Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.312 April 8, 1994 1) Daytchmerism & "standard Yiddish" (Arre Komar) 2) Mountain Jews of the Caucasus (Mark Southern) 3) Introduction (Simon Dinitz) 4) Writer from Khust (Rick Gildemeister) 5) More on archives (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 6 18:18:36 1994 From: Subject: Daytchmerism & "standard Yiddish" Re migldik and the issue of "standard Yiddish" : I can understand the need to standardize if one wants to create a formal grammar and literature. I also understand the aversion to Germanic forms when one wants to create a more sophisticated vocabulary than what was available in proste mameloshen. I mainly object to the artificiality of the contortions that some people have gone through to avoid the readily available mameloshen term merely because they perceive it to be too close to German. But if you are too arbitrary and unrealistic what you will create will be a useless quixotic Esperanto which only some obscure academics might concern themselves with. It will not become a living language. It is true that at the beginning of this century Yiddish was threatened to be swallowed up by the onslaght of daytchmerisms. But the real blow to Yiddish that the Germans administered was done by gas chambers rather than by daytchmerisms. The present threat to Yiddish I find to be the growing influx of Hebrew based words. I believe that this can be documented by observing the shift in vocabulary from a 1940 issue of Forvets to a present one. If this is a natural evolution of the living language,so be it. But let us not mount the wrong ramparts if our concern is to preserve what's left of the language. Despite Meylekh's noble efforts ikh gleyb az migldik blaybt ekldik. Arre Komar 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 6 19:05:53 1994 From: marks@cns.carthage.edu Subject: Mountain Jews of the Caucasus Does anyone on Mendele have any leads, ideas, knowledge or bibliographical pointers on the language of the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus - esp. from a [socio]linguistic perspective? A sheynem dank, Mark Southern 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Apr 7 09:50:39 1994 From: sdinitz@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Introduction A lapsed Yiddishist, I would like to return to the fold. For the record, Yiddish was my first tongue and, though I have had little opportunity to use it in the last fifty years or so, I am still very committed to its preservation and good health. Simon (Sy) Dinitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 8 09:55:50 1994 From: EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Writer from Khust The last few days have been a real tumult, and in the fray I lost a piece of mail directed to me about a Holocaust memoir written by a man from Khust, which is in Transcarpathian Ruthenia (I never know what to call that area). The author's name is "M.A. Stern" (verso of title page) and on the title page it is given in Hebrew letters as Moyshe Ari' Shtern. The book looks like it was privately printed, and there's no date. The title is: Dos kol fun blut: a megile fun yomer un shoyder-- Rick Gildemeister 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 8 11:28:56 1994 From: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Subject: More on archives Now that Bob Rothstein has done the hard work in putting together the table of contents for the last 3 years, it would be a pity not to keep said table up to date. Accordingly I'll try to update it once a week. It will be appended to CONTENTS.V3 and as already noted be available via anonymous ftp. I forgot to mention (because I had not yet tried it) that in addition to anonymous ftp all back numbers are available via gopher. Type "gopher gopher.cic.net". The menu choices for Mendele are: 2, 3, 13, 14. A "/" will bring up the number you're interested in. Very neat. Even those who like your shames loathe menus can learn to live with this piece of software. My shutef Victor Bers is the one who discovered this gopher. We are grateful to the anonymous lamed-vovnik who made it possible. A gutn Shabbes aykh. Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.312 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