Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 09.022
July 30, 1999

1) Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany (Erika Timm and Marion Aptroot)
2) fargin, lefargen (Rick Turkel)
3) Shimelekhl (Gitl Dubrovsky)
4) puzzling Yiddish expression (Yankev Lewis)
5) I.B. Singer's book (Lillian Schanfield)
6) Speaking of French and Yiddish (Maurice Weitman)
7) French expressions in Yiddish (Max ben-Aaron)
8) la"z in Rashi (Rick Turkel)
9) yiddish dance page (Helen Winkler)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 05:11:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: aptroot@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de (Marion Aptroot)
Subject: Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany, October 1999

Second Annual Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany
Trier 5-6 October 1999

The Annual Symposium for Yiddish Studies is organised by the two Chairs of
Yiddish Studies in Germany at the universities of Trier and Duesseldorf. 
The opening session of this year's symposium will be held on October 5, 1pm,
lecture hall A 9/10, Universitaet Trier, 54286 Trier. 

To our pleasant surprise, the interest in our symposium has grown since last
year. Unfortunately, this means that we have not be able to allocate slots
to all those who have proposed papers. In view of this we are considering to
extend the third meeting in 2000 to three days. 

Below we present an alphabetical list of speaker and their topics; the
definitive program will be advertised in due course.
Papers will be presented in Yiddish (Y) or German (G).

 1.  Althaus, Hans Peter: Victor Klemperer und das Jiddische (G)
 2.  Aptroot, Marion: Takones: emese un parodishe (Y)
 3.  Cuno, Klaus: Zum aeltesten bekannten Epitaph des juedischen Friedhofs
    in Essingen (G)
 4.  Denman, Hugh: Ambivalente Bildgestaltung im Werke Isaac Bashevis
    Singers (G)
 5.  Dreessen, Wulf-Otto: Horant als shadkhn? (G)
 6.  Geller, Ewa: Prosodie-Regeln im Warschauer Jiddisch (G)
 7.  Gruschka, Roland: Sovet-shprekh in Yidish: vegn H. Shklyars
    vort-reshime (Y)
 8.  Joergensen, Sigrid: Itzig Manger und seine Voegel (Y)
 9.  Kiefer, Ulrike: Das elektronische LCAAJ-Archiv. Ein neuer methodischer
    Ansatz (G)
 10. Kleine, Ane: Mayse-zamlungen sof 16tn yorhundert - un a kuk tsurik oyf
    di onheybn fun zhaner (Y)
 11. Kreuter, Peter Mario: Genus, Kasus und Aspekt. Eine kurze Betrachtung
    sprachlicher Erscheinungen im Rumaenischen, Albanischen und Jiddischen (G)
 12. Levin, Isidor: Der "Akademisher fareyn far yidisher geshikhte un
    literatur" in Dorpat, zayn lider-bukh fun 1929 - a parshe
    shtudentn-kultur tsvishn beyde velt-milkhomes in di baltishe medines (Y)
 13. Nath, Holger: Zur Verteilung verbaler Praefixe im Jiddischen (Y)
 14. Neuberg, Simon: Fun yidishn liderbukh (Y)
 15. Roell, Walter: Vorueberlegungen und erste Schritte zu einem Woerterbuch
    des aelteren Jiddisch (G)
 16. Rohden, Frauke von: Erzaehlungen und Erzaehlen in Meneket Rivka (G)
 17. Starck, Astrid: Die Frau im Mayse-bukh (G)
 18. Steinmetz, Donald: Das Jiddische im Sog der westgermanischen
    Genusverschiebung: Ordnung im Chaos (G)
 19. Stern, Heidi: Edition jiddischer Literatur der Fruehen Neuzeit (G)
 20. Timm, Erika: An den Quellen des Jiddischen. Ergebnisse eines
    Forschungsprojektes (G)
 21. Turniansky, Chava: A nayer ksav-yad fun onheyb 17tn yorhundert (Y)
 22. Valencia, Heather: Shmuel Harendorfs "Der kenik fun Lampeduze" auf der
    Londoner jiddischen Buehne (G)

Waiting list:
 1.  Varga, Peter: Jiddischstudien in Budapest (G)
 2.  Groezinger, Elvira: Die Bedeutung des Israil-Bercovici-Archivs fuer die
    Geschichte des jiddischen Theaters (G)
 3.  Kochenrath, Charlotte: Yankev Glatshteyn vi a protagonist fun der
    amerikaner yidisher literatur (Y)
 4.  Wiecki, Evita: Zum aktuellen Stand der Jiddischforschung in Polen (G)
 5.  Wiegand, Haike Beruriah: Di role fun der kabole in literarishn verk fun
    Yitskhok Bashevis Zinger (Y)

Information on accommodation in Trier is posted on the homepage of Yiddish
Studies in Trier
(http://www.uni-trier.de/uni/fb2/germanistik/jidd_start.html)

Erika Timm
Marion Aptroot

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 16:02:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: rturkel@cas.org
Subject: fargin, lefargen

In Mendele 09.018, Sema Chaimovitz Menora asked about the word lefargen. 

You're absolutely correct about the origin of Heb. lefargen.  It It is cited
as such by Dahn Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda in their "Milon `olami
le`ivrit meduberet" ("World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang")  (E. Lewin-Epstein,
Ltd., Jerusalem, 1973).  However, they cite only examples which parallel
that in Yiddish, which is how I've heard it used, although that seems to be
nearly the opposite of the usage cited by her informant. 

Hope this helps.  A gutn.

Rick Turkel

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 18:10:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: GDubrovsky@aol.com
Subject: Shimelekhl

On the farm, we frequently played this game as children, until it became too
dark to see. We played, exactly as it has been described. "It" hid his eyes
while leaning his face against a tree and some one made a circle on his
back, chanted the magic words of "Make a shimelekhl on the old man's back
and someone puts his finger in." Only recently did it occur to me that
'shimelekhl' is really a combination of "simen'" meaning "sign" [of a]
'lekhl' or a hole. It makes sense, we made the sign of a hole by making a
circle.  Just thought I'd add to the dialogue. Hadn't thought about it in
years.
 
Gitl Dubrovsky

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 11:53:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Enkin * Lewis <jcjlewis@chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: puzzling Yiddish expression

In a Hasidic tale I am translating from the Hebrew, the following Yiddish
expression occurs: 

Er iz farlofn [fey ayin reysh lamed alef fey yud nun]
un hot gekhapt di bak/bok [beys alef kuf]
far mir.

I don't recognize this idiom and I don't know what "bak" or "bok" means in
this context.  From the overall context the expression probably means
something like "he got there ahead of me".  Geographically (in case this
is a regional expression) the speaker in the story is from Ropshits in
Galicia and the writer of the story, from Brody.

Many thanks for any clarification!

Yankev Lewis

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 20:44:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: "lschanfield" <lschanfield@mail.barry.edu>
Subject: I.B. Singer's book

the English translation (Farrar, Straus) of In My Father's Court contains 11
fewer stories than the original Yiddish. Three of those 11 appeared in his
collected stories. Does anyone know whether the others have been translated
into English or how one would go about finding out?

Lillian Schanfield

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 21:24:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maurice Weitman <mo@mo.com>
Subject: Speaking of French and Yiddish...

I'm new to Mendele, having discovered you all while doing some (informal)
research about New York's radio station WEVD's origins. Having grown up in
Brooklyn in the '40s and '50s, I listened to the warm sounds of Yiddish on
that station for a good many hours as my grandmother stayed "plugged in" to
her mother tongue. 

I learned Yiddish while quietly listening as my mother and grandmother would
"red Yiddish" so that I wouldn't understand what were saying.  (I heartily
recommend this as an excellent way to teach a child a language.)  Alas, as
another example of "Use it or lose it," my facility is quite weak these
days. 

My interest in and love for Yiddish has not waned in those years, and I am
grateful for any source of information and inspiration I can find.  Mendele
and you folks who comprise it are indeed a rich resource and gift for those
in my position.  So... thank you! 

I have a question, and I hope it's appropriate for me to ask it here.  I've
spent some time in Paris recently, and was really disappointed at the dearth
of Yiddish usage extant among the Jewish communities I found there.  I was,
and remain, alas, rather ignorant of Sephardim, having grown up in an
Ashkenaz diaspora and associate being Jewish with Yiddish, not Hebrew. 

My question, finally, is: Were there ever Yiddish-speakers in Western
Europe, specifically France?  My parents' families came from Austria and
Poland/Russia.  Were French Jews always mainly Sephardim? 

Thanks so much,
Maurice Weitman

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:41:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: xeno357@ix.netcom.com (Max ben-Aaron)
Subject: French expressions in Yiddish

I recall meeting a friend of a friend in New York in the early 60's who told
us about his recent visit to Yiddish-speaking relatives in Paris.  He had
been greatly amused by his hostess asking him: "Host du shon gemangevet?"
("have you eaten yet?")

Max ben-Aaron

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 12:45:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: rturkel@cas.org
Subject: la"z in Rashi

David Herskovic hot gefregt in mendele 09.021: 

   Following on from Sholem Berger's query (vol.9.019), where Rashi gives
   French translations is he using French or is is it a Jewish vernacular
   based on French similar to the relationship of our Yiddish to German?

To my knowledge there was no such French-based Jewish vernacular.  By and
large, Rashi's la`az is the French of his time, i.e., Old French.  I
remember once seeing a reference in Rashi (if I'm not mistaken in the gemoro
Sanhedrin) to a small, ground-dwelling animal which he referred to as
"eshkuril" or something close to that.  Now that looks suspiciously like the
English word "squirrel;" the Modern French word for squirrel has evolved
into "e'cureuil." 

Hope this helps.  zayt mir ale gezunt un shtark.

Rick Turkel

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 19:43:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Helen Winkler" <winklerh@hotmail.com>
Subject: yiddish dance page

I have just set up a web page about Yiddish dance and thought readers of the
Mendele list might be interested.  The site is at: 
www.angelfire.com/ns/helenwinkler

This is a resource site meant for the sharing of informantion about Yiddish 
dance.

Sincerely,
Helen Winkler
______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 09.022

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