Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.150 December 1, 1993 1) Placement of the Verb in Yiddish sentences (Jason Berman) 2) Dutch "sh" (Barbara Baile) 3) Yiddish New Testament (Jeremy Stern) 4) Mentsh un froy (Dvosye Bilik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 30 16:01:39 1993 From: BERMAN Subject: Placement of the Verb in Yiddish sentences I have read the debate for several issues and cannot understand why it is lasting so long. The rule governing the placement of the verb in a Yiddish sentence is one of the few gramatical rules in the history of linguistics to which there are no exceptions. The usage is as follows: In sentences which are in the imperative, the verb is the first sentence unit In all other sentences, the verb is the second sentence unit. Yes or no Questions (e.g. geit ir in shul?) may appear to be exceptions to those rules but they are not. In a yes or no question which starts with a verb, the word "tsi" is always either spoken or implied, prior to the verb. So the actual for of the question is "tsi geit ir in shul?" There is no more to it than that. Of course you will find examples in poetry and literature where the author has taken license, but these examples fall outside the rules of grammar. This information is brought to you from a family of native Yiddish speakers who use the language on a daily basis. My mother is also a teacher of Yiddish language and grammar. Jason Berman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 30 16:30:28 1993 From: BORTS%HWS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Dutch sh I am a Dutch speaker (although not native). Sch is pronounce something akin to skh, and yes, sj is how one writes sh. However, it is not all that common a sound in Amsterdam Dutch. A little "grapje" about that - when I had been in the Netherlands for a few months, and was proud of my relative fluency, working in a Dutch firm speaking only Dutch, I had the opportunity to overhear a customer spekaing what sounded like a very strange Dutch to me. A foreign, obviously. I somewhat arrogantly asked where the man was from, later, of my boss, and said that I thought I had mastered such sounds as "sch" much better - he laughed and told me the man was actually Flemish and was speaking Flaams, which does not so distinguish the sch sound. Oh well I hope this helps. Barbara Baile 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 30 20:00:41 1993 From: Jeremy Stern Subject: Yiddish New Testament A friend of mine just lent me a copy of a New Testament translated into Yiddish I would like to know if anyone on MENDELE has heard of it. The translator was one Aaron Krolenbaum and the book was printed in 1950 by Evangeliipress in O:rebro, Sweden. The publisher is listed as: Million Testaments Campaign, 1505 Race Street Philadelphia, PA. It is a pocket sizes, hard-cover book, which includes relevant verses from Tanakh. The book includes a statement from a Rev. P. P. Levertoff. The style is very modern -- there is no attempt at a stylized Daytshmerish. Interestingly, the translator uses the Jewish forms to express certain things. For example, he calls the Yiddish New Testament a "seyfer" and urges people to "mispalel zayn" that God will reveal the truth in reading the book. He also calls the verses "psukim" -- is there a non-Jewish form for verses, or is that normal? Jeremy Stern 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Nov 29 10:00:45 1993 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu (db28) Subject: Mentsh un froy Dear Mendlnikes, I will abstain from begging my beloved colleagues to please use YIVO transcriptions tsum veynikstn ven me shraybt in Mendele vayl di daytshmerizms zaynen a bisl a baleydikung un take pasn nit in azan ort.Oyb me vil nisht zol men shraybn oyf english. On the subject of "mentsh un froy" let us recall that in Sholem Aleykhem's Taybele, the main character says referring to herself "a froy iz oykh a mentsh" This is a very early work by S.A.-- 1884. Zayt gezunt, Dvosye Bilik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.150 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files