Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 127 December 22, 1992 1) Der Zukunft (Hershel Bershady) 2) Dialect questions (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Dialect questions (Payrets Mett) 4) A Hanuka song (Dan Breslauer) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 13:09:09 EST From: hbershad@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Zukunft In case any Mendelnikim missed it, there is a fascinating article in the NYTimes Sunday book review, 12/20/92 on the American published Yiddish "sotsialdemokraten" magazine ZUKUNFT by Arthur Hertzberg. This magazine is 100 years old and still going, although its finances and readership are now anemic. Hertzberg tells an extraordinary story, as much about Yiddish as about American Jews. Hershel Bershady 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 11:36 EST From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Dialect questions To: Yitzhak Kertesz the "besorah" question now confuses me even more; presumably, it should have been realized in the same way as "Devoyre" AND "skhoyre" (Northeastern Yiddish "Dveyre" and "skheyre"). Instead, we have "psure/psi:re" like "gvure/gvi:re". Blaybt a kashe, as we say. Concerning the segol: In Yiddish, "tsere" is "tseyre/tsayre--even tsayray", a diphthong in "all" Eastern Yiddish dialects. In "A yiddisher mey/aylekh", and similar words, the segol has merged with "tseyre/tsayre" and is thus a diphthong. From what you say, Yiddish in Eastern Hungary classifies these segolate nouns differently. I'm pleased to know about this. What about "khesed"? Still unclear to me from what you write: Do the Yiddish words that derive from the Hebrew "tsere" have "e" or "ey"--in Yiddish as distinct from Ashkenazic Hebrew? In Yiddish, the "Elul", "emes" words appear to be the result of a shift in stress from "eme't", "Elu'l". If the NOW stressed vowels, which are in open syllable, had born the original stress, we would have expected either emes/*eymes or *eymes/*aymes, etc. THE article on the subject was written by Dovid Katz "The Wavering Yiddish Segolate" in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language 24: 5-27. Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 12:15:22 +0000 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk Subject: Dialect questions [Yitzhak Kertesz (2.125) writes:] >>the besorah question confused me, because we have gevure >>(might) on one hand, but Devoyre (as in Dorothy Billik, >>whom I met in Boston along with others from the Mende-list, >>perhaps at AJS next year we should have a session devoted >>to mendele), or Sechoyre (trade, merchandise) on the other. No problem: gevure has m'lupum in Hebrew, Devoyre and schoyre have choylem (and consequently both pronounced with -ey- as in 'say' by Litvakes). >>My real questions are about your recent note on the segol, >>and its relatives (124#2). Is "ay", as in Central Yiddish >>"A yiddisher maylekh" a tsere, or a diphthong? If the >>latter, then Eastern Hungarians are a special category, >>because they pronounced these segolates with a tsere, as in >>me'lekh, ke'ver, or (pardon me for using a pejorative >>!?!?!?!? term) she'gets. This led to the Hungarian/Yiddish >>pun in: "Ke'rem is a weingarten". (Ke'rem in Hung. means >>*please*=*bitte*) A second question: does it make a >>difference that the first group (Elul, emes) has a short, >>unaccented vowel? Do Eastern Hungarians follow Eastern (Ukraynish) pronunciation which does not distinguish Hebrew long segol from tseyre? How do you pronounce Paysech? Peyrets Mett (who is now getting confused about pronouncing his own name!) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Dec 1992 11:45:51 -0600 (CST) From: Dan Breslauer Subject: A Hanuka song This is a little question arising from the Hanuka celebration we had in our family last night. My in-laws entertained us with a yiddish song, probably well known to everyone on the list, which they only partially remembered. Please forgive my butchered Yiddish, but the chorus was something like: Was lernen Yingele and then progressed through the alephbais with two words for each of the letters. They, however, could only get through the first four letters -- through daled. Can anyone send me the rest of the song? Dan Breslauer ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.127