Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 17.001 May 15, 2007 1) mir/wir (Enrique Gildemeister) 2) fatsheyle (Bernard Cooperman) 3) recent Yiddish songs by women (Jacob E. Goodman) 4) shpiltsleve (Berta Kipnis) 5) Yidcore (Warren Hoffman) 6) shule (Leyzer Gillig) 7) Searchable Yiddish Database (Ken Frieden) 8) "Pastorale" (Ellen Cassedy) 9) petsha (Jules Rabin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 12 Subject: mir/wir There is a good deal of fluctuation between the word "Mir" and the word "Wir" for the first person plural in the German dialects. In Modern High German, "wir" has become standardized, whereas in Yiddish "mir" has become standardized. My favorite example of dialect regionalism is in Letzeburgesch: Mir woelle bleiwe wat mir sin. Enrique Gildemeister 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 12 Subject: fatsheyle I'm trying to track down the origin of the word my mother and her sisters used for a tikhl or head covering that they put on when they lit candles erev shabbes etc. They called it a fatsheyle or fatshelke. Anyone have any idea of the origins of this word? It isn't in standard Russian dictionaries. They came from a small town in the Kiev province, so Ukrainian would seem to be a good bet. A dank, Berny Cooperman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 13 Subject: recent Yiddish songs by women I wrote a setting for voice and piano of Rokhl Korn's beautiful poem "kh'shtey in der mitogtsayt..." It's been performed a number of times during the past few years, most notably by Adrienne Cooper and Mimi Stern-Wolfe at an ASJM concert three years ago. I'll be glad to send you the score if you send me (goodman@sci.ccny.cuny.edu) your address. Jacob E. Goodman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 13 Subject: shpiltsleve Bob Rothstein is right in explaining the meaning of the word "shpiltsleve." I happen to know it not from the dictionary but as Russian and Yiddish speaker. Being a bit hot tempered myself, I heard this word from my mother's mouth many times. Berta Kipnis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 23 Subject: Yidcore I'm doing some work on a play and I'm looking for heavy metal/rock recordings of traditional Yiddish songs. I've recently stumbled on a movement called Yidcore (Yiddish + Hard Core), but haven't found exactly what I'm looking for, which is rock versions of "Rozhinkes mit Mandlen" and/or "Oyfn Pripetshik." Any leads? Thanks, Warren Hoffman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 27 Subject: shule Does anyone know what "shule" is - as in the following sentence: Mir hobn oysgeshtelt undzere keylim unter di beymer, velkhe hobn gekvelt mit shule (shin-vov-lamed-ayin). From the context, it seems that it is some sort of tree sap that was collected in the forest in Russia around Lag B'Omer. Leyzer Gillig [Moderator's note: Mr. Gillig quickly answered his own question and was kind enough to share this information.] In an online Lithuanian-English dictionary, I found that "sula" is birch sap. Fits in perfectly, as birch sap in Eastern Europe was a treat, much as maple sap is in North America. 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 29 Subject: Searchable Yiddish Database Mendelists or Mendelianer, So far as I know, there is not yet an extensive, searchable database of Yiddish literature. In contrast, Hebrew literature has the growing Ben Yehuda Project online at http://www.benyehuda.org/ and other databases such as the Bar Ilan Judaic Library, which are becoming important tools in the study of Hebrew language and literature. My understanding is that the National Yiddish Book Center would be interested in developing a searchable library or database, using their vast collection that has already been digitized. Can someone suggest a way to assist the NYBC in making its digital collection available as searchable site or DVD? Apparently the problem has been character recognition (OCR) for Yiddish. If the problem has been solved for Hebrew, however, can't the same be done for Yiddish? Ken Frieden 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 30 Subject: "Pastorale" I am looking for the text of a story called "Pastorale" by Blume Lempel. The first line is "oktober iz far mir der groylikster khoydesh fun yor." It's about a woman whose husband dies and who deals with the pain of her widowhood in part by reading stories by I.B. Singer at an old age home. Ellen Cassedy 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 7 Subject: petsha A frage vegn petsha (petse), alias fusnoge/studen/galareta: I'm curious in the first place about the terms. Is "fusnoge," which in my boyhood appeared as a synonym of "petsha," really the compound it seems to be, of German and Russian words for "foot?" What is the etymology of "petsha?" And are "studen" and "galareta" full Russian and Polish equivalents, respectively, of the petsha that some of us knew in our childhood? Google provides 50,000 entries for "galareta" (one of them, curiously, in Japanese), which I suspect is most often made with pig's feet. About the preparation of petsha: a neighbor will one day soon be dropping off at my door a couple of cow's feet. (Should I have specified rear or front legs?) I have boyhood memories of how my mother went about the work of preparation, starting with the untreated leg, and I think I could approximate her marvelous production. But that was long ago, and I'd be grateful now for any pointers. Jules Rabin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 17.001 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these, as appropriate: Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language: mendele@lists.yale.edu Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements: victor.bers@yale.edu (in the subject line write Mendele Personal) Other messages to the shamosim: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu To signoff from the list, email to listproc@lists.yale.edu with the following request: signoff MENDELE or unsubscribe MENDELE Mendele on the web: http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/index.htm