Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.036 June 22, 1994 1) Yiddish, German, and dialects (Rick Gildemeister) 2) Shlemihl (Adam Weisberger) 3) The Bintel Brief letters (Dan Leeson) 4) Translation (Leah Zazulyer) 5) Shabbtai Zvi in Yiddish (Danielle HarPaz) 6) Asch in crisis (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 21 15:58:40 1994 From: EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Yiddish, German, and dialects This message is for Harold Orbach, and others, to help out with the confusion people get into on this subject. There is no one-to-one correspondence between any particular Yiddish dialect and any German dialect. Hochdeutsch is a language that few blue-collar Swiss have mastered. I was able to pass myself off as a Muenchener when I was only 14 years old (I'm German/Peruvian/American by the way). Hochdeutsch does in fact mean highland German, but the highlands being referred to are in the middle, east middle area around Franconia. South of that area, among other dialects, are the Allemanisch dialects, which are not mutually intelligible with the standard. The confusion arises because the word Hochdeutsch means two comple- tely different things. 1) It is the official name of the "klal-shprakh" that was based on East Franconian with a good dose of Bavarian and Low German. Yiddish also has had this infusion of Bavarian, including a similar vowel schema (the *sounds of the vowels do not correspond, but what I mean is is that Standard German has collapsed the vowel system from the Middle ages in a different way from certain dialects. Bavarian and Yiddish don't necessarily sound the same but the collapsing of the vowel system is more parallel than with Hochdeutsch. Example: ey vs. ay has blurred in contemporary Standard German, but in Yiddish there is a big distinction). 2) The other meaning of Hochdeutsch is plain "highlands" German, but not Allemanisch. Finally, the other thing we must remember is that until recently, Standard German was a language native to no one. The Swiss and the Alsatians have held on tightly to their dialects, partly for political reasons. Other regions went through a blurring process, where features of both the Standard and the local patois are integrated into what is referred to as Umgangsprache. This means: the general language used in everyday affairs. I'm glad we're dealing with this. I've put in my two bits and would like to see more. Rick Gildemeister 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 21 17:57:53 1994 From: amweisbe@COLBY.EDU Subject: Shlemihl To Arre Komar: For a response to your question on von Chamisso's "Peter Schlemihl", might I suggest you look at the first chapter of Ruth Wisse's book, The Schlemihl as Modern Hero. Of course this is a cultural more than a linguistic treatment of the term. Adam Weisberger 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 21 19:38:47 1994 From: leeson@cedar.fhda.edu Subject: The Bintel Brief letters I am an avid genealogist having worked in Jewish genealogy for more than 20 years. There is a Jewish genealogic bulletin board out of NYSERNET called JEWISHGEN that is very active and a matter came up today that needs the concerted brain power of Mendele (which, considering the quality of many of the postings, is quite something). I need tell no one on this board about the Bintel Brief letters that were such an important part of the Forward when it was published in Yiddish. I subscribe to it in English but they no longer have the column. I loved it, though I could not read it. I had the letters read to me. ("Why didn't my mother make me learn the piano" is the standard cry of those who are not Horowitzes today, but in my case it is "Why didn't my mother make me learn how to read Yiddish!") In a brief discussion of the genealogic value of those letters on JEWISHGEN, someone asked, "What ever happened to those letters that FORWARD would get?" Of course, my reaction was that they selected a few to answer, and threw out the rest. But were those letters available they would make valuable genealogic source material. Most of them, when they were printed, would be signed, "Abandoned in Chicago" or "Alone in Kansas City" or "Pregnant and deserted in New York." So who submitted them was generally a mystery. But what ever happened to the originals? The submitter was not a mystery at that level. Might YIVO have them? Would the Forward have a basement full of them? I caution the hasty that had this question been "Whatever happened to all those Yiddish books that used to be around" and were that question asked 15 years ago, the answer would probably have been, "All lost, probably destroyed." But the Yiddish book center in Amherst showed that the stuff was all over the place. No one had ever looked for it. Dan Leeson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 22 11:32:17 1994 From: WATSON@UNO.CC.GENESEO.EDU Subject: Translation/Wolitz note response Read with great interest Seth Wolitz's note on Singer translations and Singer's own "adaptations"...Not too much has yet been written on the phenomena of distortion in translation, but what has been is very pertinent to Yiddish translation as we know it or do it: The concept of "elevation" has been very prevalent in translation from so-called minor to so-called major languages. This is true not only for Yiddish. A very worthhile discussion of this and related issues can be found in a book called Translation Studies, Susan Bassnett-McGuire, Methuen, Inc, l980. Particular reference is made to the school of translation emanating from Czech., which pioneered in equalitarian translations, and used a political philosophy as an underpining to this. Clearly the culture of the translator, and the era also have profound implications... It is also instructive to look at a book which compares the translations by three prominent poets of one poem, all permeated with the poetic voice of each of the name-brand poets. (Can't find the book to give as source just now.) So sometimes ego or voice actually intrude on good translation as well. Have recently become a member of Assoc.Lit. Trans. of America. A good group, receptive to Yiddish. (Office: Univ. of Texas at Dallas, MC35, Box 830688, EMail ert@UTDallas.edu) Through this contact I have also learned alot about the publishing business side of translations, in which publishers often promote irresponsible and/or superificial translations by prominent authors in order to grab or prime the market for more indigenous output. In these cases an anonymous "linguist" "poems" (yes it's a verb) a text in the worst case scenario...and is certainly not listed for credit. An article I wrote on good translation process, and what is going on, as it pertains to Yiddish, was recently rejected by Der Pakentreger as "too specialized but very worthy." As the rush to translate Yiddish mounts, so should the discussion of the translation process, especially for those of us not native speakers. It's a labor of love. Leah Zazulyer 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 22 13:52:06 1994 From: Daniella.HarPaz@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: Shabbtai Zvi in Yiddish Being too much in a rush the other day I had very little time to read "MENDELE" and only glanced at the entries and went on... The mention/question of Shabbtai Zvi in Yiddish caught my eye for some reason, and later, while working in the library with a private collection of Yiddish books I was sorting I found something which may be of interest to the inquirer...although, I'm embarassed to not remember the source of the question... I hope this helps: I found an interesting article in "TSAYTSHRIFT" ("Zeitschrift") from 1926, Book 1, Minsk, from the "INSTITUT FAR VAYSRUSLENDISHER KULTUR" by Dr. M. Weinreich. The article is called: "A YIDDISH LID VEYGN SHABTAY TSVI FUN YOR 1666." The article is broken down into several sections: 1. "der tekst" 2. "der mekhaber" 3. "Yankev Toyst, der shrayber un der mentsh; zayn tekhnik" 4. "oysleyg" 5. "oys'shprakh" 6. "fleksye" 7. "tekst fun lid" I hope this reference is at all helpful (there are a couple of bibliographic footnotes in the article itself that might help). Daniella HarPaz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 22 16:25:10 1994 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Me and Sholem Asch Men hot zikh nokhgefregt. Di mayse iz derfun azoy: In zumer 1941 bin ikh geven a sarver in an Idishn kurort in New Hampshire. Farvos Idish? Vayl Idn hot men k'yedue in yene yorn nisht derlost az zey zoln zikh mutchen in eynem mit Kristn. Farvos a kurort? Vayl 'siz kloymersht geven far di velkhe laydn nebbekh fun hayfiber. In emesn ober iz es geven poshet azoy a zumer hotel, vayl k'mat alle fun di khosheve gest zaynen aroysgeforn fun eyn shetl; un der baal-akhsanye (a grober yung, a zoylel-v'soyvenik: vegn dem megt ir mir gleybn) iz oykh geven fun zelbn shtetl. Un vos zol ikh aykh derklern vegn ot di tayere gest? Vi zeyer shokhn zayers: kleyne mentchelekh...zeyr kleyne mentchelekh. Vegn dem megt ir oykh zayn zikher: ikh bin dokh zeyer meshores geven, mir hot men geshenkt af trink-gelt, ikh hob zey zeyr gut gekennt. Af a sheynem tog komt tsuforn a nayer gast. Ikh hob im ersht derzeyn in ovent nokh der vetchere ven m'iz shoyn gezessn in salon af kortn shpiln. Sholem Asch vi ikh bin an Id! Glaykh derkennt hob ikh im vayl ershtens iz zayn bild oft dershinnen in di dzhurnalen, v'hasheynis hob ikh im gezeyn in a bukh-kram mit a yor tsvey friher ven er hot gekhosmet zayn nayem roman _Der Notzri_. Asch iz geven zeyr an adres-ponimdiker, hot zikh getrogn gants vi a mentch in di oygn, bekovedik. Voyl ongeton, in gantsn tout-a-fait. Ikh shtey hinter im un gaf. Ober tsubislekh fangt men on tsu hern fun di kortn-shpiler: "Asch..Jesus..what's he doing here..Jesus.." un nokh azelekhe red. Asch zitst, er makht zikh nisht vissendik. Efsher hot er gemeynt az in a vayle vet der oylem zikh tsurik keren tsu zeyer vikhtiker arbet. Iz neyn. M'hot take, dakht zikh mir, oyfgehert shushkn zikh. Ober men hot in gantsn anidergeleygt di kortn...un men zitst un men farkukt zikh af Asch'n. Ikh ken aykh besser nisht shildern vos far a miese stsene dos iz geven. A simen: az ikh (19 yor alt un tsnifish vi der shteyger iz in di yorn) hob gekrogn aza rakhmones oyf im az 'kh hob shir-nisht geveynt. Ober Asch aleyn hot gor nisht gevizn fun zayne gefiln. Me volt gekent meynen az er zitst aleyn by zikh in d'reym. Ober mitamol gibt er zikh a halb-ker arum un makht tsu mir mit der hant. Ikh loyf tsu, ikh bin greyt im tsu dinen mit vos er vil. Iz vos hot er gevolt? "Bring me" zogt er, "two teas in a glass". Hob ikh shoyn farshtonen az di amoratsim fun D_ (ikh vil nisht aroysgebn dos nomen fun shtetl ober es gefint zikh in Rhode Island un es is nisht Providence) hobn im gut dershlogn. 'Siz geven af tsu lakhn ober asakh mer af tsu bedoyern. Dos is di gantse mayse. Ir fregt: viazoy iz aza velt-figur vi Asch derkrokhn in aza vistenish? Veys ikh oykh nisht. Efsher hot er gehat hayfiber? Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.036 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