Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 162 March 19, 1993 1) Waclaw Wierzbieniec (Leonard Prager) 2) Ye (Rick Turkel) 3) ye! voden?! (Dovid Braun) 4) Intelligibility (Malkah Winters) 5) Fir kashes (Pe'rets Mett) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 18 09:33:24 1993 From: leonard prager Subj: Waclaw Wierzbieniec Waclaw Wierzbieniec has asked me to announce on Mendele that he is doing a doctoral dissertation on the Jewish community of Przemysl in the period 1867 to 1943 and invites assistance and advice from scholars of Polish Jewry and all others in a position to help him. His address: ul. Lenartowicza 29/22, 35-051 Rzeszow, Poland. He adds he would be happy to assist others in whatever ways he can. Leonard Prager (Haifa) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 18 10:01:37 1993 From: rmt51@CAS.ORG Subject: Ye Could "ye" for "yo" in Litvishe Yiddish be analogous to "Me(i)se" for "Moshe?" This is a pretty well-known transformation among Litvaks. Rick Turkel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 18 12:31:09 1993 From: braund@LINC.CIS.UPENN.EDU Subject: ye! voden?! in "litvishn" yidish hert men tsum oftstn _ye_. ikh hob geleyent (in di yidishe gramatikes), az di forme ba "litvishe" yidn vos hot gehaltn bam untergeyn iz geven _yoy_, un in olshvangers _royte pomerantsn_ vet ir take zayn i _ye_, i _yoy_. ikh hob dervayle eyn mol gehert dem _yoy_, fun a litvak. zol dos heysn az der amoliker _yoy_ iz in teyln fun litvishn yidish aroysgeredt gevorn _yey_ un fun dem iz gevorn _ye_? a hipotez. ober mistame nit -- in ale mekoyrim zogt men nor, az me redt dos vort aroys [yoy] un azoy hob ikh take gehert. dos iz a dergantsung tsu r' mikhls onvayz, az karpatish yidish hot _yoy_. vi redt men es aroys ba zey: [yoy] tsi [yow]? s'iz a svore, az der englisher YEAH iz untergeshpart gevorn durkhn yidishn _ye_, un oykh farkert: geboyrene yidish-reyders vos kumen nit fun ken ye-teritorye zogn efsher a mol _ye_ in zeyer yidish tsulib der hashpoe fun englishn YEAH. aye' der englisher YEAH iz tsum grestn teyl farshpreyt in tsofn-mizrekhdikn teyl amerike? dort vu s'rov yidn voynen... [_aye'_ iz _ayo'_ in litvishn dialekt, oyb ir hot zikh nit gekhapt. der apostrof iz an aktsent-tseykhn.] Dovid Braun 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 18 16:18:28 1993 From: GA3704@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU Subject: intelligibility My mother tells of flying back to New York from Paris next to a M. Goldenberg of Toulouse. My mother has limited French, which was apparently equaled by his English, so they spoke Yiddish, but with necessary `dialect' accommodation. In reporting that in the US many families had two cars, she suddenly realized that the word she had for `car' in her fluent New York-learned Yiddish was `car'. Instead she said `tsvey voituren' and found that M. Goldenberg found that a perfectly fine Yiddish expression. Malkah Winters 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Mar 19 05:11:14 1993 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk Subject: Fir kashes Hershel Bershatsky quoted a version of the fir kashes in Mendele 2.160. My children have all learned something similar (as indeed I did as a child) and my youngest (aged 4) is currently learning the kashes in preparation for peysach. Except that we always begin "tate leben" One thing that puzzles me is that the kashes seem to be phrased in terms of the familiar "dir" which children do not use to their parents. pe'rets mett ____________________________ __________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.162