Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 31 July 15, 1992 1) Maurice Schwartz (Ellen Prince) 2) Menashe Skulnik (Bob Werman) 3) Introduction and queries (Sten Vikner) 4) Nokhamol borsht (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Jul 92 21:35:42 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: maurice schwartz next december 12, 13, and 14, the movie 'uncle moses', starring maurice schwartz, will be shown at the jewish y in philadelphia, broad and pine streets. for those in the area, this is your chance to see the jewish olivier on the big screen! p.s. this is part of the y's 12th annual jewish film festival. if anyone's interested in what else is being shown, just let me know. ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Jul 92 13:31 +0300 From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Menashe Skulnik. As a youth, I mingled with his daughter, Maya. I little understood that I could claim fame on this basis. The scene, Greenwich Village, the years 1948-49. We had friends in common, spoke together, nothing very exciting, not even a serious flirt. __Bob Werman rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il Jerusalem 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Jul 92 07:29:40 EDT From: Shobbse Dubin Subject: RE: Maurice Schwartz The fact that Maurice Schwartz is dead explains why he has been quiet. It reminds me of a story my Bubba, of blessed memory, told me: There was a town drunk who was totally passed out. To play a trick on him, the townsfolk lay him an a grave that had been prepared for a burial and sprinkled a little earth over him. When he awoke from his stupor, he saw where he was and screamed, "Oy Gevalt! Ich bin toit! Ich bin toit!!" However, upon further reflection, he said, "Az Ich bin toit, far vus darf Ich pishen?" She told this story in the context of explaining how one should not complain about discomfort - sometimes it is the only way you know you are alive. Stephen Dubin dubinse@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Jul 92 15:07:16+0800 From: Sten Vikner Subject: judgements/Mendele intro As I have been subscribing to Mendele for a couple of months now, and as I also have a question (actually three questions) to ask of those of you who have Yiddish as your native language, the time may be right for me to introduce myself. I am a Danish linguist working in Stuttgart, and my main interest is word order variation across the Germanic languages. I am trying to look at as wide a selection of languages as possible (i.e. more than English and German). I am particularly interested in the Scandinavian languages, i.e. the differences between e.g. Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic. In this respect Yiddish is extremely relevant, even if it isn't a Scandinavian language, as Yiddish and Icelandic have a very high number of properties in common (which, moreover, are rather unlikely to be the result of borrowing). I am involved in a long (but interesting) debate with (among many others) Molly Diesing (Arizona), Beatrice Santorini (Northwestern) and Hoskuldur Thrainsson (Harvard) concerning the basic structure of Icelandic and Yiddish sentences. I would like to hear your opinion as to whether it is possible to have what the Germans call "accusatives with infinitive" in Yiddish, e.g. "I saw Peter talk to Mary". Can one say anything like the the following three (homemade) sentences in Yiddish (either as yes/no-questions or as declarative clauses in the middle of a narrative) ? 1 Zet der yid plutsling den shokhn kumen (?) Sees the man suddenly the neighbour come 2 Lozt der yid plutsling den tsigar faln (?) Lets the man suddenly the cigar fall 3 Vet der tsigar plutsling faln gelozn (?) Is the cigar suddenly fall let I suggest you mail your opinions directly to me, and then if there seems to be some general interest, I will be happy to post a summary of the various answers. Sten Vikner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Jul 92 From: Noyekh Miller Subject: Nokhamol vegn borsht I'm sorry to have given the impression that I deplore all or most Yiddish music. I don't. Quite the contrary: I like or love most of it. On the other hand I have to differ with Ellen Prince when she distinguishes between schlock (e.g. The Shteeblehoppers rakhmone-litzlan!) and borsht belt music as though much of the latter was free of meretricious junk. Ah, if that were true! But alas, while I was never able to afford to stay in the Catskills I _was_ a waiter in 1940 or 1941 (Sholem Asch was a patron) and while I remember some good stuff I remember the vulgarity better. As for Menashe Skulnik, mostly wonderful. Ditto for Aaron Lebedeff, Isa Kramer and Ludwig Satz. I almost forgot the unforgettable Pinkhas Burstein. Quite forgettable on the other hand was a Yiddish Rudy Vallee named Irving Grossman whose specialty was kitsch like this: In der South. Vo di feyglakh .. zingen in der South. Or Jenny Goldstein who wasn't awful but sang: Ikh bin a mamme Nor vi iz mayn kind? Not to mention the time she sang to a tombstone. The Irish have no monopoly on Mother Machree. But kitsch is another matter anyway. Salmagundi ran a whole issue about it a couple of years ago with all the heavy hitters (Irving Howe, Susan Sontag, etc.) and I know less than I did before. Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.15 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.