Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.064 July 20, 1993 1) Gzeyres takh (Abe Igelfeld) 2) Matse-vaser/bukh or bikhl? (Shleyme Axelrod) 3) Yiddish tapes? (Samuel Murphy) 4) Goyish knowledge of Yiddish (Bob Werman) 5) Introduction (Dagmar Lorenz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jul 19 12:51:14 1993 From: igelfeld@math.toronto.edu Subject: gzeyres takh Isn't it gzeyres takh vetat? Abe Igelfeld 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jul 19 15:20:58 1993 From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: matse-vaser/bukh or bikhl? 1. Another idiom for Elye's collection: "farkoyfn zikh vi matse-vaser" = "to sell like hotcakes" [U. Weinreich]. An advertisement for the second (1993) edition of Mordkhe Schaechter's *Yidish Tsvey* says that the first edition (1986) "iz tsekhapt gevorn vi matse-vaser." Perhaps someone who is familiar with matse-baking can explain the literal meaning. 2. Bukh oder bikhl? The first edition of *Yidish Tsvey" was subtitled "a lernbikhl far mitndike kursn." The subtitle of the new edition is "a lernbukh far mitndike un vaythalters." Somewhere (maybe in the first edition, maybe in *Afn Shvel*?) Schaechter notes that the ordinary word for "book" is "bikhl", not "bukh". Sounds curious to non-native-speaking me. Apparently it's not a matter of size: The second edition [the lernbukh] has 586 pages; but the first [the lernbikhl] has 497+--not at all a small book.) Fregt zikh di frage in any case, Why the change from lernbikhl to lernbukh? Melekh Viswanath, can you help us here? --Shleyme Axelrod 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jul 19 17:37:40 1993 From: sammy@icarus.smds.com (Samuel Murphy) Subject: Yiddish question My wife wants some tapes to help her improve her familiarity so she can talk to her parents in that language. (She feels some topics will be easier disccussed, and that she has enough yiddish in her that just some listening will get her to a conversational level.) The commercial tapes cover the same ground a intro traveler tape does, not all that useful for family discussions. Has sources for learning been discussed on this list previously? If not could this be forwarded to the list for "net knowledge"? Thanks Samuel Murphy sammy@smd.com 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jul 19 17:47:42 1993 From: RWERMAN@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Goyish knowledge of Yiddish Golda Werman, my wife, has a chapter on J.Saubert, a German Lutheran minister who translated the first part (Bereshit) of the Tze'ena Re'ena from Yiddish to Latin in the 17th century, in her forthcoming book on _Milton and the Midrash_ Catholic University Press. Washington, D.C. Saubert gives as he motivation the exposure of the silly beliefs of the Jews, to make them more amenable to conversion. __Bob Werman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jul 19 19:51:42 1993 From: Dagmar C G Lorenz Subject: Introduction My name is Dagmar Lorenz. I recently signed on to Mendele with the help of my colleagues, David Neal Miller and Neil Jacobs who informed me that it was proper to write a few words of introduction. Voila: I am a Professor of German at the Ohio State University and a member of the Yiddish leynen kreis. I am interested in German and Austrian Jewish literature and culture as well as in German and Yiddish literature in contact. In this context I have a question. One of my colleagues is presently working on a book about Paul Celan and would like to know about folklore pertaining to the magical powers of miracle rabbis. I am aware of songs which talk about a rebbe flying to heaven (in eyn minut), or another one in which it says that the rebbe dances and his sonim are dropping dead. Does anyone know about other such stories or critical studies? Are there anthologies of Yiddish folksongs which are easily accessible? Thanks! Dagmar Lorenz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.064