Mendele: Yiddish literature and language

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Contents of Vol. 15.004
May 22, 2005

1) Yiddish in China (Hersh Hartman)
2) povetka (Refoyl Finkel)
3) povetka (Larry Gillig)
4) povetka (Abraham Melezin)
5) preglen ayngemakhts (Larry Gillig)
6) preglen ayngemakhts (Lyubiv Dukker)
7) preglen ayngemakhts (Gerry Kane)
8) Vera Rozanka (Charles Segal)
9) Yisroel Shtern (Andrew Firestone)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 19, 2005
Subject: Yiddish in China

From the official government Central News Agency, Taiwan:

Yiddish Philologist Chooses to do 'What Others Would Rather Not'

2005/05/19 20:03:50

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) For S.H. Chang, a Yiddish philologist at Wenzao
Ursuline College of Languages in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, "doing
what nobody has done" and "doing what others would rather not" are
her lifelong mottoes. Chang, known as one of the very few Yiddish
philologists in all of the world's Chinese communities, said in an
interview with CNA Thursday that being a lonely student of Jewish
languages, particularly Yiddish -- "the language of the exiles" -- is
no hardship at all so long as "you are keen to learn." "By learning a
new language, you are opening up another door for yourself, " said
Chang, a Ph.D in language from Germany's Trier University who is
currently chairwoman of the German Department at Wenzao Ursuline
College. Chang's resume is daunting -- she is an expert in German and
Jewish literature, a Jewish historian, and a philologist of German
and Yiddish. Chang said she had a difficult time when she first
started to learn Yiddish -- a Jewish language containing 85 percent
German morphemes, 10 percent Slavic morphemes and 5 percent Hebrew
morphemes. But after she managed to "decode" the language, she said
she found learning it extremely interesting. Now she is teaching the
students at Wenzao Ursuline how to learn German the way she learned
Yiddish, and she is one of the most popular professors in the
college. She always tells her students: "Wo ein wille ist, ist auch
ein weg" (where there's a will, there's a way). (By Deborah Kuo)

Hershl Hartman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: povetka

Feygl Lynn asks about "povetka".  Stutshkoff lists "povetke" and "povyetke"
as synonyms for "shtadol", "stodole", "stadele", "shope", and "shayer";
apparently it means "barn".

Refoyl Finkel

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: povetka

povetka is an  extension or projection  of the roof, an overhang.

Larry Gillig

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: povetke/povetka

Russian povetka and Yiddish povetke refers to a shack built as an addition
to the existing building with lean-to roof, often open on two or even three
sides.  In the Russian villages and shtetlakh it was used to protect
firewood and agricultural implements from vagaries of weather.

Abraham Melezin

[Posts with similar readings have been received from David Weaver, Yankl
Stillman, and Hershl Hartman]

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts

Under "preglen" Harkavy's dictionary mentions "cook" as one definition,
and specifilcally lists the idiom "preglen ayngemakhts" as "to cook
preserves".

Larry Gillig

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts

Making the Passover "ayngemakhts" , the beet preserve, involves slow
simmering for about 1 1/2 hours and toasting of almonds. I don't know, if
it qualifies as "preglen", probably not.

Lyubov Dukker

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts

I suggest that in culinary terms, preglen in Yiddish has two meanings: a)
fry and b) thicken. Mayn mame used the words "pregln ayngemakhts when she
was thickening the malines to make a jam.  She never used the expression
when she was cooking  the same fruit to make a  "maline sok" -- a thin
concoction that was used instead of sugar in a glezele tey.

Gerry Kane

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Vera Rozanka

I was intrigued by an item in Vol. 15.003 which includes an item about "di
yidishe shikse."  When I was very young--about four or five years old--my
mother used to take me to the Monument National Theatre, in Montreal, when
my father appeared in a play presented by a traveling troupe--the
Holanders, Maurice Schwartz, Jacob P. Adler.  I remember vividly my mother
pointing to an actress in one play and saying "She's not Jewish but she
understands and speaks Yiddish fluently. You would never know she's not
Jewish."  Could that actress have been Vera Rozanka?  I would be very
interested in knowing whether she did in fact appear in Montreal, with what
troupe she appeared, the play she appeared in and when she performed there.
That information would be most welcome.

Charles Segal

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Re: Yisroel Shtern

[Regarding the post in Mendele 15.001:]

It would be appreciated if any stakeholder or anyone with information about
literary heirs or stakeholders would contact me at afire@tpg.com.au

Andrew Firestone

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