Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.182 April 6, 1998 1) Chaver Paver's Labzig (Itsik Goldenberg) 2) Chaver Paver (Nathan Kravetz) 3) Chaver Paver (Marti Krow-Lucal) 4) ladies (Maynard Wishner) 5) Ladies? (Marvin Engel) 6) A real Yiddish keyboard (Noyekh Miller) 7) Transliteray iz foyleray (sylvia schildt) 8) oder/bruder and barnyard linguistics (Mikhl Herzog) 9) [eyf] = "oyf" (David Braun) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 08:45:59 -0400 From: "Robert Goldenberg" Subject: Chaver Paver's Labzig Harold Orbach asks in Mendele 07.179 about "Lobzig" the dog, stories, by Chaver Paver. I have a copy of the sequel to the original Labzig book, by Chaver Paver. It is called "Labzig" (Book 2): Nokh mayselekh vegn klugn hintele Labzig." It was published in New York in 1937 by the Co-operative Folks Farlag. Both books are probably available from The National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Itsik Goldenberg 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 10:28:58 -0700 From: Nathan Kravetz Subject: Chaver Paver Harold Orbach asks about Chaver Paver and his writings. I have a lovely copy in Yiddish of his "Vovik"--a story about a clever, charming dog. The book is illustrated by Moses Soyer and was published in 1947 in Los Angeles. Chaver Paver wrote, as Harold said, in the Freiheit and elsewhere. His name was Gershon Einbinder. I have another volume called, "Zalmen der Shuster," not a children's book, but chapters in the life of Zalmen (Chaver Paver). It was published in 1955, inscribed to S. Miller by Chaver Paver himself. What I'd like to do (or see someone else do) is translate the books into publishable English. Suggestions for a publisher, anyone? Nathan Kravetz Los Angeles 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 14:44:06 EDT From: Kromobile Subject: Chaver Paver Khaver Orbach's ear has served him well. "Chaver Paver" was the pen name of Gershon Einbinder (Bershad, Bessarabia, 1901- Los Angeles, 1964 - his son Michael and I attended the same shule). He wrote for children and adults. The National Yiddish Book Center has some of his books in Yiddish, as well as a YKUF-published translation of a number of his stories entitled "'Clinton Street' and Other Stories" (it only contains two Lobzik stories, though). I imagine other mendelyaner (Hershl Hartman?) could give more extensive information. Marti Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 10:34:22 -0500 From: mwishner@jon.cjfny.org Subject: ladies Sean Martin's inquiry about the use of "ladies" by an American Yiddish speaking Socialist organization evoked memories of Bieletzerkover Branch 541 of the Arbeter Ring in Chicago which was the center of a good part of the lives of my parents. It met Sean Martin's criteria. It was Socialist. (Well sort of. Thay all voted for Franklin Roosevelt and not Norman Thomas). It was Yiddish speaking. (Well sort of) And it had as an integral part of its being "The Ladies Auxiliary of Branch 541" At events where food was to be served the responsibiliy tended to to be tossed to "Di Veiber" An additional synonym (well sort of) to Sean Martin's list. Maynard Wishner 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 16:13:55 -0400 From: marvin engel Subject: Ladies? Sean Andrew Martin asks about words used to address women in Yiddish socialist circles in the 1920's and 1930's. The all-purpose English "comrade" corresponds to "khaver"(masc), "khaverte"(fem); and the plural "comrades" becomes "khaverim" and "khavertes." The garment shop forelady was a different kettle of fish entirely. gut paysakh aykh alemen. Marvin Engel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 13:46:44 -0400 (EDT) From: N. Miller Subject: A real Yiddish keyboard Many Mendelistn, myself included, yearn for the day when we can routinely send and read posts written in Yiddish. But though that day isn't here yet, things are getting easier for those who want access to a Yiddish keyboard. I've worked with a trial copy of QText 8.0, a Yiddish word processor by Dvir Software for a couple of weeks, and more recently I installed the commercial version. It works very well in English and Yiddish (it also offers French, German, Russian and just about every other European keyboard) and I recommend it to my fellow-Mendelists. Not only does it offer all of the special Yiddish characters, not only is font-and-direction shift simple, it also enables users to mail and fax documents. Owners of QText can thus write to one another in mame-loshn as simply as they've been able to do in English. There are other features as well, including HTML, sketching and matters that are far beyond my feeble understanding. No matter. What counts is the Yiddish. At this point I think a word of thanks is due our Meyer David who has devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to persuading software firms (including Dvir) and anyone else who will listen to provide us with a real Yiddish keyboard. The adage about water wearing away rock fits perfectly the way that gentle soul has worn down inertia and opposition. But Mendele has more than one hero. Here's another. Learning a new keyboard for those of us who've been weaned on Roman or Cyrillic is not much fun. And correct Yiddish spelling isn't always a straightforward affair. So for those who hesitate to learn, our esteemed Refoyl Finkel has come up with a wonderful solution which links his famous Yiddish Typewriter up with QText. Suppose, for instance, that you're writing a document in English (or Russian) and want to switch to Yiddish. If you're working in a Windows environment and connected to the Internet, bring up the Yiddish Typewriter by setting the browser to: http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/makeyiddish.html and compose the text in transcribed Yiddish. When you're through, click the button that reads "QText Hebrew". The result is a mess of coded symbols. Copy in the usual way, then switch back to the QText document and paste. And there in the document is the Yiddish equivalent, complete with vowel markings and special characters, of what you had written in transcribed form. You can try it out for yourselves by downloading a 30-day trial copy from Dvir (http://www.qtext.com), and can buy it at an attractive price from Meyer David's new Yiddish Voice bookstore (http://www.yv.org). (I have no hesitation in mentioning this since the proceeds go to producing his lively Yiddish radio program _Dos Yidishe Kol_.) Noyekh Miller 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 14:36:38 +0100 From: creativa@charm.net (sylvia schildt) Subject: Transliteray iz foyleray Ikh probir merstns redn pozitive diburim -- spetzyel tzu undzere mendelyaner. ober fun tzayt tzu tzayt farlir ikh dem geduld iber eyn inyen -- un dos iz der inyen fun lernen leyenen di yidishe oysyes. me zukht oys spetzyele verterbikher af roymishe oysyes -- me dreyt zikh in drayen kdey aroystzukumen funem drang tzu lernen a bisele alef beyz. bekitzer, vos iz der gantzer tzimes? a shtunde a tog -- un in a 3-4 vokhn iz dos mer nish kin problem. staytch mentshn, hot a bisele derekh eretz far undzer mameloshn. es iz vert ayer bisele mi zikh oystzulernen di oysyes - aza greyse teyl iz fonetish -- un mit ivre, fun a bisl un a bisl vert a fule shisl. es zaynen faran genug tekstn, alte un naye vos dershaynen fun tzayt tzu tzayt. un klasn, avade un avade. leyenen alef beys iz a shlisl tzu der hanoye fun direkt contakt mit undzere greyse shrayber, dikhter un zhurnalistn. in di romanizirte tekstn farlirt men dem kontakt mitn shoyresh fun hebreyishe verter -- heyst es, der taytsh iz oft nit akurat. amol meyn ikh poshet az men foylt zikh oystzulernen dem alef beyz. s'iz gor nit kin greyse horevanie. shraybn af romanizirte oysyes hot a vert af mendele, ober mendelyaner vos zogn az zey hobn lib mame loshn muzn eykh kenen leyenen yidish. I mostly try to speak in positive terms -- espcially to our dear mendelyaner. but from time to time i lose patience over one subject -- and that is the subject of learning to read the yiddish alphabet. people are looking for special dictionaries in transliteration - they do gyrations in order to avoid the necessity of learning a little aleph beyz. in short, what's the big deal? an hour a day -- and in 3-4 weeks, it's no longer a problem. come on guys, have a little respect for mameloshn. it's worth the little effort to learn the alphabet -- such a large part is purely phonetic, and the hebraisms, little by little, they will also become familiar. there are enough textbooks around, old ones, new ones that come out from time to time. And classes, certainly. Yiddish literacy is the key to the pleasure of direct contact with our great writers, poets and journalists. in the romanized texts you lose the contact with the shoresh (roots) words on the hebraisms -- which means, the translation is often innacurate. sometimes i simply think that people are too lazy to learn the alef-beyz. it's not really major hard work. while there may be a practicality to writing in translit over mendele,mendelyaner who profess a love of mameloshn should really be able to read yiddish. sylvia schildt baltimore, maryland 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 18:59:15 -0400 From: "Mikhl Herzog" Subject: oder/bruder and barnyard linguistics Bob Rothstein (#07.177) is right to query the cooccurrence of _uder_ (the month) and _bruder_. At best it's poetic licence. It doesn't happen in the real world. We find three cooccurrences: 1. NEY ("Litvish") _oder_/_bruder_, 2. SY (Poland & S. Ukraine) _u(:)der_/bri:der_, or 3.Belorus-Northern Ukraine and Polish-Lithuanian border area _oder_/_bri:der_. NO *Uder/*brUder!! Obviously, nothing is impossible, as witness the fact that Bob cites the rhyme. However, the consequence of a merger of the two vowels in question would be a disaster for farmers, fowl, and Jewish housewives alike: A Yiddish dialect which failed to distinguish _oder_ (the month) and _bruder_, would be unable to differentiate the rooster (_hon_) from the hen (_hun_). emerged before SY _hi:n_ 'hen'. The problem of _hon_ and _hun_ in Yiddish, the problem of the French 'rooster' (& 'vicar') about which so much has been written (cf. Gillieron, Bloomfield, Martinet?), and a similar problem in Hungarian (whose details escape me), together constitute the nascent field of "barnyard linguistics". Other contributions will be welcomed. Mikhl Herzog 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 20:14:29 EDT From: David S Braun Subject: [eyf] = "oyf" The libavitsher rebe (Lubavitcher Rebbe) and other Yiddish-speakers of White Russian origin (where I mean "deep" W.R., not the border with Poland or Ukraine) use(d) [eyf] for prepositional "oyf". Is it only in "careful speech," i.e. in rhetorical/literary/official style? What's the form of the "converb"? (Might it be [uyf]? This is just a guess.) David Braun Cambridge, MA ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.182 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