Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 191 May 5, 1993 1) Diminutives and plurals (Moshe Taube) 2) Introduction (Stanley Werbow) 3) Yiddish vokh (Meylekh Viswanath) 4) "Yid" (Martin Davis) 5) Stoch (Pierre Lewis) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 4 15:40:10 1993 From: Moshe Taube Subject: Re: diminutives and plurals There is a recent paper on this subject. I'm quoting from memory, so I may be wrong. I think it is by David Perlmutter and the title is something on "The split morphology hypothesis". The name of the journal I do not remember. If anyone on the list knows better, let him speak up. Moshe Taube 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 4 16:00:37 1993 From: glaa273@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu (Stanley Werbow) Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem, y'all! My main claim to membership is that I instituted the program in Yiddish here at The University of Texas at Austin many years ago and even taught in it one year when we were between teachers. Our teacher now is Itsik Gottesman who is doing a great job of interesting students and faculty in the Yiddish language and literature. Though I am not truly a Yiddishist, I'll enjoy learning more about the field and its workers. I do medieval German language and literature here, and I taught a short course in Yiddish at the University of New Mexico German Summer School in 1989. If anyone does not know about our program and wishes to hear more, please ask. Zeyt gesund! Stanley N. Werbow Department of Germanic Languages E. P. Schoch 3.102 University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712 Phone (512) 471-4123 E-Mail GLAA273@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 4 16:26:36 1993 From: Meylekh Viswanath (viswanath@draco.rutgers.edu) Subject: Yiddish Vokh David Sherman asked recently about Yiddish Vokh. Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath informs me that this year, it is scheduled for Sept. 1 and goes on through Sept. 7. Meylekh. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 4 21:51:56 1993 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu (Martin Davis) Subject: "yid" > The practice of starting words like "id" with an alef > rather than yud may not be simply an arbitrary spelling > convention. At least some of my grandparents (from the > Lithuania-Belarus-Poland border area, Litvaks all) said > /an id/, NOT /a yid/, proving that in their > pronunciation these words started with a vowel (hence > alef, as Mikhl pointed out), not the consonant /y/. I > don't know whether this use of /an/ was before all > words which in the standardized spelling have > yud-khirekyud, though. Do other people actually say > /yid/ with a distinct y-i sequence? > > Berl/Bob > rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu What I've heard from the Lodzers, if my memory is to be trusted, is "yid" pronounced with a "y" consonant followed actually by a long e sound, as though it was "yeed". As in the greeting: Vos makht a yid? However in the feminine "yidene" (which I've heard used only pejoratively) the "i" is short, but again the "y" is pronounced. -Martin Davis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 5 10:11:13 1993 From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" Subject: Re: stoch I'd say "shtoch" comes from german "stechen" (p.p. gestochen) which means "prick" as with a needle. I've heard the word in the song "A hazn oyf shabes", line "mitm nadeln a stokh" (quoting from memory) meaning "with the needle a stitch". But maybe your context is different. Pierre Lewis ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.191 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu If your node is Bitnet-only and is not connected to the Internet, please send your message to: mendele@yalevm If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@dot.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.