Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.300 May 11, 1997 1) "Big" (Ellen Prince) 2) Camp Hemshekh (Hershl Hartman) 3) The English _Forward_ maims Yiddish (Hershl Hartman) 4) The English _Forward_ maims Yiddish (Zellig Bach) 5) A vertl af yidish (Shari Buxbaum) 6) Der Dubner Magid (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 14:05:07 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: "Big" Sam Weiss [6.299] suggests that the Forward's weird use of 'big' as a singular noun is from 'godl' rather than from 'groyser'; otoh, he likens it to American headline styles yielding things like 'Red med to wed fed'. Re godl, possible -- I THINK I've seen this done with other adjectives, which would argue for 'groyser' as the model, but I'm not sure. Will keep an eye open for it... One reason I thought 'groyser' was the model is that in fact the English rule for forming a noun from an adjective is close enough to the Yiddish rule that a Yiddish speaker may mistakenly think they're identical and operate with the Yiddish rule. (In English, the bare adjective can be a noun -- but only in the plural, e.g. 'the good, the bad, and the ugly'; 'The good die young' but not *'The good dies young'... In Yiddish it can be a singular or plural noun, depending on inflection -- der groyser, di groyse.) As for 'Red med to wed fed' -- it's not quite the same since it's totally grammatical (except for the lack of articles, which is in fact grammatical in headline style). But 'Big resigns' is not grammatical for native speakers, even in headlines. Also, the Forward uses 'big' as a singular noun within articles as well as in headlines. It's no big deal, btw -- I just mentioned it as something that strikes me a lot more than their spelling of Yinglish words. Ellen Prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 03:16:21 -0400 (EDT) From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Camp Hemshekh My regrets to George Fogel (6.296) and to all Hemshekhistn for having failed to mention the Bund's camp in my previous post. I was reminded of it before George's note appeared, but didn't get to my computer in time. In addition to the less-than razor-sharp memory that accompanies age, my other terits (excuse) is that the four Yiddish camps I did mention were each associated with a (tragically) separate secular Jewish auxiliary-school network, while Hemshekh did not have a non-summer children's program. Hershl Hartman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 03:16:25 -0400 (EDT) From: hershl@aol.com Subject: The English _Forward_ maims Yiddish Zelig Bach's (6.296) complaint about the subject publication's failure to check romanized Yiddish spellings with the next-door experts of the Yiddish _Forverts_ misses the point. It's not for lack of caring...it's a deliberate denigration of Yiddish to prove the "sophistication" of the English weekly. Az okh un vey! Hershl Hartman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 03:53:50 -0400 (EDT) From: zellig@aol.com Subject: The English _Forward_ maims Yiddish My post was totally misread by Ellen Prince (6.297,2) when she assumed that I criticized the _Forward_ "for its transliterations in Personal Ads." This was not the gist of my criticism. As an old, practiced hand in journalism, I would never have made such a suggestion. What I did suggest was that the _Forward_ change one single word in its design over the Personal Ads section, namely: from "Meet a Mensch" (German spelling) to "Meet a Mentsh" (Yiddish spelling & meaning). Such a change would have been highly appropriate as shown in the text of the ad I cited as an illustration. Jewish mothers' eternal admonition to their boys "zay a mentsh" conveyed the need and hope that their male child will grow up _far got un far laytn_ [respectful of God's laws and respectful of people], and grow up a God-fearing and respected man. Zellig Bach Lakehurst, N J 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 13:36:25 -0700 From: buxbaums@pilot.msu.edu Subject: A vertl af yidish I just received a request for this to be translated into yiddish: God loves the poor and helps the rich Anyone have it on the tip of the tongue? Shari Buxbaum 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 23:09:28 -0400 (EDT) From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Der Dubner Magid For Mothers' Day: In my post about oyfruf-nemen (6.295), the names by which Jews were called up, during services in the synagogue, to the reading of the toyre, I briefly mentioned the magid from Mezritsh, whose name was Dov-Ber, a ready-made Hebrew-Yiddish oyfruf-nomen. I actually meant to mention Reb Yankev Krants, the famous _Dubner_ magid, the preacher from Dubno (a town in old Russia, after World War I in Poland). He was an extraordinary preacher, a fiery orator, who sprinkled his dro'shes with wonderful, exciting fables, a superb verbal "illustrator" of the tortures in gehe'nem that await those who forsook God's ways in _this_ world. Every time a well-known magid came to Vilne, my widowed mother would take me with her to listen to him. I was then about seven-eight years old, her ben-yokhid, and she singled me out for this special treat from among my five sisters. She would pre-arrange with a neighbor, if he too went to the same meeting, to watch over me in kloyz. Her parting words, before taking the stairs to the vaybershe section of the synagogue, were always: "Her zikh gut tsu! Lern!" I felt doubly watched -- by my mother upstairs, and by my guardian for the day, -- and listened attentively. However, I failed to see how all the sins delineated by the preacher and the corresponding tortures in the next world applied to me. Was I even then, in my tender age, "in denial" of my misdeeds?... My unacknowledged youthful transgressions of those days apparently dimmed my memory, and wishing to write about the Dubner Magid I mentioned instead the magid from Mezritsh... Vi ir zet, a mamen darf men folgn. Kh'hob zikh gedarft beser tsuhern tsum magid, azoy vi zi flegt mir onzogn farn arufgeyn tsum vaybershn teyl fun der shul. Itster iz mayn zikorn fartunklt, un velndik shraybn vegn magid fun Dubno, bin ikh farforn in Mezritsh... Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.300