Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 168 March 24, 1993 1) Bibliographic question (Yossi Galron) 2) Oystraylish / du (Pe'rets Mett) 3) Du and ir (Ellen Prince) 4) Du and ir (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 23 17:46:29 1993 From: JGALRON@ALEPH.LIB.OHIO-STATE.EDU Subject: Bibliographic question Several days ago I found in our uncataloged book collection, a book published in Warsaw in 1918 by Farlag A. Gitlin. The book is a translation into Yiddish of a roman by a Danish author of the name Aage Madelung. The title of the book is "In'm groysen tumel' and translated into Yiddish (or, as it appears on the title page, Yudish) by Yehudit P. My question is: a) Does any one on the list know what the title of the original novel was, and b) who is Yehudit P. I tried to search the National Union Catalog (NUC) and found that there are several books by Aage Madelung (I am not sure if Aage is Male or Female) and that he/she lived between 1872 and 1949. I checked also the 5 volume catalog of YIVO and did not get much information about Yehudit P. In Leksikon fun der nayer Yidisher literatur, vol 4 (1961) I found that Yehudit was a pseud. of Rahel Bernstein - but there is no mention that she translated this book into Yiddish. Berl Kagan in his Leksikon fun Yidish-shraybers, does not mention her either. Thanks for your help, Yossi Galron jgalron@aleph.lib.ohio-state.edu 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 24 11:11:39 1993 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk Subject: Oystraylish / du reb elye hersh shraybt: > >In Mendele 2:165 bashraybt Daniel Moishe Sherman english >bay oystralyer. Iz vos kh'vil dokh visn iz, (tsulib dem >ketishn moyekh maynem!) iz Pe'rets Mett fun oystralye? neyn - ikh bin in mayn lebn nisht gven in oystralye. >Vos >kh'hob gevolt bay zikh bashlisn iz, az Pe'rets Mett SHRAYBT >dem vokal EY iz dos dokh far IM der klal-yidisher vokal AY >un farkert: az er shraybt AY iz dos far im der >klal-yidisher vokal EY? Efsher muz ikh im hern redn? ikh probir vifil meglekh tsu shraybn loytn shrift vos is do ayngefirt in mendele, d.h vos men ruft klal-yidish. (khodsh siz shver far mir vayl ven ikh leyn lateynishe oysyes arbt meyn moyekh oyf english - lmoshl "say" oder "day" oyf english geredt.) mmeyle ikh druk oys 'shraybt' SHRAHBT u.z.v. zayt mir moykhl ven ikh toysh oys di vokaln. **** zbarlev@sciences.sdsu.edu shraybt: >i don't think i've ever heard /ir/ used to a single person, >even a stranger. I hope you take some protection with you when you speak yidish. In some circles if you address a complete stranger 'du' you are likely to be rewarded with a patsh in ponem. However the abolition of the polite form -has- become more prevalent, very likely (as others have suggested) by analogy with English. Pe'rets Mett 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 23 20:58:12 1993 From: ellen@CENTRAL.CIS.UPENN.EDU Subject: Du and ir in response to zev bar-lev's request for comments on du/ir and whether ir is ever used in the singular, i offer the following true anecdote. my mother, born in nyc in 1905 and a native speaker of yiddish, used ir in the singular but only with people significantly older than she who were not relatives. my father, born in slovakia in 1899, had a much broader use of ir in the singular. one day they invited for dinner two of my father's landsmen, a man and woman, both single. the two knew each other since childhood and were friends but used ir with each other. my mother was blown away by this and kept making jokes and cracks until the two started dutsing each other, out of embarrassment. several months later they announced their engagement--and told everyone that it was my mother's doing--by making them reach a new level of intimacy, she had in fact inspired a shidekh. ellen prince 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 24 13:18:04 1993 From: nmiller@DOT.TRINCOLL.EDU Subject: du and ir My mother's oldest brother lived with us for many years. Shortly before he died and at a time when my father was close to 70, I suddenly realized that in all those years my uncle said 'du' to my father but that my father in return said 'ir'. I cooked up all kinds of hypotheses, but in the end I just asked him. Mayn tate hot nisht gevust fun kayn khokhmes. "Er iz elter." Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.168