Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 17.016
January 6, 2008

1) "break a leg" (Barry Goldstein)
2) "break a leg" (Leyele Cahan-Simon)
3) "break a leg" (Al Grand)
4) plefki (Dan Goodridge)
5) plefki (Chana Foss)
6) declension of possessive pronouns (Leyzer Gillig)
7) Yiddish font (Refoyl Finkel)
8) bine-shprakh (Philip Peysakh Sopinsky)
9) Mordkhe Rotenberg (Sheva Zucker)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  December 4, 2007
Subject: "break a leg"

"mitn rekhtn fus"

There is a (probably apocryphal) claim that "break a leg" arose from a
mistranslation of the Yiddish.

Barry Goldstein

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 4
Subject: "break a leg"

I find it interesting that in the last issue of Mendele Shane Baker uses
the phrase asked for in question #2 as a closing for his post.  I was
taught that the Yiddish equivalent of theater's "Break a leg" is "mitn
rekhtn fus".

Leyele Cahan-Simon

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 4, 2007
Subject: "break a leg"

I believe that the answer to Martin Jacobs' query on Mendele [Volume 17
number 15] re: the Yiddish equivalent for "break a leg" that Yiddish 
actors
used as they were about to go on stage is "mitn rekhtn fus."

Incidentally, the Italian equivalent is "in bocca al lupo" [literally "in
the mouth of the wolf"].  I learned that when I was a supernumerary at the
"old" Met during my college years.  The old time Italian singers would say
that to each other before entering the stage from the wings. I was once on
the stage with Jussi Bloerling in Tosca.

Al Grand

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 4, 2007
Subject: plefki

In Russian, "plefki" is spittle.
In Russian "penki" is the shoym on milk.

Take your pick.

A grus,
Dan Goodridge

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 5, 2007
Subject: plefki

I think plefki is also called ploika.

Also, does anyone know where I can find the poem "Der Mantl" (S'iz a 
tumult
in gevantl) online?  I am in Israel right now and wanted to give a copy of
the poem to a friend here, but my book is in NY.

A sheynem dank,
Chana Foss

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 18, 2007
Subject: declension of possessive pronouns

I am trying to put together a listing of all possible declensions of
possessive pronouns in Yiddish, and some of the possibilities that seem
grammatically correct don't seem to sound quite right to my ears. I would
appreciate hearing people's opinions about the following sentences. I
wouldn't mind at all if you answer me directly (as well as to Mendele).

dos shtetl mayns iz farbrent gevorn.
dos shtetl mayne iz farbrent gevorn.  (mayne sounds better to me.)

er hot farkoyft maynem a bukh.
er hot farkoyft mayns a bukh. (mayns sounds better to me.)

dos kind irs iz zeyer voyl.
dos kind ire iz zeyer voyl. (ire sounds better to me.)
but .... "dos kind ayers iz zeyer voyl" sounds as normal to me as "dos
kind ayere iz zeyer voyl."

der rebe ayer iz avek.
der rebe ayerer iz avek. (ayerer sounds better to me.)

ikh hob a mol gelernt dem yingl ayers.
ikh hob a mol gelernt dem yingl ayern.  (ayern sounds better to me)

but

ikh hob a mol gelernt a yingl ayers. (ayers sounds right here.)

un azoy vayter.

Is it possible that there are dialectical variations? I am a tsentral
yidish speaker and my Yiddish comes from Hasidim, who generally are not
meticulous with respect to grammatical issues.

a groysn dank aykh.
Leyzer Gillig

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 20, 2007
Subject: Yiddish font

I have placed an updated copy of my "Refoyl" Yiddish cursive font at
http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish.html (as the last entry in the 
first
section), both as a TrueType font and as a Mac-style font. This version
includes most punctuation and numerals.  Let me know how it works for you!

I can provide the source (it's in FontForge format) for anyone who
wants to play with it.

Refoyl Finkel

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  December 21, 2007
Subject: bine-shprakh

This was sent to me, and I had to download an attachment, a heroic task, 
as
you know, to get it, though it's just text:

Years ago, when I lived in Philadelphia, I would call the Folksbiene
Theater to reserve tickets for performances.  Once, Zypora Spaisman
answered the phone and after reserving tickets I asked Zypora why the
Voliner dialect was used on stage.  She replied that it was the custom but
she did not know why it was chosen.  Since my parents came from Kremenets,
Volyn, I especially enjoyed the performances even more. For those of you
who had the privilege of seeing and hearing Zypora, I hope you enjoyed the
pleasing and warm Voliner dialect.

with derekh erets,
Philip Peysakh Sopinsky

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 1, 2008
Subject: Mordkhe Rotenberg

Tayere Mendelyaner,

Ikh zukh informatsye vegn dem poet mordkhe rotenberg. In dem Leksikon fun
der nayer yidisher literatur shteyt zeyer veynik, un er figurirt in gantsn
nit in berl kahans leksikon. Tsvishn di getseylte yedies vos ikh hob yo
gefunen in di mekoyrim zaynen di az er iz geboyrn gevorn in 1920. Er iz
geven a talmed in mirer yeshive un iz farvoglt gevorn kin shankhay un iz
gekumen kin amerike in 1946. Do iz er geven a lerer fun talmud in
yeshive-universitet. Ikh volt gevolt visn: -- ven iz er geshtorbn (oyb er
iz geshtorbn, meglekh az er lebt nokh), -- iz er in shankhay nokh alts
geven farbundn mit der mirer yeshive -- ikh nem on fun zayne lider
"yapanishe motivn" in zayn bikhl shabes un vokh(lider), N'Y, 1951 az er iz
geven in kobe, yapan far khine, ober ikh volt dos gevolt bashtetikn -- vi
ken men zikh farbindn mit im oder mit emetsn fun zayn mishpokhe -- andere
yediyes??

Agev, ikh rekomendir zayne "yapanishe motivn" (etlekhe viln mir opdrukn in
kumedikn numer funem zhurnal afn shvel  vos vet zayn opgegebn khurbn un
voglenish).

Ayer,
sheva tsuker

Oyb ir hot informatyse farbindt zikh mit mir -
sheva@leagueforyiddish.org

I'm looking for information on the poet Mordkhe Rotenberg. There is very
little on him in the Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur and he is
completely absent from Berl Kagan's Lexicon. Among the few things that are
known are that he was born in 1920, he was a student in the Mir Yeshivah
and spent the war years in Shanghai. He came to America in 1946 and taught
Talmud at Yeshivah University.

I would like to know:

-- when he died (if he is indeed dead, perhaps he is still alive)
-- was he still connected to the Mir Yeshivah in Shanghai
-- I assume from his poems in the section "Yapanishe Motivn" in his book
Shabes un Vokh (lider), New York, 1951, that he was in Kobe, Japan before
he went to Shanghai (as were most of the Polish-Jewish refugees) but I
would like to know this for certain
-- how can one get in touch with him or with anyone from his family
-- Anything else of interest you might know

By the way, I highly recommend his "Yapanishe motivn" (several of which we
would like to publish in the next issue of the magazine Afn Shvel which
will feature several articles on the Holocaust and refugees).

Thanks,
Sheva Zucker
If you have any information, please contact me at
sheva@leagueforyiddish.org

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 17.016


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