Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.290 March 17, 1994 1) Yinglish (Jack Lubowsky) 2) Request from Paris (Fishl Kutner) 3) Rosenfield's Prufrock (Abe Igefeld) 4) The Workmen's Circle 61st Gala Pesach Celebration (Henry Mullish) 5) Nukhem Stutchkoff (Khayim Sapoznik) 6) Juedisch-deutsch (Rick Gildemeister) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 10:25:55 1994 From: Subject: Yinglish Another loss with the decline of Yiddish are the wonderful yiddish jokes...the following is probably not one of them...but it does illustrate the phenomenon of Yinglish. A fellow had forgotten the Yiddish word for "disappointed" and so decided to call his mother. Ashamed for a declining mame-loshen vocabulary, he didn't have the nerve to ask her the word directly. So he said "Mameh, ich ken nisht kumen tsu essen by dir nexten vokh." To which she replied, "Oy, ich bin azai disappointed!" Jack Lubowsky 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 12:48:04 1994 From: Subject: Request from Paris Received this letter yesterday. Write him directly, or email me a message, and I'll send it to him by snail mail. I am preparing my new project which is about Yiddish and Klezmer music for French television. I am looking for testimonies of old klezmer musicians and composers of old Yiddish music, and producers of the 30's and 40's. The American singer Rosalie Becker, who is living in Paris, told me that you were in possession of a listing of many musicians, and to contact you in order to find some information about them. I would be very grateful if you could give me the name and address of old musicians, singers or composers who lived and worked in Eastern Europe or in the United States before the Second World War. May be there are other informations you would find useful to my work. Sincerely yours, Stephan Rabinovitch 45 bis rue d'Hauptpoul 75019 Paris FRANCE Fishl 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 13:07:03 1994 From: igelfeld@math.toronto.edu Subject: Rosenfield's Prufrock When I was an undergraduate, one of my profs., JY Lettvin, a grad of U of Chicago, used to delight in quoting the lines: "ikh ver alt, ikh ver alt, s'vert mir in mayn pupik kalt" Sorry, that's all I know. I'd love to know the rest as well. A. Igelfeld 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 13:07:25 1994 From: MULLISH@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: The Workmen's Circle 61st Gala Pesach Celebration At the risk of being accused of using this wonderful discussion list for commercial purposes (which I am not) I would like to advise the Yiddish speaking users of this list of the 61st Gala Third Seder Celebration to be held this Sunday afternoon, March 20, 1994 at the Sheraton Hotel, New York, 53rd and Seventh St at noon. For those of you who are not acquainted with this affair, it is one of the most satisfying and wholesome events of the Yiddish year. It is a multimedia cultural spectacular which I have witnessed for the last 6 years and I am led to believe that this might well be the last of them. It is for this reason that I am bringing it to everybody's attention. It consists of a string of highly talented artists, singers, musicians, actors, narrators, dancers, the Workmen's Circle Yiddish Choir (of which I am an avid member). The ages of the participants range from little children to bobbas and zeydas and everything in between. For information about tickets, you can call (212) 889-6800 x 523. Whether you are located in Australia or South Africa, in Hawaii or the Bronx, I assure you it will be well worth your while to attend. Hoping to see you all there, Henry Mullish 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 13:37:03 1994 From: sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Nukhem Stutchkoff Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a Nukhem Stuchkoff collection or archives? My research on Yiddish radio (on which Stutchkoff was a prolific genius) has turned up nothing. One would think that the compiler of the magnificent "Der oytser fun der yidisher sprakh" and hundreds of insightful and gripping radio shows would leave behind some amount of paper. How about a necrology? A thumbnail bio? Epes. I would greatly appreciate any leads. Khayim 'eynakh Sapoznik 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 13:38:30 1994 From: Subject: Juedisch-deutsch I'm glad Mr. Hoberman brought the subject of Juedisch-Deutsch up (and please excuse my formality; I accidentally erased my entire discfile). I've read only a few books on Mayrev-Yidish and Juedisch-Deutsch, and I don't like to initiate a post unless I know what I'm talking about (what's regarded as fact, what's controversial, etc.) My limited understanding is that on the periphery of Mayrev-Yidish, one hears the "Vollmundart," i.e. Mayrev-Yidish in its full state, with little contamination with local German patois or formal High German: Switzerland and Alsace-Lorraine. In Germany, on the other hand, one hears Juedisch- Deutsch,in one of the meanings of the term:a "Yiddish" whose German component has been replaced with local and national German. It is now German, but the loshn-koydesh expressions are part of people's speech when they are speaking in a certain "Jewish" context. This element retains the original pronunciation of its region, and one can infer to some extent what the Vollmundart must have been like. The sh-sh of the ich-laut existed in the Vollmundart and did not enter the language through contact with Modern standard German or local dialect, so far as I have been able to ferret out of the few books I've read (wish I had the titles). The other meaning of Juedisch-Deutsch, as I understand it, is the crypto-language with deriva- tives from loshn-koydesh (ze-ge melokhnt lau = that goy doesn't work). Gentiles will often assume that this is Yiddish, even though it's a cant or form of in- group slang. There is really a blur, I think, between these two meanings of Juedisch-Deutsch, since the the population that speaks one also speaks the other. This cant was part of the old Vollmundart before its use in conjunction with German. However, its use side-by-side with German as spoken by local Jews, i.e. as fragments, may have led to the notion I grew up with that "Yiddish is not a language." To further complicate the matter, the Jewish population of Lengnau and Endingen in Switzerland refer to their "Vollmundart" as "Yidishdaytsh". This subject fascinates me, and I -- though a sensitive soul -- would welcome being "corrected" so we can get a really clear picture of what the situation is. Rick "Henekh" Gildemeister ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.290 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU 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 Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net