Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 25 July 8, 1992 1) Romanization (Robert Hoberman) 2) National Yiddish Book Center (Zachary Baker) 3) Schlemiel revisited (Yitzhak Kertesz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 07 Jul 1992 17:42:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Romanization Using a standardized system of Romanization (or transcription or transliteration) is extremely important for lexicographic or bibliographic work, morphological analysis, and many other purposes, but there are times when no simple a-priori policy will do and some ad-hoc makeshifts are better. Here's an example. I was recently asked to translate a ketubah/ksube which had been written in Poland about 80 years ago. Meyle, the frozen, obsolete Hebrew-Aramaic legalese was murder to try to express in English; my question has to do with the names and a few Hebrew words that I wanted to retain in the translation. Normally, I like to use the standard Yiddish romanization and the Library of Congress romanization for Hebrew. They have a lot in common, such as kh for khof, ts for tsadik, sh for shin, and they both omit a lot of the complications of other systems. Here are a few examples that appeared in this marriage contract, in both systems (omitting the dots under some of the h's). tena'im/tnoyem ketubta' de-'irkesa'/ksubte de-irkese (de-irkeso?) Ya`akov/Yankev (Yankoyv? Yaakoyv?) Shelomoh/Shloyme (whole Hebrew shloymoy?) Tsevi 'Aryeh/Tsvi Arye Hayim Haykil (written with -kuf-YUD-lamed)/Khayem Khaykl Rahel/Rokhl huppah/khupe Avraham/Avrohom Shevat/Shvat (the name of the month) The problem is that some of these are clearly loshn-koydesh, not Yiddish, others clearly Yiddish (e.g. Khaykl and the family names), others could go either way. A uniform system to accommodate both there isn't. You COULD say, [here imagine gemore-intonation], all of these were written and pronounced by Yiddish speakers, including my client's parents, so stick with the Yiddish system, hence tnoyem, khupe, Rokhl, Shloyme (Shloymoy?). But I think those would look absurd to my client. After all, people are ACCUSTOMED to seeing Sefardic-Hebrew-based romanized spellings and pronouncing them more or less as in Yiddish. So I think I'll have to make a lot of compromises. Such things must come up all the time in genealogical and historical work. Does anyone have suggestions or experience, or off-the-cuff feelings, to offer? Bob Hoberman rhoberman@sbccmail.bitnet, rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Jul 92 10:31:17 PDT From: Zachary Baker, YIVO Library (BM.YIB@RLG.BITNET) Subject: National Yiddish Book Center For MENDELE subscribers who make use of the National Yiddish Book Center, that organization has a new mailing address and telephone number (I don't recall seeing this information conveyed in previous issues of MENDELE): National Yiddish Book Center 48 Woodbridge Street South Hadley, MA 01075 Tel. (413) 535-1303 Fax (413) 535-1007 The Book Center has moved to temporary quarters (3 years, I am told) on the Mount Holyoke College campus, while they try to raise funds for a permanent structure on the Hampshire College campus. Their warehouse is still in Holyoke, Mass., and the phone number remains the same: (413)536-0584. Zachary Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Jul 92 07:48:46 PDT From: Yitzhak Kertesz Subject: Schlemiel revisited I would like to return to my friends, Reb Shlimmazal and Herr Schlemiel. Mordkhe Schaechter was quoted some time ago, who argues (Yiddish II) that the difference between them is dialectal: "Schlemiel" is used in the West, while "Shlimm-mazal" in the East. This is unfortunately not entirely correct, although Bernstein's collection of Central-Yiddish proverbs uses "Schlemiel" as the German translation of "Shlimm-mazalnik". "Schlemiel" indeed does not appear in Eastern Europe (although the "Book of Jewish proverbs" has a quotation from Sholem Alechem), but "Schlammassel" appears in Germany, both in Jewish and non-Jewish sources. The dictionary of the Grimm brothers, Schmeller's Bavarian dictionary, H. Fischer's Swabian dictionary, just to mention the most important ones. The word "Shlimm-mazal" appears several times in Tendlau's collection of Judeo-German proverbs (1860), and in Herz's Esther (Fuerth: 1828). On the other hand I was eager to hear something else. When I wrote that the earliest occurrence of these words is from 1784 (both in the same book, published in Prague!!), I hoped that an expert of early-Yiddish will jump on me with a quotation from an early source, let's say the "Melokim-buk" (it is not there, I checked). So let me ask: In return for proper acknowledgment in a footnote, is anybody aware of the occurrence of the words "Schlemiel" and/or "Shlimm-mazal" in any source in any language (dialect) prior to 1800? Thanks. Yitzhak Kertesz (bm.lbh@rlg.bitnet) ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.25 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.