Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.005 May 23, 1999 1) Alsatian Yiddish (Dan Leeson) 2) Yiddish opera in Israel (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 3) "Lodzer" or "Zlodjeh" Gonniff (Al Rasof) 4) Louis Kramer (Mordkhe Saunders) 5) Hebrew words (Ken (Koppel) Sipser) 6) Retekh (Rick Turkel) 7) origin of word "khreyn" (Morris Fish) 8) Ashkenazik handwriting (A.Joseph Ross) 9) Di Rotshild Briv (Elliot Hersch Gertel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 20:34:32 -0400 (EDT) From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@admin.fhda.edu" Subject: Alsatian Yiddish Leo Secunda, in a note released by Mendele on Apr. 30, expressed suspicion that the Strassbourg Jews speak Yiddish. His comments were as a result of a wonderful posting about the big Yiddish experience in Mulhouse. I think that there may be some confusion involved when one speaks about Yiddish in Alsace. There are actually two completely different Yiddish languages spoken in Alsace, the first being Eastern Yiddish than anyone raised in an East European houshold can deal with. It is the traditional Yiddish that one thinks of when the word "Yiddish" is used. The second Yiddish is quite different, so much so that speakers of Eastern Yiddish can barely communicate in this very local dialect, sometimes called Judeo-Alsatian or Western Yiddish. I scanned the web to come up with a few websites and other things that might interest Leo and cause him to change his mind about Western Yiddish whose use is seriously declining but was very popular up to the second world war. See "Yedisch-Daitsch, Le dialecte judeo-alsacien on http://www.sdv.fr/judaisme/dialecte/index.htm which contains classical judeo alsatian humor, a lexicon of Judeo Alsatian and lots of other goodies. Also see Astrid Starck's page: http://www.crel.univ-mulhouse.fr/0mulhous/Cherchers/starck.html Starck is the mavin of Western Yiddish and was the leader of a big conference that took place in Alsace ca. 1994 and for which she published a summary of the conference: "Westjiddisch: Mundlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit = Le Yiddish occidental: actes de colloque de Mulhouse." I spend almost every summer in Alsace and my wife's cousin has been trying to teach me judeo-alsatian but he becomes furious whenever I can't figure something out and say "Vos? Vos hast du gesukt?" And then he says, "Pas cette pastiche Yiddish. Du vrai Yiddish, s.v.p." I'm working on it. To complicate the matter, west of Alsace there is yet another dialect called judeo-lorraine, but I'm not going near that one. Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 10:34:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Marjorie Hirshan Subject: Yiddish opera in Israel 1. For Harvey Varga: My yidishe mame used the term shmey-drey for umetik. At the slighest sign of pallor (which included any lack of bubbling over with life), she would comment, "Du filst epes shmey-drey? Vos felt dir, mayn kind?" 2. Sam Kweskin bemoans that our radio stations do not play our Yidishe art lider. He questions the attitude and motivation of American radio programmers. The very bad news is that Miriam Hoffman in last week's Forverts writes that our own people in Israel waited in anticipation to laugh at the first Yiddish opera - The Dybbuk - which was to be presented for audition. The good news is that they admitted it surprised them, overwhelming them with its beauty! Finally - success - a famous first! Yiddish opera in Israel. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 15:08:00 -0400 (EDT) From: "al rasof" Subject: "Lodzer" or "Zlodjeh" Gonniff My late father, from Lodz, used the phrase "Lodzer Gonniff," or it may have been "Zlodjeh Gonniff." I would appreciate some information regarding the above. Thank you, Al Rasof 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 15:10:40 -0400 (EDT) From: jsaunde1@csc.com Subject: Louis Kramer Sholem Aleykhem, I am in the process of attempting to translate Louis Kramer's play "Believe Your Wife." It is an attempt because I am having difficulty with Kramer's cursive style. Does anyone have a translated version of this play or any insight into how Kramer wrote his letters. A sheynam dank, Mordkhe Saunders 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 21:21:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Kenneth K Sipser Subject: Hebrew words Tayere Mendelayner Years ago I began to recognize that, while most words in the Yiddish language are derived from German, there is a significant number that derive from Hebrew. Words such as koyakh (strength), bukher (young man), kuvid (honor), khussen (groom), parnusseh (livelihood), zukkin (old man), and many more, fall into this category. Is there a compiled list somewhere that does it all, and at the same time gives some explanation as to why those words in particular were chosen? Ken (Koppel) Sipser 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 13:11:08 -0400 (EDT) From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Retekh Mendy Fliegler mentioned in his recent posting about a children's program in the Washington/Maryland area. He mentioned a story, _Der Retekh_ (the horse-radish). Just a minor correction: retekh isn't a horseradish, it's a radish. Horseradish is khreyn. Zayt gezunt un shtark. Rick Turkel 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 10:28:33 -0400 (EDT) From: mfish@judicom.gc.ca (Morris J. Fish) Subject: origin of word "khreyn" Could you please let me know the origin of the Yiddish word "khrain" (horseradish)? Many thanks. Morris Fish 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 00:50:07 -0400 (EDT) From: "A. Joseph Ross" Subject: Ashkenazik handwriting Marion Aptroot says that the Rothschild brithers "wrote in very distinctive Ashkenazic hands. Just what does this mean? What distinguishes Ashkenazik handwriting from any other kind? A.Joseph Ross 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 11:35:33 -0400 (EDT) From: "Elliot H. Gertel" Subject: Di Rotshild Briv Kh'bin oykhet geven a kandidat ibertsuzetsn di Rotshild briv in londoner arkhiv mit an erekh tsen-elef yor tsurik. Di dugmes vos me hot mir gevizn zenen geven derikersht geshribn mit gor an oysteylikn ksav, a min ,,yidish-daytsh," d"h daytsh mit yidishe oysyes. Kh'bin oykh, vi Marion, geven antoysht az keyn emese shtrikhn fun mayrev-yidish zenen tsum badoyrn aponem nisht geven. Elyet Hersh Gertl An arbor, mishigan Bela"z: I concur with what Marion stated vis-a-vis the letters from the Rothschild Archive. I was also being considered for the translator position in London about ten or eleven years ago. The samples that I got to see were in a very distinctive Judeo-German hand, basically German text in the Jewish alphabet. Unfortunately, no true elements of Western Yiddish were in evidence, something that came as a disappointment to me as well. Elliot Hersch Gertel Ann Arbor, Michigan ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.005 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://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html