Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.003 July 1, 2004 1) Mendele mit yidishe oysyes (Morrie Feller) 2) Mendele mit yidishe oysyes (Leslie Friedman) 3) Henry Gerro (Lloica Czackis) 4) Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive (Alex Hartov) 5) yarmulke (Lori Cahan-Simon) 6) penkes (Alan Shuchat) 7) gret (Mechl Asheri) 8) Isaac Bashevis Singer's last novel (Ruth Rischall) 9) spaklieven and Spackle (Mechl Asheri) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 4, 2004 From: mfeller@cox.net Subject: Mendele mit yidishe oysyes I join with B. Berman (14.002) in asking: why can't we have messages posted in real Yiddish instead of Romanized versions ? I have discussed this with Noyekh, and he demonstrated feasibility by sending me an email message in beautiful Yiddish without resorting to making it an attachment. Morrie Feller Phoenix 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 6, 2004 From: leslie_a_friedman@yahoo.com Subject: Mendele mit yidishe oysyes I am writing in support of B. Berman's interest in the possibility of sending the Yiddish postings in the Hebrew alphabet. As a middle-aged student who has just begun completed one year of Yiddish study, such a change would be very helpful. I tend currently to sound out the postings and then close my eyes and repeat them. In this way I try to determine what is being written from the sounds I'm creating since the transliterations often make me feel like I'm learning a third language. I do appreciate very much the materials that are posted on Mendele and suspect that this question has likely been raised before. I would be interested in hearing other people's thoughts. Leslie Friedman Media, PA 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 6, 2004 From: mezzo@lloicaczackis.com Subject: Henry Gerro Khaveyrim, I am looking for biographical information on the Yiddish theatre actor, composer and singer Henry Gerro. He was married to Rosita Londner and often performed in duo partnerships with her and with Shifra Lerer. I haven't yet checked in the Leksikon. Can anyone help? A dank in foroys! Lloica Czackis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 8, 2004 From: alex.hartov@Dartmouth.EDU Subject: Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive First I would like to thank all who responded to my request for recorded material. Through a very fortunate coincidence I was able to pickup a set of records this weekend in the Boston area (Thank you again Fred Kotler) and have received several emails regarding the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive. In this regard, I would like to post the following information since I had several inquiries about the DJSA. The current policy regarding access to the Archive is based on recommendations from College Counsel and stem from concerns about violating copyright ownership. Given that a significant portion of the material already in the archive or to be transferred to it is sufficiently old that copyrights may have lapsed, we are planning to make such material accessible to all. Regrettably, at this time we do not have the manpower to verify copyrights and so for the time being, the DJSA is accessible only to Dartmouth students and faculty and external users involved in scholarly work upon request. Non-authorized users can still view the scans and browse the catalogue, they will not be able to stream the audio contents. Thank you again to all who expressed an interest, Alex Hartov 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 20, 2004 From: lorelecs@juno.com Subject: yarmulke Tayere khaveyrim, My colleagues and I on the Yiddish teachers list at yahoo groups are discussing the origins of the word yarmulke. Both Polish and Aramaic origins have been suggested, but no definitive answers yet. Can anyone clarify for us? By the way, if you are a Yiddish teacher we'd love to have you join us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yiddishteachers/ or yiddishteachers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com a dank, Lori Cahan-Simon 6---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 25, 2004 From: ashuchat@wellesley.edu Subject: penkes I talked today with my mother, who said she was cleaning a chicken for shabbes dinner. I knew she had bought chicken parts, so I asked why she had to clean it. She said she needed to take off the "penkes" and it was taking her a long time to do. This was an unfamiliar word to me, and she said penkes are what is left after the chicken feathers have allegedly been cleaned by the butcher. She says my grandmother, from Bessarabia, always used that word. I couldn't find it in Weinreich, so I looked at the Mendele archives. Gilad Gevaryahu asked the same question in 1996 (vol. 5.312), spelling it "pinkes" and apparently getting no reply. However, I did find "penke" in the 1898 edition of Harkavy, defined as the "stump of a feather". On the etymology of penkes, it turns out that " pen' " in Russian means stub. So "penke" looks like a Yiddish version of a Russian diminutive. Mystery solved! Alan Shuchat 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 28, 2004 From: donnom@netvision.net.il Subject: gret I wonder if one of Mendele's philologists can give me an etymology for the word "gret"? It is a common word, although not as common as "vesh", and strangely enough, while it appears in Weinreich and Winocur, it does not appear in Harkavy except in the appendix at the end of his dictionary, where he simply refers to it as a synonym of vesh which it generally is, although Winocur defines it not as wet wash in general, but as "ropa blanca", meaning linens (sheets, shirts etc.). The only word for clothesline that I know is "gretshtrik" and I think it's the only word there is. When I asked for it by that name at a local store this morning, all I was asked was, "vifil meter?" I'm probably off the mark, but it seems to me that gret implies the existence of a verb, graten, or something like it, but I can find neither noun nor verb nor anything close to them in German, Russian or Ukrainian. A gris, Mechl Asheri 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 30, 2004 From: Rrischall@aol.com Subject: Isaac Bashevis Singer's last novel Now that we are celebrating Isaac Bashevis Singer's hundreth birthday, I recall my meeting with him. I spoke to him briefly. Itold him I enjoyed his work in English translation but I longed to read his novels in the original Yiddish. He told me to subscribe to the Forverts because he had something there every week. I subscribed to the Forverts and every week there was an installment from his current novel. The last novel was titled Act Teg Pesach. For a few weeks there were new chapters. Then the story broke off abruptly at a very dramatic and suspenseful part of the action. A note at the bottom said that he would finish the story later. Does anybody know if he ever finished it? Ruth Rischall 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 30, 2004 From: donnom@netvision.net.il Subject: spaklieven and Spackle Some years ago, and I cannot remember where, I learned the Yiddish word "spaklieven", meaning to fill in small holes and cracks in plaster surfaces (walls, in particular). A while ago, I needed Spackle and went to one of the local hardware stores for it. I have no idea what the Hebrew word for it is, or even the Yiddish word. However, since almost all hardware store personnel (at least in Petach Tikva) speak Yiddish and Yiddish is what I mostly speak ouside the house, I said I needed "A min proshik, epes enlekh tsu gips, vos me misht es mit vasser k'dei tsu spaklieven kleine lecher in di vent". The owner of the store produced it immediately. It later occurred to me that the English word "Spackle" (apparently once a commercial name, which later became generic) might very well have a common derivation with the verb "spaklieven". Can anyone enlighten me? Mechl Asheri ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.003 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu