Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.018 June 9, 1994 1) Introduction (George Feldan) 2) Nights (Kathleen Rose Noe) 3) German "nachts" and English "nights" (Arnie Kuzmack) 4) Jewish comic books (Moshe Waldochs) 5) New Polish book on Yiddish (Zachary Baker) 6) Tz'eena U'Reena in English? (Dan Weinstock) 7) Stress in [yivo] (Dovid Braun) 8) Political culture and frumkeit of New York Jews (Paul Ritterband) 9) Eynikl = Enkel (Rick Gildemeister) 10) List of largest Jewish Communities in 1750 (Alberto Andes) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 17:20:50 1994 From: george.feldan@nymetro.uucp.netcom.com Subject: Introduction Allow me to introduce myself. I'm a 49 year old lawyer living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Yiddish can hardly be heard on the street anymore. Since I can claim only the slightest familiarity with only a portion of the Yiddish vocabulary, I'm afraid my contribution to this newsgroup will mostly be by way of questions--usually etymological and historical ones. My special interest is Jewish onomastics, recovering the Jewish history that lies hidden in family names like lost text in a palimpsest. I'm looking forward to learning from all of you. George Feldan 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 10:52:01 1994 From: Kathleen_NOE@umail.umd.edu Subject: nakht etc. to mikhl herzog: maybe this helps. days of the week and some parts of the day in german can take a final -s to show that a habitual action occurs at this time, e.g., mittwochs = every wednesday, nachts = every night. i'm not 100% on the grammatical term for this phenomenon, i think adverbial expression of time (as opposed to am Mittwoch, in der Nacht which use nouns). In case it is of use or interest, 'auf der nacht' is used (in the south of germany anyway) to mean evening. a sheynem grus, kathleen rose noe 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 23:51:55 1994 From: kuzmack@umbc.edu Subject: German "nachts" and English "nights" > i'm not sure what m. herzog's question is -- but it is my understanding > that not only does gm. nachts derive from a genitive form: so does > english "(he works) nights"! > > zev bar-lev My father worked nights when I was a kid, and I alway assumed that "nights" was plural. That is, he worked on all the nights and never during the days. This still matches my Sprachgefuel as a native speaker of English. Arnie Kuzmack 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 12:10:44 1994 From: waldoks@binah.cc.brandeis.edu Subject: Jewish comic books There is "shaloman" (shalom Man) published in Philadelphia. Moshe Waldoks 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 12:32:19 1994 From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: New Polish book on Yiddish The Yiddish linguists in our midst might be interested to learn about a new book that has just come out in Poland: Jidisz: jezyk Zydow polskich [Yiddish: the language of Polish Jews], by Ewa Geller. Warszawa: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, Ltd., 1994. 264 p. ISBN 83-01-11267-0. $3 (yes, $3) Publisher's address: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, Sales Dept., ul. Miodowa 10, 00-251 Warszawa, POLAND. There's an added Yiddish title: Yidish: di shprakh fun poylishe yidn. The publisher's flyer describes the book as "a synthesis of the Slavic linguistic components in Polish Yiddish based on J. [sic] B. Singer's work." A glossary of Slavisms appearing in Singer's writings runs from pp. 144-210. It appears to be a VERY interesting book. I believe that the author is a professionally trained linguist who lives in Warsaw. Zachary Baker 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 13:06:08 1994 From: WEINDAN%HWS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Tz'eena U'Reena Does anyone know of an English translation of Tz'eena U'Reena for us Mendelniks who aren't so fluent in Yiddish? Thanks in advance, Dan Weinstock 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 14:31:08 1994 From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: stress in [yivo] No, this posting has nothing to do with the emotional burden of the move YIVO is about to make. :-) M. Schaechter has told me that [yivo'], with stress on final syllable, is along the pattern of the acronym reysh-mem-alef, pronounced in Yiddish [remo']. (Coincidentally, here too the final alef is actually a shtumer alef which preceeds the sound [i], for Reb Moyshe Iserlis.) I contended that [yivo'] got its stress by analogy with [nivo'], an already existing word with an established stress. Any (dis)agreements or other theories? Dovid Braun 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 16:00:12 1994 From: uap@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu Subject: political culture and frumkeit of New York Jews I am working on the evolution of the New York Jewish population over the last century. All the evidence that I have gathered points to greater orthodoxy of Brooklyn Jews and greater secularity cum socialist orientation among the Jews of the Bronx. How would I find historical records on the Yiddish newspapers sold in each of the boroughs/counties of New York? E.g, if the Forvertz or even Freiehit, papers of the left, were sold in greater proportion, per 1,000 Jewish population, then was for example, The Morgen Journal, this would be important evidence. Do any Mendelinks have other indicators of secularity or piety or traditionalism in different parts of New York City among the Jewish population. I have strong reason to believe that the the current frumkeit of Brooklyn [e.g. Williamsburg, Borough Park, Crown Heights] builds upn an old foundation. Comments, suggestions, contradictions would all be welcome. Paul Ritterband 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 16:04:25 1994 From: EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Eynikl = Enkel Fraynd Shleyme Axelrod fregt fun vanen iz gekumen dos vort "eynikl". Er zogt az frier hot er gemeynt az es kumt fun "eyn". Der emes iz az oyf daytsh iz dos zelbike vort Enkel. Me gefint oftmol az an "i" oder an "e" velkher iz nisht zeyer shtark gefint men avekgekrokhn funem modern daytsh vort. Lemoshl, dos vort "naket" fun yidish iz oyf daytsh "nackt". In mitlalter zenen efsher avekgegangen di dozike "e's" un "i"s'. Rick Gildemeister 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 17:31:31 1994 From: andes@husc.harvard.edu Subject: List of largest Jewish Communities in 1750 I am trying to assemble a list of the (say) 150 or 200 largest Jewish European communities around 1750. Alternatively, it would also be useful to obtain a list of all the cities with Jewish communities with a population exeeding 2000 or 3000. Would you please suggest any source that might actually have a list of these cities with their corresponding populations around 1750? I would appreciate if you can answer to my e-mail address directly: andes@husc9.harvard.edu Thanks very much. Alberto Andes ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.018 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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