Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.039 July 9, 1997 1) Yiddish in Estonia and multilingualism (Anna Verschik) 2) litvish (sylvia schildt) 3) Reading Yiddish (Allan Blair) 4) Jewish prostitute/students (Gabriella Safran) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 08:59:52 EET From: "Anna Verschik" Subject: Yiddish in Estonia and multilingualism Dear colleagues! I am Anna Verschik from Tallinn, Estonia. I am a linguist and a speaker of Yiddish, too. There are still somewhat 500-600 Yiddish speakers in Estonia. I am working on my doctoral dissertation dedicated to the multilingualism of Estonian Jews and would be very interested in learning about other works in this field and in Yiddish linguistics in general. I teach courses in Judaism and Yiddish culture in the Estonian Institute of the Humanities and also translate fiction from Yiddish into Estonian. I would be very grateful for your help and advice. Zait gezunt - s'iz a shod, az men ken nit shraibn mit di yidishe oisiyes. Anna Verschik Tallinn, Estonia 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 18:12:01 +0100 From: creativa@charm.net (sylvia schildt) Subject: litvish Mitn grestn derekh eretz miriam isaacsn "in andere galitzyaner in galitzyanerkes vil ikh akh zugn az in amyrike iz nit nur shveyr tzi zan a yid ( yidene)" -- s'iz eykh shver tzu zayn a litvak. "farvues?" (ir zet,ikh ken eykh redn a bisl dziganish.) "val du in ameyrike, zanen meyr ungekimen galitzyanish-redndike yidn. biz di suf nan in tzvuntziker yurn, ven zay (di litvakes) hubn take gevult/gemizt unkimin kin ameyrike, zanen uber di tirn shoyn farmakht geveyn. nu mayle, hubn zay gemizt furn kin durem afrike, tzim bashpil. In ba zay in d.a., derfar, iz pinkt farkeyrt, s'iz du a greserer bafelkering fin yidn fin litvishn shtam." nokh a zakh." maynt nit s'iz aza gantze metziye zan a litvak. spetzyel far a lererke." vayl lernen darf men YIVO yidish, ober es redt zikh aroys sheyn nit shoyn, un eykh nit oykh, un kam un tzam, nit koym un tzoym u.a.v. Nokh mer, a sakh gramen - mil un shil - barimen un bakimen - gerider un vider -- klingen falsh afn litvakishn eyer. Vi ken men zingen "sha shtil makh nisht kin geruder, der rebe geyt sheyn tantzn vuder?????" un vos vegn di litvakn vos kenen nit aroyszogn dem "shin" -" s'iz a sande far di mentsn, far di galitzyaner, me lakht fun zey un makht spas." un vos vegn gramatik. ver veys fun a " dos "- dos iz an oygelernter kontzept (a farshlepter krenk) farn litvishn meyakh/moyekh. es vilt zikh zogn "di meydele" un "der ingele" (afile nit yingele af idish nit yidish). sof kol sof, iz litvish nor a dialekt mit ale dialektn glaykh. un YIVO yidish iz der mitl punkt/pinkt tzvishn zey/zay. a dank dir gotyenu, vos mir hobn aza gevuntshte zakh vi YIVO idish. Un a dank di naye tzaytn fun elpost un shraybn af lataynishe oysyes -- vayl me ken eykh shraybn in dem eygenem dialekt. heyst es az afile "transliteration" iz nutzlekh/nitzlekh. zayt ale gezunt un shtark/zat ale gezint in shtark/zat ile gezint in shtark, sylvia schildt baltimore, maryland 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 20:49:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Dr. Allan E. Blair" Subject: Reading Yiddish I noted Allen Dronet's letter in Mendele about his difficulty in reading Yiddish, and it struck a familiar, if painful note: I am a 68 yr old retired Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who is a self-taught Yiddishist, but I, too, have a problem reading long passages in Yiddish. It seems that I still stumble over any long Yiddish word, despite my having studied Yiddish at the graduate level at Ohio State Unioversity for four years, and Bar Ilan University for one summer. It was sheer terror for me to be asked to read aloud in class. All this, in spite of being quite fluent in the language. As far as flash cards: I have had much success with my Hebrew word processor, DAGESH2 (by Kivun). I ordered it from DAVKA, 7074 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL, along with a Hebrew keyboard (which also has Latin letrters on it) for $35. Their phone no. is: 1-800-621-8225. If anyone out in MENDELEland can offer any workable material to help farkrempteh Yiddish readers, a whole lot of us would be deleriously happy Allan E. Blair Columbus, Ohio 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 10:53:25 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gabriella S. Safran" Subject: Jewish prostitute/students Sholem Aleikhem! As part of a dissertation on narratives of Jewish acculturation in Russian literature (1870-1890), I've become interested in the stories of Jewish girls who registered as prostitutes in order to have permission to live in a big city outside of the Pale of Settlement and to study there. As far as I can tell, this happened very rarely if ever, but was much discussed and was the topic of much fiction between the early 1880s and the Revolution. I've already heard about a number of films -- Yiddish, Russian, and German/Polish -- with this plot, read footnotes about it in Laurie Bernstein's book on prostitution and Ben Nathans' dissertation on Jewish assimilation and some mentions in Edward Bristow's book on Jews and prostitution and J. Hoberman's book on Yiddish film,, seen a reference in a Sholem Aleikhem novel (_The Bloody Hoax_), and read Baron Ginsburg's testimony about it to an international congress on white slavery. I would appreciate references to any more uses of this plot in Russian or Yiddish literature (or films, or any other literature, for that matter) or any more mentions in historical works. A sheynem dank. Gabriella Safran Princeton, NJ ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.039