Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 96 November 11, 1992 1) Khurbn/khurbm (Arn Abramson) 2) Anski (Alice Nakhamovsky) 3) Anski (Noyekh Miller) 4) Song festival (Meylekh Viswanath) 5) Daytsh (Payrets Mett) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 14:21:50 EST From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: Khurbn/khurbm Itsek Kertesz says that the Hebraist in him makes him ask, "Why did Hebrew Khurbn become unpronounceable Khurbm in Yiddish?" I guess he means Hebrew h.urBAN--or,more likely, Ashkenazic khurBON. Undergoing the common Germanic Stress shift of Hebrew words in Yiddish, it would have been, as he says,khurbn. Phonetic assimilation of the final nasal to the preceding labial stop consonant is common enough. Thus, Yiddish orthography would lead one to expect /hobn/ 'to have,' yet the normal pronunciation as far as I know is /hobm/.Pronouncing the sequence Vowel + /bm/ is, in fact, not hard at all. The lips, which have to be closed for the /b/, are kept closed, but the velum (soft palate) is lowered to its normal relaxed position used for ordinary breathing.This links the oral and pharynngeal cavities (mouth and throat) to the nasal cavity. The larynx is emitting pulses (voicing) for the /b/; these pulses, once the velo-pharyngeal port to the nose is opened,excite resonances in both the oral and nasal parts of the voal tract,giving a SYLLABIC nasal,cf. Am. Eng."hidden." Arn Abramson 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Nov 1992 09:13:45 -0400 (EDT) From: ANAKHIMOVSKY@COLGATEU.BITNET Subject: Anski Noyekh - I don't know if it's worth posting this for everyone, but I was fascinated by your comments about Anski. There is something more to this business of learning the alphabet at 17 than meets the eye, as his written Russian was flawless (I can't imagine that someone was editing him) and if he had much of a Yiddish accent, it would have really bothered Mandelstam (M. was sensitive to Yiddish accents in Russian, for obvious reasons). M. doesn't mention it at all - he speaks of A. as a wonderful storyteller. This business of Jewish narodniks is a wonderful topic for somebody to pursue - what a tangled and ironic situation! Alice N. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Nov 1992 From: norman miller Subject: Anski Alice: The very little that I know about Ansky comes from the biographical notice in Oysgeklibene Shriftn, edited by Shmuel Roshzansky, Vol. 21 of the Musterverk fun der Idisher Literatur, Buenos Aires, 1964. Oddly enough, Liptzin provides no information in his History of Yiddish Literature. Here's what Roshzansky says: Biz di 17 yor hot er fun Russish nisht gekennt kayn tsuras oys...Derfar ober, az er hot zikh tsugekhopt tsum lernen un leynen Russish, iz er arayngefirt gevorn in der radikaler narodnitchesker literatur..S'iz ober genug, er zol tsushikn etlekhe korrespondentsn kayn Peterburg, az m'zol glaykh zeyen zayn talant, im aropbrengen in der Russisher hoyptstot un der barimter Russisher folkshrayber Glieb Uspienski (Lev Ouspensky?) zol im araynfirn in di beste Russishe journaln fun di narodnikes.. A complex man. Worth getting to know. Noyekh 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:56 EDT From: VISWANATH%DRACO.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Song festival The Jewish Music Commission is presenting the 1992 American Jewish Song Festival on Tuesday Nov. 17, 7:30 pm at Valley Beth Shalom synagogue, 15739 Ventura Blvd. in Encino, CA. The concert will consist of the top 14 of 350 songs that were entered by talented Jewish composers into a nationwide competition. The top three songs will be chosen at this performance. Tickets can be obtained by calling (818) 788-6000. Now, you may well ask why this should be of interest to Mendeleniks. Well, at least one of these entries is a Yiddish song. The one such entry that I am aware of is the result of a collaboration between Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath and Binyumen (Ben) Schaechter. I don't know how many original Yiddish compositions are produced in this day and age, but I am sure that there are not very many of them. So, I think such efforts which help in keeping Yiddish a living language are well worth supporting. Meylekh. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:08:07 +0000 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk Subject: Daytsh Yitzchak Kertesz in Mendele 2.93: >>few pages on mashkes. More for Mr. Prager: Thanks for >>correcting my pseudo-litvak "Deytshen" to Galitzianer >>"Daytshen". Sorry, Reb Itzik, in my experience the litvak says "Daytsh" ---- Poylisher in Galitzianer pronounce it "Dahtsh" Payrets Mett ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.96