Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 77 October 1, 1992 1) Dos and es (Moshe Taube) 2) Warsaw's ghetto revolt (Daniel Galay) 3) Names (Ellen Prince) 4) Names (Cal Pryluck) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 11:42:47 EST From: Moshe Taube Subject: dos and es It has been over two months since I left Jerusalem till I relogged to Mendele here at Harvard, and it seems that I have missed a lot. I especially am interested in Ellen Prince's contribution on es and dos, since she was present at the Jerusalem conference on Yiddish, where I presented a paper on this topic. How can I get this stuff? Also, since Ellen has not responded to my e-mail messages to her, may I use this list to reiterate my desire to read her 1988 paper on Expletive Es and Subject position in Yiddish, which appeared in the IPrA Papers in Pragmatics. If anyone has a copy of it, I would greatly appreciate a xerox. Harvard library does not have this publication (ordered but not received). Moshe Taube 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:29:13 IST From: HISHTALMUT Subject: Warsaw's ghetto revolt. 50 years. In relation to the commeration of the 50th. aniversary of the gettto Warsaw's revolt, we are organizing delegations from Israel that will emphasize Iddysch language to honor the culture of the European Jews. With this purpose we met the President of Israel Haim Herzog, who was very simpathetic to our goal and wishes. We would like that o ther delegations from all over will join this initiative. The official events in Poland will start the 18th. of April and will continue all over the week (the Israeli delegation of the Hemshej Dor will also visit Hungary and Checkoslovaky). As soon as we shall have more details about oiur program, we shall send it to Mendele. If anyone whishes to propose some ideas, please write to me to: morim@ccsg.tau.ac.il Daniel Galay. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 12:06:20 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.76 [Herb Basser writes:] >...so i see ellen prince (whos she kidding >with that spelling) ... well, you for one, obviously... it's my husband's name and he's from egypt. his paternal grandfather was from germany and he changed it from 'prinz' to 'prince'--not to make a jewish-looking name into an english-looking one but to make a german-looking name into a french-looking one. egyptian jews were typically francophone, and egypt was always allied with england/france against germany, so it didn't pay to have a german name in egypt. the name change took place in the late 19th century. alas, there's no 'p' in arabic, so they were called 'brince', with the french vowel, rhymes more or less with english 'pants'. on my in-laws' ketuba (alexandria, 1939) it's spelled bet-resh-nun-samekh--clearly the jewish scribe's dominant language was arabic. btw, the best (most credible) etymology i've seen for 'prinz/prince' qua jewish name is italian 'firenze' (= city of florence)--if you spell it in hebrew, you can see how that could be. my maiden name was 'friedman', which my father changed from 'friedmann' upon arrival here from slovakia in 1923. the only substantive name changes the family made were in israel, where one brother, starting with fe-resh- daled-mem-nun, left out every other letter and became pe-daled-nun 'padon', and the sons of another brother became 'ephrath'. you feel better now? ellen friedman(n) prince, with nothing to hide <:)> 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 16:04:30 EDT From: Cal Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.76 This is not going to help much about the origin of Milman as a family name, but the Philadelphia phone directory has four separate listings for people named Milman. The phone book for an adjacent county lists seven listings for people named Millman (double 'L') plus one Milman and one Milmon. The Philadelphia book lists 20+ names for Millman. As did Nicholas, I had never heard the names. Funny what one can learn from keeping phone books close-to-hand. While the books are still on my desk: there seem to be only five Melman listings, at least three of them dentists apparently in practice together. Cal Pryluck ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.77 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.