Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.043
February 11, 2006

1) Vizotsky's Tey (Felicitas Payk)
2) es vs. se (Felicitas Payk)
3) yidish vi an ofitsiele shprakh(Duncan MacKenzie)
4) Dona, dona (Larry Rosenwald)
5) Reyzl Zhikhlinski (Gilles Rozier)
6) badkhn (Perets Mett)
7) vu iz dos gesele? (Lynda Kraar)
8) Abbreviations (Hershl Hartman)
9) Rokhl Luria (Golda Shore)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 15
Subject: Vizotsky's Tey

I'm searching for the lyrics of the song "Vizotsky's Tey." I think that 
it's a part of a Yiddish theater piece, but I'm not sure. And furthermore: 
What does Vizotsky's Tey mean? I know that tey means tea, but that doesn't 
bring me any further.

Best,
Felicitas Payk

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 15
Subject: es vs. se

First of all, many thanks for Zulema Seligsohn's and Margie Newman's very 
informative responses to my inquiry regarding the use of "tomid" and 
"keseyder." Now I have another one: I often heard that when after saying 
"es" a vowel appears, people tend to say "se" instead of saying "s'."
Examples: "Se helft nit keyn geveyn", or: "Se geyt nit." When does this
phenomenon occur, and why: When speaking very fast, in order to connect
words? Are there any dialectal preferences for this usage, or do Yiddish 
speakers say this regardless of dialect? Or am I even wrong, and didn't 
hear it correctly? Anything that comes to your mind!

Thanks in advance, and gut vokh,
Felicitas Payk

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 20
Subject: yidish vi an ofitsyele shprakh

Did anyone know that Yiddish is (or was) an official language of Sweden 
and Russia?  Is (or was) it an official language of any other territories? 
Which dialects or standards of Yiddish do these territories use?

Duncan MacKenzie

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 29
Subject: Two questions about "Dona, dona"

         1) I gather from the notes in _Perln fun yidishn lid_ that this 
was first performed in Aaron Zeitlin's play _Esterke_, in 1940.   Anyone 
know anything about the context in which the song was sung?  I'll order a 
copy of the play from the NYBC, but it'll take a while to get hold of it.
         2) Also, anyone know with certainty, or even conjectural 
confidence, what Zeitlin would have known in 1940 about what was going on 
in Europe?

         Best, and thanks!
         Larry Rosenwald

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 28
Subject: Reyzl Zhikhlinski

A Parizer farlag, vos vil aroysgebn oyf frantseyzish an oysklayb lider
fun Reyzl Zhikhlinski, zukht ire yorshim.
Oyb ir kent zey, zayt azoy gut, helft undz shteln a kontakt mit zey.

A dank fun foroys

Gilles Rozier

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 23
Subject: badkhen

Lillian Siegfried asked:

> Does any one have any information about a badkhen.  It was a jester
> who entertained at shtetl weddings in Eastern Europe. Or would there
> be any recordings of this?

Do you really need a recording? Badkhones is alive and well. You can hear 
a badkhen at any khsidishe khasene. A badkhen is not a mere jester, 
though.

Perets Mett
7)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 22
Subject: vu iz dos gesele?

Can anyone help me find the lyrics and music to an old Yiddish song? Here 
are a few of the words, in translation:

Where is the little street,
Where is the room,
Where is the little girl that I love?
There is no more little street,
There is no more room,
There is no more little girl that I love.

A sheynem dank,
Lynda Kraar

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  February 3
Subject: Abbreviations, Vol. 15, No. 40

I believe I can help Florette Lynn with the first of her queries.

The roshi-teyves (initials) shin"ayin, in the context cited, stand
for Sholem Aleykhem (Sholem Rabinovitsh, known by his pen name and as
it is traditionally transliterated: Sholom Aleichem).

Explication of the second requires someone more steeped than I in the
Talmudic tradition.

Hershl Hartman

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 31
Subject:  Rokhl Luria

I received a book in Yiddish entitled:  Modne Menshn by Rokhl Luria.  The 
copyright date:  1918. Does anyone have any information about Rokhl Luria? 
A sheynem dank!

Golda Shore
----------------------------------------------------
End of Mendele Vol. 15.043


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