Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.012 June 1, 1994 1) Subject pro-drop (Bob Rothstein) 2) More re Fonye (Jules F. Levin) 3) Kibosh (Dan Kirschner) 4) Notice of two translations (Bob Werman) 5) Yiddish Music for Slovakia (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch) 6) Brother can you spare a dime? (Chaim Rosmarin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 29 16:35:31 1994 From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Subject pro-drop Ellen Prince asked (4.005) about references to the omission of subject pronouns in Yiddish. A. Zaretsky, in his 1929 _Yidishe gramatik_ mentions two types without any commentary. In the first type a second-person pronoun is omitted: Ligst bay mir in bushe do (Der Nister). Khanfest, yeger (Der Nister). Zest? In the second type, which Zaretsky calls rare and suggests is limited to verbs like _bin_, _hob_, _vel_ etc.), a first-person singular pronoun is omitted: Bin, dakht zikh, a yid vi ale yidn (Sholem-Aleykhem). Dem tsveytn mol hob zikh mitn yeger azoy getrofn (Der Nister). Another source is an article by Evgenii Kagarov, "Eynige akhtungen oyfn gebit fun yidishn sintaksis," in the 3rd volume of _Filologishe shriftn fun YIVO_ (1929, pp. 467-72), which contains a brief discussion of what Kagarov calls "onsubyektive zatsn." He list three types, the first of which is frozen constructions with omission of _ikh_, as in _bite!_ The second type involves emotional utterances expressing anger, in which a third-person pronoun is omitted: Ligt un ligt! Zitst un tut gornisht nit! Shrayt un shrayt a gantsn tog! Finally he includes "elliptical utterances," in which the second-person singular pronoun is omitted: Bist geven dortn? Host mikh gevis lib? Again there is no discussion. Both authors contrast the above types (with missing subject pronoun) and types with a dummy subject (_es_). Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon May 30 15:18:07 1994 From: JFLEVIN@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU Subject: More re Fonye I often spend a Friday shabbes meal with Russian friends from Odessa who have become frum. They include the native-Yiddish speaking bobbe who of course also knows Russian, her son, primarily Russian speaking but knowing Yiddish, and his wife, an echt Russian who is a convert and who speaks beautiful literary Russian. Russian is the language of discussion, with Yiddish thrown in for humorous color. Last Friday I raised the question of Fonye. The bobbe and her son were VERY familiar with this term from Odessa. It was used for ANY Russian, not only a soldier. They also supplied the form "Fonka". They took this as a name, a nickname [like Mick or Paddy for an Irishman], but rejected any connection with Ivan or Vanya. They suggested the typical peasant name Afanasij. Linguistically this rings true--in the literary form the stress would be on the third syllable, but in forming the nickname the stress retraction, the shift to a stressed 'o', and loss of initial syllable[s] are all typical RUSSIAN processes--cf Alyosha for Aleksey, Tolya for Anatoliy. --Jules Levin (a typical 'Hymie') 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 31 14:59:45 1994 From: dkirsch@amy.tch.harvard.edu Subject: Kibosh "Kibosh" as defined in the dictionary, is something that serves as a check or stop -- e.g., to put the kibosh on that. Its origin in some dictionaries is listed as "possibly Yiddish". Its pronunciation is either KYE-bosh or k'BOSH. Any maven mendeleniks out there who can shed some light on this one? Dan Kirschner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 31 16:24:16 1994 From: RWERMAN@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Notice of two translations Two translations by Golda Werman are currently coming out: 1] Remanants by David Bergelson in _Comparative Criticism_ 16 [1994], Cambridge University Press; 2] Bertha by Lamed Shapiro in _Fiction_, Spring Issue. Bob Werman [The shames, in addition to congratulating Golda, would like to remind readers that notices of publications _on Yiddish themes_, especially by Mendele's subscribers, are always welcome. nm] 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 02:54:25 1994 From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Subject: Yiddish Music for Slovakia Recently I have met a lady from KOSICE in eastern Slovakia. There is a jewish community of approx. 1000 there, awakening after 40 years of totalitarian rule. Among these people are also some yiddish speakers, who would like to organize some cultural events in yiddish. They want to start with some literary evenings with music and need some sheets of music (notes) of classical and traditional yiddish songs preferably for piano. Could you help?!? The address is: Mrs. Vera Vesela Jewish Community Kosice (ZNO) Zvonerska 5 SK-04001 KOSICE Slovakia, Europe Tel.: +42-91-21047 Shalom Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 12:07:11 1994 From: astroj@astro.washington.edu Subject: Brother can you spare a dime? Recently a Mendelnik, in response to the discussion on oyver v botl, sent in a verse of a Yiddish version of "Brother, can you spare a dime?" I would be very grateful if he/she could send me a reference as to where I could obtain the complete song. Please direct to: ASTROJ@ASTRO.WASHINGTON.EDU (please note the "J" on the first astro) or to Mendele. Many thanks, Chaim Rosemarin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.012 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu