yiddish version of this poem. THE SILVER PLATTER by Nathan Alterman "A state is not handed to a people on a silver platter." (Chaim Weizmann) The earth grows still. The lurid sky slowly pales over smoking borders Heartsick, but still living a people stand by to greet the uniquenesss of the miracle Readied, they wait beneath the moon Wrapped in awesome joy,before the light. --Then, soon, a girl and a boy step forward And slowly walk before the waiting nation: In work garb and heavy-shod they climb in stillness. Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime of aching day and fire filled night Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest, But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair. --Silently the two approach, And stand. Are they of the quick or of the dead? Through wondering tears, the people stare. "Who are you, the silent two?" And they reply: "We are the silver platter Upon which the Jewish State was served to you." And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's feet. Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told. Sema Chaimovitz Menora Chicago, Illinois 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 18:10:51 +-300 From: yoel epstein Subject: Looking for Undzer Lid There was a conference of Yiddish culture in Brussels in 1949. The conference published a volume of songs called "Undzer Lid". Does anyone know anything about this conference, or know where to find the book? Yoel Epstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 15:14:02 -0400 From: Barbara Borts Subject: wassershlogn Does anyone on Mendele know of a custom possibly known as wassershlogn. One of my older students remembers as a child imbibing 3 gulps of water and turning towards the door just prior to the fast on Yom Kippur. Thanks for the help. Barbara Borts 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 06:58:35 EDT From: Harfein Subject: Lutzky poem I'm inquiring on behalf of a friend in Philadelphia, Norman Newberg. He has translated a poem by A. Lutzky, "Der vint un mayn kapelyush" (The wind and my hat) into English using a cassette tape of a reading by the noted actor Joseph Buloff. But he hasn't been able to find the written text of the poem. Apparently it is not in any of Lutzky's published collections. Can anyone help? Thanks. Harriet Feinberg Cambridge, Mass. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 05:33:38 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com (Morris Feller) Subject: Adobe Reader and PDF files When Sholem Berger and Refoyl Finkel announced the arrival of Der Bavebter Yid No. 2, I rushed to access it and print it out. I use this kind of material for my leyenkraz. However, the GIF format results in a somewhat fuzzy document. After several exchanges of messages with Refoyl, who has the patience of a Job, he has provided a PDF option which now can be opened with Adobe Reader 3 to give very beautiful, clear Yiddish. I strongly urge all Mendelyaner to download Adobe Reader 3 from the Web (it's free) so as to become able to use this great tool. Morrie Feller Phoenix 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 05:49:14 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com (Morris Feller) Subject: Yiddish typewriter When I read the poem by Shmuel Halkin in 7.188, I thought this would be a good opportunity to test Refoyl Finkel's Yiddish typewriter. So I saved it to my clipboard and, then after accessing the Yiddish typewriter on the Web, pasted it into the message area of the Yiddish typewriter. I then selected the PDF option which converts the message to Yiddish and saves it as a PDF file. This I was able to open with Adobe Reader 3, and, lo and behold, a beautifully clear Yiddish version of the poem came up on my screen which I was able to print out. I recently received a piece from Noyekh Miller who used the Yiddish typewriter PDF version to create the Yiddish of his Podolyer Golem and send it to his list. This means that by using the Yiddish typewriter we can communicate with each other in the real thing. Hopefully, one day even Mendele will be able to include real Yiddish messages in its posts. Morrie Feller Phoenix 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 10:08:39 -0400 (EDT) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Yiddish diminutives Dear Friends, I am trying to find out more about Yiddish diminutives, specifically double diminutives (imminutives as they are also called) as in tishele, brivele, and so on. I know these occur throughout modern Eastern Yiddish and in Alsatian Yiddish. However, I do not whether they occur in Middle Yiddish so the question is what is the oldest attestation of these? And do they occur in any of the sources we have for non-Eastern Yiddish dialects other than Alsatian (e.g., Swiss, Dutch, German, Bohemian)? Also, Eastern Yiddish has the compound diminutive ending -khl (or -khn) in forms like maylkhl < moyl. Again, how old is this and does it occur anywhere outside of Eastern Yiddish. Alexis Manaster Ramer 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 20:17:43 EDT From: MSchaecht Subject: sufiks -te Der sufiks -te kumt take fir bederekh-klal in loshn-koydesh-shoyreshdike verter, ober nor bederekh-klal. Faran a shpor bisl nisht-loshn-koydesh- shoyreshdike: poyerte, lignerte, makherte (fartseykhnt fun Noyek Prilutski in zayn Konsonantizm, zaytl l04; in der beletristik - ba Pinski, Dertseylungen, z. 143), harnte, oremante (a shteyger: bam faynem bal-loshn Okrutni), birgerte (a shteyger ba: der Lebediker, inem zhurnal Goldene Keyt, b. 12, z. 169), khevre- mante (nor der ershter teyl fun dem tsunoyfheft kumt fun loshn-koydesh), yekete (genitst in Mizrekh-Galitsye un efsher in andere mekoymes oykhet), khaperte (in Y.B. Beilin, In eyn lebn, z. 29), naperte (taytsh 'akshnte'; fartseykhnt fun di reyd fun a basaraber froy - fun Yedinits - di shtifmame funem bavustn hebreishn shrayber Apelfeld), negerte (Bashevis, Yitskek Perlov un nokh), parshoynte (Yanasovitsh, Bashevis, Y.-Y. Zinger, Glants-Leyeles, Shtrigler), tsigaynerte (Eli Shekhtman), kukhte (Bashevis), keyserte (Y. Gordin) un nokh un nokh. A klal, mit generalizatsyes darf (agev, aroysgeredt: daf) men zayn gehit. Me ken gring araynfaln. Ayer Mordkhe Schaechter/Motkhe Shekhter/Reb Motale Tshernevitser 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 09:13:15 -0400 From: Harvey Spiro Subject: -te feminine suffix In Mendele 7.189, both Joachim Neugroschel and Mikhl Herzog rebuked me deservedly for my off-the-cuff asssertion that the -te suffix in ployneste was of Slavic origin. Serves me right for speculating from my office, from the depths of my ignorance, without any relevant reference books to steer my foot away from my mouth. My apologies to Mendele for my sloppiness in that response. For the record, my formal credentials as a Semiticist, or Slavicist, or any sort of linguist, are nil. I'm an amateur, and sometimes I make amateurish conjectures that should be phrased more tentatively. My confusion and hasty conjecture about the suffix probably were driven by a similar- sounding feminine suffix used in Yiddish that I'm sure (well, I think I'm sure!) is of Slavic origin, namely -itse. Examples include: krasovitse, paskudnitse, nudnitse, pustepasnitse, plimenitse. That said, I have some questions about the theory of Aramaic origin that Joachim Neugroschel cites for the -te feminine suffix. As he points out, the Yiddish spelling is the phonetic "tes-ayin," rather than the "tov-alef" that would be expected in Aramaic. Certainly not all Yiddish words of Aramaic origin convert the final alef to an ayin: the words gufe and khoge come to mind, but there must be others. Are there any Aramaic- origin words in Yiddish that maintain the "tov-alef" suffix? Furthermore, although Mikhl Herzog states that the -te suffix occurs only with words of Hebrew origin, Joachim Neugroschel offers poyerte as an example with a Germanic base. I've found two others as well: ezelte and lignerte. I'll step back and let the linguists take it from here. Harvey Spiro Vienna, Virginia ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.191 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html