Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.196 May 14, 1998 1) Oy, I Like She (Ron Robboy) 2) Samoa in Yiddish (Ron Robboy) 3) Hebrew or Aramaic (Mikhl Herzog) 4) ad'raba (Yosef Gilboa) 5) Adrabe -- Hebrew or Aramaic? (Bill Weigel) 6) adrabe (A Manaster Ramer) 7) aderabe (Arn Abramson) 8) Yiddish in the Yishuv (Susan Lerner) 9) Mordechai Strigler, 76, Editor of Yiddish Forward (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 23:50:28 -0700 From: rrobboy@cts.com (Ronald Robboy) Subject: Oy, I Like She Several Mendelistn have kindly written to tell me about translation and transcription gaffes I made discussing Lebedeff's singing of the Olshanetsky-Jacobs song, "I Like She" (from their show, _A nakht in kalifornye_.) [7.181]. Clearly, as great as fruit salad may sound on a balmy California night, it is _mern tsimes_, made from carrots, to which Lebedeff compares the object of his affection, not canteloupe or any other "melen." I could claim some inflated rationalization about having listened to a different, earlier recording for comparision, basing my revised hearing on that, but the truth is I am only grateful to those khaveyrim who helped me listen better. Many thanks. The second error was less serious, but reveals a certain lack of imagination on my part. _Zokn_ can certainly be socks, but in the context of this song, a less wooden translation might suggest stockings, hose, or maybe something even more racy than that. So much for all those exaggerated fears of wild Internet pornography: alt.Yiddish.socks. Ron Robboy 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 23:50:48 -0700 From: rrobboy@cts.com (Ronald Robboy) Subject: Samoa in Yiddish Yasminke Dowling (7.148) inquires about any Yiddish works "which discuss/mention Samoa or even Polynesia in general." After doing searches limited to Yiddish for Samoa and, on a hunch Margaret Mead, it occurred to me that some of Robert Louis Stevenson's late writing from Samoa may have been translated. Alas, all I could find was _Doktor Dzheykel un Mister Hayd, mit andere ertselungen_, and _Oytser indzl_. Does Treasure Island count? I searched then for Paul Gaugin in Yiddish, then Tahiti, then Samoa, Polynesia . . . and Hawaii. Bingo. Harvard University and the Los Angeles Public Library have copies of the following, and it seems like YIVO should also. S. Borenshteyn (Samuel Borenstein), _Di velt un ire natur vunder: di havayi inzlen_. London: Y. Naruditski, 1931; 79 pp., illustrations. Series: Yiddish children's literature from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; 0144. I looked again at the author's name and remembered a book I've had for twenty years or more but never read. Samuel Borenstein, _Fun vayte velt-tayln: kinder mayselekh_. Chicago: M. Tseshinski, 1936; 214 pp., illustrations. The front cover has a pasted-on b/w photo of a small marsupial (wallaby? wallaroo?) with a baby in her pouch, and the frontispiece has a tinted photo of a "varata (oder mova): di natsionale blum fun nyu-sout veyls oystralye, vos vakst af dine shtamen fun 6 biz 8 fus hoykh." Following the title page, a portrait of the author by S. Ostrovsky is reproduced, clad in buckskins and looking for all the world like an Australian Duvid Crockett (cf. the Mickey Katz song). He has what looks like a kookaburra perched on his arm, a leather canteen in one hand, and a stout walking stick in the other. On the back pages of the book, we learn that Borenstein is the Founder and Curator of the Muzeum fun Natur Geshikhte (Dzhuish Pipls Institut), 3500 Douglas Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, North America. Words of Hebrew derivation are spelled out in phonetic Yiddish throughout the book. Many of the stories are about characteristic Australian flora and fauna, but the book's center of gravity lies in the stories about aboriginal children. The chapter called "Der rif," which Borenstein incorrectly locates off dorem-oystralye -- it should be to the north -- opens in the fisher shtetl Gledston. This would be Gladstone, Queensland, and ought not be confused with Gladstone, North Dakota, where Borenstein's contemporary, Ayzik Raboy, opens his last novel, _Der yidisher kauboy_, though I suppose they have something in common in the sense of both being unimaginably far-flung settings for a Yiddish story. (Neither should they be confused with the name Gladstone that poet Yankev Glatshteyn used to copyright his work.) There are many photographs of children, and more than one National Geographic-style image of somewhat older, bare-breasted meydlekh. Looking at one of these again (I confess), I realize the subjects are not Australian aboriginal at all, but Polynesian. They appear in a story about a yingl fun dem polinezishn indzl Pega-pega, which I take to be Pago Pago, part of the Samoa group. So here is an answer to Dowling's inquiry! In this story of Samoa, we learn about the siva-siva tants; about "'lava-lava' (a kleyd)"; and about "vos zey hobn oysgefayft mit zeyere nezer af a hiltzern fayfl. Di tener, vos di dozike fayflakh brengen aroys, farkishefn di tsuherer, un farkhapn bam hartsn" -- the bewitching tones of the wooden nose flutes. There is even a captioned illustration of a Polynesian meydl playing "mit der noz af a fayfl." Though not exactly Yiddish-related, Mendelistn might be interested to learn that 1) I am not making this up, and 2) nose flutes are common throughout the Oceanic musical cultures, ranging westward from Hawaii and the Polynesian South Pacific, across Micronesia, and into New Guinea and the northern Philippines (but not the southern, if I am correct, which falls within the Islamic cultural sphere of Indonesia). In the end, we are quite shocked as this story with a Samoan setting takes a tragic turn when the boy is chased out to sea by his mother after he kills some chickens and, to our horror, he suffers a fatal encounter with a yam-shlang (sea snake). I found the story altogether surprising in a children's book. Perhaps even more surprising is the change of setting in the last chapters. >From Oceania, we move abruptly to South Africa, for more children's stories. We are by Table Mountain, outside Capetown. But adding to the confusion, the name of the African youth in this story is Kabala, spelled with three alefs. The first has a pasekh, but the second and third are unmarked. The last alef is definitely an alef -- not an ayen -- so it is not Kabole (Kabbalah), but with all the Hebrew spelled out phonetically, as it is in this book, you're never sure about something like this. The last section of the book is "In der alter heym," and the next-to-last story is suddenly about tsvey khaveyrim, Berele and Fayvele, pals from kheyder, who learn their lesson that it is no mitsve to trap birds. And the last story is about boys playing pranks on the shames for Purim in Bialystok. There you have it: not entirely Samoa, but not entirely Bialystok, either. You turn to the last page, and right above the union label for Local 576, Allied Printing Trades Council, we see a list of "Verk fun S.[samekh] Borenshteyn," which includes the Havayi book as well as Pago Pago Meets Der Alter Heym, and then a third volume in English: _Hiking Through the Wonders of the World_. Lastly, there is a list: _Ingikhn veln dershaynen_ (Soon To Be Published). And what is the first title in Borenstein's projected series? _"Gan-eydn afn shtiln yam" (samoa)_. Did it ever see the light of day? If it did, somebody ought to know where we can read about the Garden of Eden on the Pacific (_shtiler yam_, of course, is a literal rendering of Pacific Ocean). Perhaps a copy or two has found a home on some quiet library shelf. Other future Borenstein titles Borenstein included: _"Kanibal inzl" (fidzhi)_. _"Kinstler fun shtiln okean mahore" (nay-zeland)_. [Maori arts?] _"Libe ba di kanibal af di fidzhi inzlen" (novele)_. These may be a little dated for classroom use today, even offensive sounding, but at least we've set the record straight on what's out there. Ron Robboy San-dyego, afn shtiln yam 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 01:00:04 -0400 From: "Mikhl Herzog" Subject: Hebrew or Aramaic Louis Fridhandler's expresses surprise that a Yiddish word may derive from Aramaic rather than Hebrew (07.194). Without reference to the word in question, we should take note of Dovid Katz's major thesis that the entire Semitic component of Yiddish, even the words that are demonstrably of ultimate Hebrew origin, entered Yiddish through Aramaic. In other words, Yiddish has NO Hebrew component, only an Aramaic component. The Hebrew words in Yiddish constitute part of the Hebrew component of Aramaic. In support of this claim, he posits the existence, in medieval Germany, of an Aramaic-speaking Jewish community in which Yiddish was born. Whether this claim has ever found support among Semitists or medieval historians is beyond my ken. Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:37:16 -0700 From: AJ Gilboa Subject: ad'raba Certainly, ad'raba is of Talmudic Aramaic origin. It is a compound word composed of a- (equivalent to 'al in Heb), d- (equiv. shel), raba=gadol. In the expression "ad'raba mineh" (concerning that which is the greater of them), this is clear. The term ad'raba alone is borrowed to mean "even moreso" in a general sense. The spelling of Aramaic words in Hebrew often "hebraizes" the spelling so that ad'raba can appear either with aleph or he in the ultimate position. Yosef Gilboa p.s. "Milon hadash" of Even-Shoshan, probably the best Heb.- Heb. dictionary these days, gives both spellings of ad'raba (with final alef and with final he - final alef is first, however). Alkalai (a good Heb-Eng/Eng-Heb dictionary) also gives both spellings. Even-Shoshan gives the etymology more or less as I wrote: a=al, d'raba=she-gadol. The expression is most frequently used to mean "on the contrary" rather than "even moreso". 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 01:50:36 -0700 (PDT) From: weigelw@socrates.berkeley.edu Subject: Adrabe -- Hebrew or Aramaic? On the question of the origin of ADRABE, I think that it was a borrowing from Hebrew that was, in turn, earlier borrowed into Hebrew from Aramaic. The original form seems to have been 'al-de-rabba' i.e., 'upon that which is great(er).' The lamed assimilated to the dalet, as evidenced by the dagesh in the latter. The word's ultimate Aramaic original is revealed by the use of the Aramaic relative pronoun (rather than the Hebrew 'she-'). The forms with a different final letter are probably adaptations to the Hebrew use of he rather than aleph as the usual mater lectionis for final qomets. (Some sources, e.g., Klein's Hebrew etymological dictionary and Jastrow's dictionary of the Talmud, list both forms.) Bill Weigel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:21:02 -0400 (EDT) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: adrabe Louis Fridhandler questions the origin of this word and in particular U Weinreich's spelling with a final alef. My trusty Hebrew dict. by Alcalay lists both final alef and final he, so the alef spelling in Weinreich seems to be quite genuine. As to the ultimate origin, I will defer to someone who really knows Aramaic, like Bob Hoberman, although I do not see how this could be originally Hebrew. A Manaster Ramer 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 17:27:06 -0400 From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu (Arthur S. Abramson) Subject: aderabe Louis Fridhandler wrote, "Quoting Alex Manaster Ramer (7.192, 5) 'For example, adrabe is written with a final alef, just as in Aramaic,...' That is how it is spelled in Weinreich. But not in Harkavy who spells it with a final hey, not alef. Three Hebrew dictionaries I consulted also spell it with a final hey. In the Folksfond Oysgabe of Sholem-Aleykhem's Ale Verk it is also spelled with a final hey. Seems that Weinreich is alone among sources I've looked at." In Jastrow's Talmud Dictionary (1926) the word is entered with both final letters, he and 'alef. Avraham 'Even Shoshan in his 1981 Hebrew dictionary, _Ha Milon ha-'Ivri ha-Merukaz_, also gives both spellings. After the one ending in 'alef he has his symbol for "from Talmudic literatures.' Louis then goes on to ask, "Did Weinreich know something that others didn't? Did Yiddish take the word from Aramaic rather than Hebrew? If so, it seems unusual. Are there other examples?" Is it not our common understanding is that what we call the _loshn koydesh_ component of the Yiddish lexicon includes words from both Hebrew and Aramaic? Another example from the Aramaic that comes to mind is _mistome_ 'probably,' Also, some of these very familiar words and expressions from the Aramaic may have crept into Modern Hebrew from the Yiddish. Some of our comrades in historical linguistics will no doubt have more to say on this. Arn Abramson 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 22:59:35 -0500 (CDT) From: Meydele@ix.netcom.com Subject: Yiddish in the Yishuv I would appreciate any reference to materials relating to Yiddish in the Yishuv ( Jewish settlement in pre-Israel Palestine) and particularly to any discussions/debates in the Yishuv relating to the desire to abandon Yiddish for Hebrew. I do not know Hebrew, but can decipher materials in Yiddish. Please feel free to respond to me directly. Thank you for any assistance. Susan Lerner 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 20:33:35 -0400 From: "N. Miller" Subject: Mordechai Strigler, 76, Editor of Yiddish Forward Excerpted from the obituary in The New York Times, May 12, 1998 By DINITIA SMITH Mordechai Strigler, the editor of the Yiddish-language Forward and one of the most prolific Yiddish writers of the postwar period, died on Sunday at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, in Manhattan. He was 76. The cause was a brain injury from a fall, said Dr. Barnett Zumoff, president of the Forward Association Inc., which owns the Yiddish Forward. Strigler was the author of thousands of stories, poems, essays, and political opinion pieces. He also wrote "Oisgebrente Likht" ("Extinguished Candle"), a six-volume autobiographical work written in a poetic style about his experiences during the Holocaust. The work was among the first written accounts of that period by a survivor. After the war, Strigler accompanied a transport of Jewish orphans to Paris and began his autobiographical series. It consisted of "Maidanek" (1947); "In di Fabriken fun Toit" ("In the Death Factories") (1948); "Verk Tze" ("Factory Three") in two volumes (1950), and "Gorales" ("Destinies") in two volumes (1952). In Paris, Strigler also became editor of a Yiddish newspaper, Unzer Vort (Our Word). In 1953, Strigler traveled to the United States on a speaking trip and decided to stay, becoming editor of The Yidisher Kemfer (The Jewish Fighter), a Labor Zionist weekly newspaper. At Yidisher Kemfer, Strigler published most of the great Yiddish writers of his time, including Abraham Reizen, H. Leivik, Chaim Grade, Jacob Glatstein, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. He remained its editor until 1995. He also wrote for the paper using some 20 pseudonyms, a tradition in Yiddish writing, with a special pseudonym reserved for a particular topic. He was also active in the Labor Zionist movement in New York. Around the time Strigler took on the editorship of Yidisher Kemfer, he began writing for the Yiddish Forward. Among his first contributions was a series on Jewish responsa literature, which is about the questions people ask rabbis. Strigler also wrote a column for the Yiddish Forward on Jewish philosophy. In 1987, he became editor of the Yiddish Forward. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.196 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