Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.157 December 7, 1993 1) Grammar wars (Howard Kaplan) 2) "Jiddische Sprachgeschichte" (Zachary Baker) 3) Verb-first Phrases in Talmudic Yiddish (Amitai Halevi) 4) Einspruch/Aynshprukh (Shleyme Axelrod) 5) N.T. in Yiddish (Yossi Galron) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Dec 6 10:38:56 1993 From: HKAPLAN%AM.mrgate@woods.uml.edu Subject: Grammar Wars How about a cease fire in the Grammar Wars? Let's declare everyone (everybody?) correct (right?). It reminds me of the old story of the shipwrecked Jew on a deserted isle. When relief finally came they noted he/she built two synagogues. The second one was the one he/she didn't go to! Let a 100 synagogues bloom this Chanukah (spelling?) season and let's visit them all. So it goes. Howard Kaplan 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Dec 6 11:40:17 1993 From: Zachary Baker (bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu) Subject: "Jiddische Sprachgeschichte," by Bettina Simon The above-mentioned book, originally issued in the DDR, 1988, has been reissued in Frankfurt am Main, by Juedischer Verlag, 1993 (ISBN 3-633-54077-6). It can be ordered through bookdealers specializing in Western European publications (e.g., Schoenhof, in Cambridge, Mass., or Mary S. Rosenberg, in New York); it costs about $25. This message is in response to Bob King's plaint in MENDELE 3.155. Not quite two years ago, on a visit to Berlin (to see the "Juedische Lebenswelten" exhibition, which included a large number of items from YIVO's collections), I went to the Weissensee Cemetery. While there, I was shocked and saddened to see a stone for Bettina Simon, who died in the autumn of 1989, just around the time the Berlin Wall came down, at the age of about 40. Zachary Baker, YIVO Library 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Dec 6 15:13:13 1993 From: AMITAI HALEVI Subject: Verb-first Phrases in Talmudic Yiddish The great verb-first debate has not yet died down, so let me raise a question that is peripherally related to the suggestion that it was influenced by Talmudic constructions like "omer R. Ploni". Here, with apologies for the haphazard transliteration, are a few typical examples from R. Shmuel Hibner's translation of Baba Metzia (Levkovitch, Brussels, 1961): "Modeh R. Shimon ben Eleazar": R. Shimon ben Eleazar iz moyde. "Amar R. Nachman amar Shmuel": Rav Nachman hot nakhgezugt fun Shmuel". "Amar lekha Rav Yoseph": Rav Yoseph vet dir azoy entfern. The subject-first order is the rule in the present, the past simple and subjunctive, but occasionally - for no apparent reason - a similar expression is translated in the past perfect: "Ela' amar Rav Zvid": Nor, hot Rav Zvid gezugt. "Amar leyh Rav Safra le-Rava": Hot Rav Safra gezugt tzu Rava'n. My question is whether insertion of the subject between "hot" and "gezugt" constitutes a violation of the subject-first rule? My own knowledge of Yiddish is limited, but I have no doubt that Hibner can be trusted to know the rules. Having mentioned this translation, let me put in a plug for it. The text is fully punctuated, including vowels (niqqud) - well before Steinsaltz. The translation into Yiddish and accompanying explanation is remarkably clear. It is heartily recommended to any Mendelnik who would like to attempt self study of the Talmud, and who - unlike the present writer - has a better command of Yiddish than of Hebrew and Aramaic. Amitai Halevi 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Dec 6 15:32:34 1993 From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: Einspruch/Aynshprukh Thanks to Zachary Baker for the sketch of the remarkable life of Henry Einspruch/Khaim Aynshprukh, who did such a fine translation* of the New Testament into Yiddish. It reads like an oysgetrakhte mayse: khsidisher yikhes, labor organizer, colonist in Erets, multilingual pamphleteer, Lutheran missionary--and a Yiddish typesetter to boot. I'm not sure what young people mean exactly when they say "Get a life!", but Reb Khaim certainly had one. ---------------- *At least, I suppose it's accurate--it tallies well with the English versions I have some familiarity with (King James, New English Bible). --Shleyme Axelrod 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Dec 6 17:10:00 1993 From: Joseph Galron Subject: N.T. in Yiddish In Mendele 3.150 Jeremy Stern (jstern@phoenix.Princeton.edu), wrote about a Yiddish version of the New Testament. In the Ohio State University Libraries, I found: Dos evangelyum fon Markus pages 79-127. On verso of the title page: St. Mark in Yiddish. (Made in Germany) It seems to me that it is a part of a bigger work. No translator mentioned. Does anyone know about this translation? (I will be happy to send some photocopies of selected pages). Joseph (Yossi) Galron | Internet: jgalron@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.157 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