Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 12.002 June 28, 2002 1) Origin of Mozl-Bozhits (Zachary Baker) 2) Jewish Braille Institute seeks Yiddish readers (Ellen Wertheim) 3) Male Ending for Female Nouns in the Plural (Dovid Moshe Jacobson) 4) Diminutive plurals (Ellen Prince) 5) Mikh Gelbart (Pessl Beckler-Semel-Stern) 6) sacco un vanzetti (Joel Berkowitz) 7) Sacco and Vanzetti (Itsik Goldenberg) 8) Naye Tzaytung (Alex Dafner) 9) luakh stories (Bernard Katz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 19:55:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Zachary Baker Subject: Origin of Mozl-Bozhits? Re Henryk Duda's post in Mendele 11.026: In his article "Yiddish Place Names in Poland," Edward Stankiewicz deals in depth with the phonological issues connected with these toponyms (The Field of Yiddish, Second Collection, ed. by Uriel Weinreich; Mouton, 1965, pp. 158-181). I do not know, however, if Modliborzyce / Mzl-Bozhic (=Mozl-Bozhits?) is mentioned within Stankiewicz's article. His footnotes lead to lists of and other articles about Yiddish place names, and these are certainly worth pursuing. Berl Kagan's book Sefer haprenumerantn (Hebrew Subscription Lists; The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1975), which contains the most extensive listing of Yiddish place names, gives the phonetic transcription "Modlibozhits" (entry no. 4620). This is the spelling that Kagan presumably found in the rabbinic books that he consulted. Of course there may also have been other versions of this name in spoken Yiddish, for one or another of the reasons suggested by Mr. Duda: >1. taboo - Jews try to avoid the Modli- which means to pray (Yiddish: modlen zih), >2. Volksetymologie, >3. phonetical adaptation of Modli- into Yiddish. Zachary Baker Stanford, CA 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 11:27:24 -0400 (EDT) From: "Ellen Wertheim" Subject: Jewish Braille Institute seeks Yiddish readers Since 1931, The Jewish Braille Institute of America (JBI) has provided the visually impaired and the blind of all ages with books, magazines and special publications in braille and large print. In 1960 JBI began the production of audiocassette, further enabling full participation in educational, cultural, religious and communal life of the Jewish people. Our individualized services--that are free of charge--enrich the lives of over 30,000 people worldwide, most of whom are seniors. JBI is in need of Yiddish readers willing to generously volunteer their time to both narrate and direct books on tape. At this time we are unable to offer many wonderful Yiddish works to our Yiddish speaking clients who are eager to hear materials in their mama loshen. Located at 110 E 30th Street in Manhattan, the JBI sound studio has many available time slots during the day, and occasionally during the evening. Please consider tzedakah by way of sharing the richness of language with our clients. We look forward to working with you. Sincerely, Ellen Wertheim Library Coordinator 212.889.2525, Ext. 123 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 02:08:48 -0400 (EDT) From: David Moses Jacobson Subject: Male Ending for Female Nouns in the Plural I have been thinking about this for quite some time, and finally found a forum in which I am optimistic about receiving an answer. In Yiddish, many of the words adopted from Hebrew take Hebrew endings when in plural form. For instance, the plural of der Otser (the treasure) is die Oytsres; Kos, cup, becomes Koyses; Beys-Midresh, study house, becomes batei-midroshim. Generally, nouns that are "feminine" in Hebrew take "os" endings, and masculine ones take "im" endings. Usually this translates into Yiddish. The cases of Shabbos, Talis, and Tonis, however, have always been puzzling to me. In Hebrew, they are feminine nouns: Shabbos, or Shabbat, becomes Shabbatot (in Yiddish, Shabboses), Talis, Talit, becomes Talitot, and Tonis (Ta'anit) become Ta'aniot. In Yiddish, they instead take the male ending, become, respectively, Shabbosim, Taleysim, Toneysim. I had a theory that Hebrew nouns that ending with a Tof took the "im" ending because perhaps Shabboses, Talises, Toniyes, sounded awkward to Yiddish speakers, or at least the first two with it perhaps being hard to separate the two s-sounds, but I realized that many nouns, like Os, take plurals like Osiyes, even ones that do not take an "iyes" ending. Anyway, that's one question of linguistics. Another related one: Why does Kaysar become Kaysarim. Any insight into these would be much appreciated. A sheynem Dank, Dovid Moshe Jacobson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 10:00:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Diminutive plurals In resonse to Peggy Afuta [12.001]: I believe the nonexistence of *kindl is unique -- and the reason is likely the fact that, as pointed out to me by Beatrice Santorini, the word _Kindel_ is/was used to denote the Christ child in at least some varieties of German. And perhaps -- tho this is much more speculative -- the nonexistence of *kindlekh follows from the nonexistence of *kindl -- 'too close for comfort', so to speak. _Kinderlekh_ might then be a sort of last resort, on the analogy of the Hebrew loanwords (khasidimlekh, etc) that David Perlmutter's account explains. Ellen Prince 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 14:05:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Pessl B Beckler-Semel-Stern Subject: Mikh Gelbart This is in response to Lori Cahan-Simon [11.026]: Mikh Gelbart died childless. He always said that the children of the Arbeter-Ring (Workmen's Circle) Yiddish schools were his children. He was the music teacher of the Arbeter-Ring mitlshul (supplementary high-school) when I was a student there (1942-1946). We all "knew" that he was the composer of "Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl." When I worked in the national Education Department at 175 E. Broadway, NYC , during the early 1950s, the primary secretary to the then Ed Director, Nokhem Khanin (Chanin), Millie Melnick, once indicated that Gelbart had written the song that was now being claimed by someone else, and that he, Gelbart, thought seriously of suing the interloper, but did not have the financial means to sustain what could have been a long, and costly trial. It is a "sod far gantz brod," that teachers in the AR Shuln were not people of means. And so he decided not to resort to the legal system, and let the matter rest in no-man's land. It occurs to me that the music division of YIVO might be of some help in your search. Pessl Beckler-Semel-Stern 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 16:40:22 -0400 (EDT) From: "Joel Berkowitz" Subject: sacco un vanzetti Tayere mendelyaner, Here is one title (a play, not a poem) in response to Larry Rosenwald's query about Yiddish materials on Sacco and Vanzetti, and a follow-up question. In 1933, Mikhl Weichert directed the play Boston (Weichert says the censor forced him to change the original title, Sacco un Vanzetti), which he had adapted from an unpublished German text by Bernhard Blume. Boston, the first production staged by Weichert's Yung Teater, was a critical and popular success. My question: Boston has not been published, but if anyone knows where I might find an archival copy, I would be grateful. A sheynem dank, Joel Berkowitz 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 22:01:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Goldenberg Subject: Sacco and Vanzetti Larry Rosenwald asks about works in Yiddish about Sacco and Vanzetti. In 1930, Farlag I. A. Cukier (Warsaw) published Upton Sinclair's "Boston" in Yiddish translation by Marek Fogelman. On the title page, after the title, is : (Di tragedye fun sako un vantseti. Roman.) Itsik Goldenberg 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 09:20:44 -0400 (EDT) From: "Alex Dafner" Subject: Naye Tzaytung Tayere fraynt fun Yiddish, Mir hobn dem fargenign tzu meldn aykh az a naye internet tzaytung geshribn fun un far yunge shiler fun mame-loshn iz ersht dershinen, zet:- http://home.iprimus.com.au/kadimah/gvardie.htm Mit hartzike grusn, Di redakcie "Di Yunge Gvardie" Alex Dafner 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 16:10:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Bernard Katz Subject: Query re luakh stories Tayere Mendelyaner, Does anyone know of a Yiddish story or even a joke that involves or possibly refers to the intricacies (or otherwise :-) of the luakh? Alles in besten, Bernard Katz Toronto ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 12.002 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