Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 11.011 July 17, 2001 1) New stories for Onkelos (Noyekh Miller, Leonard Prager) 2) termin far fishman fundatsiye aplikatsiyes (Joshua Fishman) 3) Yiddish apartment database (Sholem Berger) 4) recordings of the An-ski expedition (Geoff Nathan) 5) Frumet/Frimet/Fruman/etc. (Norman Fruman) 6) Frumer/frimet, Frume/Frime (Mechl Asheri) 7) Romeo & Juliet (Itsik Goldenberg) 8) Death as a musician (Yael Chaver) 9) Tsores (Aviva Astrinsky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 18:41:57 -0400 From: N Miller Subject: New stories for Onkelos These new stories in modern Yiddish have been added to Onkelos: I. Spiegel's "niki", transcribed by Akive Batkay Lamed Shapiro's "vayse khale", transcribed by Mirl Schonhaut-Hirshan Sholem Asch's "dos koyler gesl", transcribed by Mirl Schonhaut-Hirshan Sholem-Aleykhem's "iber a hitl", transcribed by Morrie Feller Peretz's "der meshugener batlen", transcribed by Berish Goldstein Opotashu's " dos eybike khupe-kleyd", transcribed by Itzik Goldenberg Opotashu's "tikn khtsos", transcribed by Itzik Goldenberg I.B. Singer's "gimpl tam", transposed by Shoshke-Rayzl Juni R' Nakhman Bratslever's "a maynse mit a henglaykhter", transcribed by Benjamin Sadock Vaysenberg's "mazl-tov", transcribed by Benjamin Sadock Reyzn's "di oreme kehile", transcribed by Morrie Feller Reyzn's "der poresh", transcribed by Morrie Feller Sholem-Aleykhem's "shir hashirim", transcribed by Alicia Ramos Gonzalez Sholem-Aleykhem's "oysgetreyslt", transcribed by Mirl Schonhaut-Hirshan And in the very near future (check from time to time): Bergelson's "in a fargrebter shtot", transcribed by Berish Goldberg Manger's "di maynses fun hershl zumervint", transcribed by Akive Batkay I.B. Singer's "di kleyne shusterlekh", transcribed by Mirl Schonhaut-Hirshan Kulbak's "munye der foygl-handler", transcribed by Dina Matut Reyzn's "skhar limud", transcribed by Morrie Feller Reyzn's "di groyse suke", transcribed by Morrie Feller We wish to acknowledge and thank Bob Berkovitz who recently joined Project Onkelos and whose wonderful software (dubbed Rashi, of which more at some later point) has made life so much easier for us all. An English translation of these stories, as with the others in Onkelos, is to be found in Howe and Greenberg's _A Treasury of Yiddish Stories_, Penguin. Noyekh Miller Leonard Prager [Moderator's note: Onkelos has been voted "Site Of The Month" by the visitors to JewishWebSight (www.jewishwebsite.com/siteofthemonth.html). Yasher koyekh to Noyekh, Leonard, and all the volunteers working on this great project. - i.v.] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 14:55:42 -0400 (EDT) From: JoshuaAFishman@aol.com Subject: Dermonung: termin far fishman fundatsiye aplikatsiyes, 2001 Der termin af ontsugebn aplikatsiyes tsu der "arn un sonye fishman fundatsiye far yidisher kultur", in shaykhes mit proyektn af tsu shtarkn yidish tsvishn kinder un yugnt, is oktober 31ster. Aplikatsiyes (5 kopiyes) darfn zayn af yidish, nit lenger vi finf zaytlekh, mit a genoyem arbetplan (d"h, nit nor plener un tsiln, nor genoy vifl tsayt vet ver opgebn af vos, un vos iz zayn/ir tsugreytung un derfarung in shaykhes mit aza min arbet), un lesof, a genoyem budzhet. Yeder aplikant darf ongebn dem nomen fun der fun-shtayern-bafrayter-organizatsiye vos vet ufpasn af ale hoytsoes un vet tsushikn a letstgiltikn finantsyeln barikht biz sof 2002. S'rov subventsn zenen af eyn yor un bavilikn $1500 biz $2000, khotsh a bisl lengere proyektn un gresere subventsn veln oykh batrakht vern. Aplikatsiyes muzn bizn termin onkumen afn adres "Aaron and Sonia Foundation for Yiddish Culture, 3616 Henry Hudson Pkwy., Apt. 7B-N, Bronx, NY 10463." Men ken zikh oykh vendn tsu bakumen a kontrolirke ("check-list") fun di dervartungen fun der fundatsiye baym durkhkukn aplikatsiyes. Hatslokhedike aplikantn veln bakumen moydues biz sof detsember, 2001. Joshua Fishman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 13:02:52 -0400 (EDT) From: "Sholem Berger" Subject: Yiddish apartment database [English follows] Kedey tsu shtitsn eynem fun Yugntrufs hoypt-tsiln geografishe kehiles fun yidish-reders =96 shaft men di DATN-BAZE FUN YIDISH-DIRES, far mentshn vos viln zikh iberklaybn lebn a yidish-redndiker shtub. Vos iz dos azoyns a yidish-dire? Poshet eyn dire vos iz do afn mark, vos shteyt lebn a tsveyter, vu me redt yidish tog teglekh oder mamesh bishkheynes, oder stam in der zelber gegnt. Vos iz der tsil fun datn-baze? Tsunoyfzamlen informatsye vegn dires vos zaynen tsu bakumen lebn azelkhe dires, vos zaynen shoyn yidish-redndike. Azoy arum zol hobn di neytike informatsye a mentsh, vos vil zikh araynklaybn in a yidish-redndiker gegnt (oder shafn aza). Es geyt di reyd nor vegn nyu-yorker dires? Neyn! Tomer redt ir yidish (oder zayt greyt tsu redn yidish tog teglekh), un veyst fun a dire lebn aykh, shikt arayn di informatsye. Keyn mitglid fun Yugntruf darf men nisht zayn. Vos fara informatsye darf men araynshikn? 1. Nomen fun informant (dem vos shikt arayn dos eyns) 2. Adres fun informant (d'h fun a yidish-redndiker dire) 3. Adres fun meglekher yidish-dire 4. Bashraybung fun meglekher yidish-dire (tsol tsimern udg) 5. Prayz/dire-gelt fun meglekher yidish-dire 6. Kontakt-informatsye (oder fun informant, oder fun grunt-soykher [real-estate agent] vos farnemtn zikh mit dem eygns) *Vuhin zol men shikn di informatsye? yugntruf@yugntruf.org Mit der tsayt (tomer bakumt zikh genug informatsye) vet men zi arufshteln af undzer vebzaytl. To support one of Yugntrufs main goals geographic communities of Yiddish speakers we are creating a Database of Yidish-dires [apartments], for those that would like to live near other Yiddish-speaking people. Whats a Yidish-dire? Simply put, an apartment/home/etc. which is on the market, which is itself near an apartment or home where Yiddish is spoken daily. Near means: either next door, or just in the same neighborhood. Whats the point here? To gather information about potential Yiddish apartments (or houses) which are near already Yiddish-speaking apartments or houses. In this way a person whos interested in moving into a Yiddish-speaking area, or in creating one, will have the necessary information. Is this only applicable to New York? No! Wherever you are, if you speak Yiddish and you know of a place, send in the information! You don't need to be a Yugntruf member, either. What information should we send in? 1. Name of informant (the person who=92s sending in the information) 2. Address of informant (the =93Yiddish-speaking=94 house/apartment) 3. Address of the potential =93Yidish-dire=94 4. Description of the potential Yidish-dire (number of rooms, etc.) 5. Price/rent of the potential =93Yidish-dire=94 6. Contact information (either for the informant, or for the real-estate agent/broker/etc. who is dealing with the property) Where should we send the information? yugntruf@yugntruf.org With time, if there are enough respondents, we will put the information on the Web. Sholem Berger 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 09:18:11 -0400 (EDT) From: "Geoffrey S. Nathan" Subject: Wax cylinder recordings of the An-ski expedition In response to Zachary Baker [11.008]: For what it's worth, there is a website dedicated to these recordings http://www.scarch.kiev.ua/NB/Fonoarchiv.ua.html (Ukrainian) http://www.scarch.kiev.ua/NB/Fonoarchiv.en.html (English) Geoff Nathan Carbondale, IL 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 15:02:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Norman Fruman Subject: Frumet/Frimet/Fruman/etc. Zachary Baker's excerpt on the names Frumet/Frimet from Alexander Beider's forthcoming book "A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names," reminded me at once of a check my sister ran on our family name FRUMAN in the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora. The account begins with the surprisingly blunt statement, which I have before me: "FRUMAN is a Yiddish abbreviated variant of ABRAHAM." We are then treated to what appears to be a learned etymological discourse. "The first syllable, AB, which is the common Semitic term for 'father' often becomes AV, resulting in Avram, Avraham, and similar variants. The second A is frequently pronounced O, leading to forms like Abrom and Afrom, subsequently abbreviated to From/Frum." All this strikes me, to put it gently, as excessively assured. Many years ago, a distant immigrant cousin assured me that the name FRUMAN first appeared in a 17th-century Ukrainian shtetl when Jews were required by law to adopt family names. He insisted further that everyone who legitimately spells the name as Fruman is related. Does anyone have anything resembling verifiable knowledge about all this? A great deal is being asserted about the etymology of names without adequate documentation. Norman Fruman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 01:42:37 -0400 (EDT) From: "Donn O'Meara" Subject: Frumer/frimet, Frume/Frime With regard to Frumet/Frimet, we owe Zachary Baker thanks for citing Beider's etymology, which appears to admit of no argument. I do, however, have doubts about Beider's assertion that Frume/Frime are hypocoristic forms of those names. Frume/Frime appears in Romance for both men and women as Pio and Pia, and is in common use in both Italian (Pia) and Spanish (Pio). Beider's reasons for making that assumption are not given and the two Ashkenazic names, Frumet/Frimet and Frume/Frime may very well have completely different etymologies; in the latter case, not a folk etymology in the sense that that term is usually employed. It would hardly be the first case of two very similar words having different etymologies. I recall that Hugh Denman proposed the possibility of different etymologies for Kalye and Kalyiker despite their semantic and phonetic similarities. While still having difficulty in agreeing with Dr. Denman, I would certainly not be prepared to take a hard position that his view is less than likely. Mechl Asheri 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 19:35:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Goldenberg Subject: Romeo & Juliet This is the 26th year of Buffalo NY's "Shakespeare in the Park." Having just enjoyed a charming performance of Romeo & Juliet, I wondered whether someone had, and could post, a yiddish translation of the "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo..." scene. Both a classic and a "shund" rendition would be appreciated. Itsik Goldenberg 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 19:07:00 -0400 (EDT) From: "Yael Chaver" Subject: Death as a musician Tayere mendelyaner, I'm looking for some reference in Yiddish literature, theater, or film, to the figure of Death personified as a musician, playing music at a deathbed until that person's life is over ('der toyt shpilt oys a nigun bay emetsens a bet"). This intriguing image appears in a 1934 poem by Rikuda Potash and I'm trying to determine if it has antecedents. A hartsign dank aykh alemen in foroys, Yael Chaver 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 15:01:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Aviva Astrinsky Subject: Tsores In response to Mel Poretz [11.004]: The Yiddish word Tsores (sometimes pronounced Tsures, or Tsoris)comes from the plural form of the Hebrew word Tsarah = trouble, woe. Hebrew singular form is Tsarah; Yiddish sigular form: Tsoreh (or Tsureh) Hebrew plural form : Tsarot; Yiddish plural form: Tsores (or Tsures). Aviva Astrinsky New York, NY ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 11.011 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net http://ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html