Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 30 June 24, 1991 1) Geyn in lebn (Jankel Kessler) 2) Moyd un meydl (Sigrid Peterson) 3) Z. Segalovitch (Sheldon Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 22 Jun 91 15:50 PDT From: KESSLER Subject: RE: Vol 1.29 Query ES GEYT IM "NIT" IN LEBN? VOS ES GEYT HIM IN LEBN NIT. MY EAR MAY BE WAY OFF, 5 5 YEARS OFF, FROM THE NATIVE LOST IDIOM. YANKELE IN L.A. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1991 12:36 MST From: Sigrid Peterson Subject: Moyd un meydl I have e-mail from Dovid-Noyekh Miller about the Ludmirer Moyd, the Maid of Ludomir, regarding a query on another list. I remember fondly a song from an album called _Love Songs of Many Lands_, by Theo Bikel. The song is " Ikh bin a meydl in di yoren." Granted that --l is diminutive, and that Hebrew, for example, has known several words for unmarried woman, is there a true difference between "moyd" and "meydl," or is it a phonetic shift to accomodate attaching the diminutive? Or perhaps differences in dialect? ~~~~~~~~~~ Noyekh shames, Some of my interest in Yiddish is related to the sense that knowing the language will provide me with access to women's religious experiences recorded in Yiddish. I am a psychologist, and psychologists made the difficult transition to gender-neutral language about fifteen years ago. And, above, I am asking about the word "moyd." It's no wonder that you place me in the feminist camp from those clues. It is not, howev- er, a label I wear comfortably, especially when my daughter is fighting for English courses that will teach her T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens, and the Department is only offering Gender and Representation in Twentieth Century American Fiction. As a label, it also represents knowledge I do not have. However, I suppose it isn't bad as a way of indicating my gender, which is not always apparent, except to Eva-Maria Jansson. Thank you for the work you are doing in putting out MENDELE. It has leaped from a standing start right up to the caliber of IOUDAIOS, which is no small feat. a sheynem dank, Sigrid Peterson [Vi azoy zogt men 'aw shucks' oyf Idish? nm] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Jun 91 00:18:32 EDT From: sbenj@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: RE: Z. Segalovitch Regarding Harry Katz's interest in the writer, Segalovitch, I am not certain that this is the same person, but I know a folk ballad, "Sheyn iz Reyzele dem sheykhets (the pronunciation bias being Byelorussian, the way my grandmother sang it) by a Z. Segalovitch born Feb 26, 1884 in Bialystok, Poland--died Feb 19, 1949 in New York. There is a chapter on him with this and several other song texts by him in Perl fun der Yiddisher Poeziya by Yosef and Chana Mlotek, YIVO 1974. I refer to the song as a "folk ballad" because it had become popular enough in my grandmother's neck of the woods in the early part of the century for it to have been committed to memory and even resung with variants. Sheldon Benjamin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.30