Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.134 January 16, 1998 1) A Yiddish film database (Noyekh Miller) 2) Nachman Meisel's article on Chaim Grade (Louis Fridhandler) 3) American Association of Professors of Yiddish (Cheryl Tallan) 4) Yiddish Linguistics Reading List (A Manaster Ramer) 5) yidish - avrohom reyzens a lid (peter kluehs) 6) Mourning the death of a colleague (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Dorothy Bilik z"l (Kathryn Hellerstein) 8) khaloymes (Noyekh Miller) 9) Famished? (Daniel Bloom) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 11:20:31 +0000 From: "N. Miller" Subject: A Yiddish film database My apologies if this has been run before. I recently came across what looks like the ultimate in film-buffery, The Internet Movie Database. The number of films covered is staggering, the details even more so. Among them are 83 Yiddish titles, and most readers can find out more than they probably want to know by clicking http://us.imdb.com/M/list?tv=on&&language=Yiddish Noyekh Miller 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 15:08:50 EST From: Lfridhan Subject: Nachman Meisel's article on Chaim Grade Nakhmen Mayzl's bukh, Forgeyer un Mittsaytler (New York: IKUF, 1946) bashteyt fun tsvantsik maymorim vegn yidishe mekhabrim. Inem letstn maymer, geshribn 1945, zogt Mayzl aroys, bekitser, zayne meynungen un ayndrukn vegn Khaim Grade, dikhter un mentsh. Dos shraybt er fun a perzenlekhn kukvinkl mit shilderungen fun erntste shmuesn mit Grade. Mayzl lozt undz khapn a por blikn af eynem fun der grupe, yung-Vilne, vos hobn ibergelebt azoyne muyemdike sakones-nefoshes. Mayzl shraybt (z. 415): Er hot gelebt in Vilne, un oyserlekh, take nor oyserlekh, hot er gehert tsu der grupe _yung-Vilne_. In tokh iz er gegangen un gekletert af zayn eygenem veg un shteg. Er hot mispalel geven _bikhides_, khotsh er iz geven _tsugeshribn_ tsu der Vilner dikhter grupe. Er iz take fotografirt af farsheydene bilder mit der grupe _yung- Vilne_, ober er hot zikh shtark oysgeteylt fun zey, punkt vi er hot zikh sharf oysgeteylt mit a por yor frier fun dem krayz musernikes in der Novoredoker yeshive vu er hot gelebt ineynem mit zayne khaverim un dokh geven lakhlutn an anderer, a zelbtshtendiker mit eygene sfeykes un zukhenishn, mit eygene troymen un shtrebenishn. Mayzl endikt zayn maymer mit a por verter vegn Grade's nayestn bukh (1945), _doyres_. Translation: Nachman Meisel's book, Predecessors and Contemporaries (New York: IKUF, 1946) consistis of twenty articles about Jewish authors. In the last article, written 1945, Maisel expresses his opinions and impressions about Chaim Grade, poet and person. He writes from personal standpoint with descriptions of earnest discussions with Grade. Meisel provides a glimpse into one of the group, _Young Vilna_, who lived through such horrifying, deadly dangers. Mayzl writes (p. 415): He lived in Vilne, and outwardly, indeed only outwardly, he belonged to the group _Young Vilna_. Basically, he marched and clambered along his own path, his own direction. He worshiped solitude, although he was _enrolled_ in the Vilna group of poets. He actually appeared in various photographs with the _Young Vilna_ group, but he had definitely detached himself from them, just as he had sharply separated a few years earlier from the circle called Muserniks (moral ascetics) in the Novoredok yeshiva, where he had lived together with comrades and yet was an absolutely independent outsider with his own doubts and quests, his own dreams and aspirations. Meisel ends his article with a few words about Grades latest book (1945), _Generations_. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 17:01:04 -0500 (EST) From: Cheryl Tallan Subject: American Association of Professors of Yiddish This message is from Prof. Adam Fuerstenberg. Please send any questions or replies to him at afuerste@acs.ryerson.ca As the new President of the American Association of Professors of Yiddish I would like to extend an invitation to members of the Mendele list to join. You don't have to be a professor of Yiddish to join. It's $20 US or equivalent($15 US for Seniors and Students). What you get is 3 issues of the journal "Yiddish" and a joint issue of Modern Jewish Studies Annual/Yiddish, as well as the right to attend and read papers at the AAPY sessions at the Modern Language annual conference (next Dec. in San Francisco) Next year's topics for our two sessions are "Women and Yiddish Lit." and "Women and Am' Jewish Lit." Please Email me a topic and one paragraph abstract before March 1,1998. Adam Fuerstenberg. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 11:49:13 -0500 (EST) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Yiddish Linguistics (Reading List) Noyekh Miller has asked me to post some references to non-Weinreich work on the history of Yiddish. I will post some of the things which which I personally happen to think of as particularly important (which may be idiosyncratic). In this posting, I will only list people belonging roughly to the same era as Max Weinreich. At some point, I will try to post a list of some of the more recent work on the origins and early history of Yiddish (here I will only call attention to the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, the project started by Uriel Weinreich and for many years carried on by Marvin Herzog, where references can be found to most of this work as well as to much other work which I am not listing here). Beranek, Franz J. (1965) Westjiddischer Sprachatlas. Marburg: N. G. Elwert. (With references to his other works, which collectively are very important, although not always reliable. Much of his work was not taken into account fully or at all by Weinreich). Bin-Nun, Jechie (1973) Jiddisch und die deutschen Mundarten unter besonderer Berucksichtigung des ostgalizischen Jiddisch. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer. (This was written in the 1930's when Bin-Nun's name was Fischer but the bulk of it was published many years later. As a result of when the main part of this came out, it could not be taken into account by Weinreich. Bib-Nun did not really do any other work on the subject, but in many ways his is one of my favorite works on Yiddish.) Birnbaum, Solomon A. (1979) Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press. (This is a rather disorganized book and hard to follow, because it is essentially put together out of various bits and pieces which, while revised, come from various publications of his dating to fifty or more years earlier. Some pieces are highly technical, others are excessively popular, and he does not take almost any theoretical work by other people into account, even though he has a very lengthy bibliography) Mieses, Matthias. 1924. Die jiddische Sprache. Berlin and Vienna: Benjamin Harz. (Mieses was an amateur and he makes some amazing mistakes, e.g., deriving Yiddish vorn Fbecause' from Latin quare instead of connecting it to German warum, and so on. But in many OTHER respects it is a great work, and another favorite of mine.) There is of course a lot more, but these are perhaps the most important works for someone who wants to get a sense of what besides Weinreich's Geshikhte existed in Yiddish historical linguistics as it was as of 1975 or so. For Eastern Yiddish specifically, the indispensable reference is: Herzog, Marvin I. (1965) The Yiddish Language in Northern Poland: Its Geography and History. Bloomington. Indiana University. (This is the book that got me interested in Yiddish historical linguistics in the first place, which is the least important of its many merits I guess.) For those interested in what I call non-Eastern Yiddish or better the various non-Eastern Yiddishes (the accepted term has been FWestern Yiddish' but I have argued that, whereas Eastern Yiddish is a unit, Western Yiddish is not), Beranek's work is one source. Another source for non-Eastern Yiddish is Max Weinreich's (1958) article ``Roshe-prokim vegn mayrevdikn yidish''. In: Yuda A. Yofe-bukh, 158-194. New York: Yivo. Also Guggenheim-Gru"nberg, Florence. 1973. Jiddisch auf alemannischem Sprachgebiet. Zurich: Juris Druck + Verlag. [Beitra"ge zur Geschichte und Volkskunde der Juden in der Schweiz, 10.] Of special interest, although it is in many ways obsolete, is Weinreich's history of Yiddish linguistics (which only takes us through the early 1920's, when it was actually written): Weinreich, Max (1993) Geschichte der jiddischen Sprachforschung. Atlanta. Finally, I do not know how many people are aware of the never-settled controversy as to whether all, some, or none of the so-called FOld Yiddish' texts are actually Yiddish (as opposed to German in Hebrew letters, some OTHER Jewish language of German origin other than Yiddish, or a stage at which German and Yiddish were still one language and so indistinguishable). This is one of THE central issues in Yd lx, and perhaps the best place to start is Jerold Frakes' The Politics of Interpretation. There is as I say much much more, but I think this is a good starting reading list for someone whose sole or main source on Yiddish lx and the history of Yd is Weinreich's Geshikhte. A Manaster Ramer 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 08 Jan 1998 18:40:00 +0200 From: pelokoha@t-online.de (peter kluehs) Subject: yidish - avrohom reyzens a lid shalom khaveyrim, ikh breng aykh do a kleyne matone tsum nayem yor, a lid fun a. reyzen vos me kon oftmol hern in kol israel, oysgefirt fun zhenya fayerman. YIDISH yidish, shprakh un loshn mayn, vunder fun mayn blaybn zayn! tsvishn fremde, do tsi dort, boyst mayn heym in yedn ort... vu ikh kum, oft mat un mid, klingt mir oyf dayn heymish lid; durkh mayn fentster, vu s'zol zayn, dringt dayn lid aroys, arayn... un nit lid aleyn - dayn vort makht mir noent vaytstn ort, vert mir lib; avu ikh kum -- ringlen brider mikh arum... un nit vort - dayn bukh aleyn, yidish bukh, vi likhtik, sheyn! perets, *mendele*, rey nokh anand -- shveb ikh mit in yidishland. nit keyn fremde ergets nit mit mayn yidish bukh un lid; mit mayn yidish tsaytungblat, fli ikh durkh di velt kimat... peter kluehs wehrheim 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 23:04:28 -0500 From: "Mikhl (Marvin) Herzog" Subject: Mourning the death of a colleague Dorothy Bilik, recently retired from the teaching of Yiddish and Yiddish literature at the University of Maryland, College Park, died several days ago. Friends will soon be notified of plans for a Memorial in Maryland and burial in New York. Please contact me directly for more information. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 13:03:06 -0500 (EST) From: Kathryn Hellerstein Subject: Dorothy Bilik z"l I heard from a friend that Dorothy Bilik, a professor at the University of Maryland, and a scholar of Yiddish, working most recently on Glikl of Hameln, passed away recently. I saw her at the Yiddish literature session on translating Yiddish literature at the Modern Language Association Convention in Toronto, on December 28. She looked beautiful in her scarlet hat, and it was wonderful to talk with her. I shall miss her and her contributions to the profession. May her memory be blessed. Kathryn Hellerstein 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 18:25:06 +0000 From: "N. Miller" Subject: khaloymes dos shraybt der podolyer goylem: ikh bin a shprakh-derkener. a goylem bin ikh vayl vos me bafeylt mir tsu tun tu ikh. farvos podolyer? vayl mayn balebos shtamt fun podolye un dort redt men "tote-mome lushn". der balebos mayner tut zikh zayns un ikh tu mikh mayns. tsum mikrofon redt er a geshmakn ukraynish un ikh shrayb kemoy halokhe shel yivo. zogt er "lushn", shrayb ikh "loshn". er zogt "van", shrayb ikh "vayn" u"a"v. un tsu klep iz men nokh nisht gekumen. The balebos says: The goylem is only a few days old. Originally intended to ease arthritic fingers, it occurred to me that voice recognition software --once it gets easier, more powerful and cheaper--could be useful to Yiddishists. So I taught the program to write "shrayb" when I say "shrab", "mame" when I say "mome", etc. No special problems encountered except for the training sessions, which take time. To teach the program new words one brings up a text of some sort, which in this case is simply Refoyl Finkel's word list, taken with his approval from his wonderful "yidishe shrayb-mashinke" (about which more later). The program lists all the words not already in its vocabulary and the user is asked to pronounce each word. The rest is pretty straightforward. It works. And here is the heart of my message. Input varies with dialect. Written output does not. Who could benefit from voice recognition software? . Those with geleymte hent, like me, who have trouble typing or who, again like me, never learned touch-typing. . Those Mendelists who are somewhat unsure of their Yiddish but are reluctant to use dictionaries. . Those to whom writing YIVO style seems for whatever reason strange if not downright heretical. This latter group, which includes some of Mendele's best writers, would be mekayem a real mitsve (as they say in yeshivish) if they were to write with an eye to those who are learning or relearning Yiddish and for whom learning _one_ way of spelling is already a task, let alone three. . Finally those who cling to the notion that Yiddish is not a language, that it has no grammar and no spelling and that what they dimly remember is good enough. These have the most to gain. But there's more. If speech recognition is here, so is Refoyl Finkel's system for transforming romanized Yiddish texts (using the YIVO standard) into Yiddish texts--the most beautiful Yiddish fonts by the way that anyone has ever seen. So with a little tweaking here and some shoe-horning there we may be only a few steps away from being able to _talk_ a brivele der tante or an article for the Forverts or TMR. (For an example of what this looks like in Yiddish you can visit http://www2.trincoll.edu/~nmiller .) And I hope that not even our most farbisene regionalists will argue with a system that yields standard written Yiddish in Yiddish characters. I'm using Dragon's _Naturally Speaking_. Not cheap, not expensive. It comes with a headset and a blessedly short manual that can be read in five minutes. You will need a soundcard and quite a lot of memory. A word of caution: training the program to recognize the way you pronounce your words is by no means lightning-swift. It takes in fact quite a lot of time. There will also be lots of frustrating moments. We techies (ot di teyve hob ikh geyarshnt fun tatn) think we're in the catbird seat; more sensible folks undertand in fact that the technology is only beginning to be usable. And there are other, perhaps better, software packages available, so it might be wise to let the dust settle a bit before buying. It would be helpful if knowledgeable Mendelists were to chime in on this. Maybe not this month or this year, but I'd be very surprised if by the year 2000 the majority of Mendelistn were not speaking their posts. Efsher kumt take bald meshiekh? Noyekh Miller 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 03:03:05 PST From: "Daniel Bloom" Subject: Famished? Hello. I'm new to the list. When I was a kid in Boston my parents used to say of my sister (or me) when we were real tired and acting like brats, SO and SO is "famished?" Farmisched? I can't find the word in a Yiddish dictionary. Was I hearing right? Daniel Bloom ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.134 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html