Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 18 June 10, 1991 1) Introduction (Sheldon Benjamin) 2) A syntactic query (Ellen Prince) 3) A literary query (David Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Jun 91 23:00:20 EDT From: sbenj@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Introductions Sholem aleykhem. I'm Sheldon Benjamin from Boston. I practice and teach neuropsychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a practice that seldom involves Yiddish, except for the occasional proverb popping up in a lecture. My particular interests include Yiddish folksongs and shtetl culture. I came to these interests from having spent years interviewing my grandmother (from Streshin, Byelorussia) and record- ing her songs prior to her death 10 years ago. I issued a cassette collection 7 years ago of 101 songs of the 350 or so she recorded, have been trying to write a book on the subject, and enjoy exchanging folksongs with others. I feel that folksongs were often a repository for feelings that often were not adequately expressed in history books and stories. I have parallel interests in genealogy, folklore, prov- erbs, and utilizing old Russian map resources to learn about the shtetl. My Yiddish isn't quite fluent but my heart is in the right place. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity through Mendele to read the translation of I B Singer's "Old Age" and am excited at the possibilities of this network. Hats off to our shames, reb Noyekh. [Reb Noyekh gebt tsu az koydem kol iz er aleyn nisht aza klay koydesh; ober kol zman men hot fun im yo gemakht a shames un me zogt shoyn 'reb', iz vos far a ponim hat es optsuton das hitl? :-)] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 10:09:29 -0400 From: Ellen Prince Subject: RE: Vol 1.17 Mekhutn; sociolinguistics syntactic question on 'vos bistu mir far a mekhutn?': this is an interesting construction, syntactically. in the german syntax literature, it's called the 'was fuer split'--i.e. vos far a mekhutn bistu mir becomes: vos bistu mir far a mekhutn. i've noticed that, in yiddish, it's used with an in- variant 'a(n)', even when the following noun is plural, e.g. from olsvanger's royte pomerantsn: vos iz den dos far an ashires? (#135) ikh farshtey nit, vos iz dos far a verter. (#152) question for all you native speakers: is this always the case? or could one also say: vos iz den dos far ashires? ikh farshtey nit, vos iz dos far verter. if, in the original mekhutn sentence, you were talking to several people, how would you say it, 1 or 2 or either or neither?: 1. vos zent ir mir far a mekhutonim? 2. vos zent ir mir far mekhutonim? a dank aykh! 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1991 11:07:59 -0400 From: David Sherman Subject: RE: Vol1.12 "Old Age" by I.B. Singer "Move a little closer to the wall, Tatte," she whispered in a firm and businesslike tone, as if she were discussing an illegal transaction with an accomplice. "Do you hear me or not? Lie just like that until I tell you that you can move. That's the way...that's it." Does the story just stop at this point, or is there more to come? ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.18