Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.058 July 15, 1994 1) Introduction (Robin Charles McKenzie-Boone) 2) Introduction (Susan Hauser) 3) Gettysburg Address in Yiddish (David Sherman) 4) Shalet/tshulnt (Rick Gildemeister) 5) Yiddish language sports writing (Rob Frantz) 6) Knibbers (Yude Rozof) 7) Yiddish activities in Europe 7/23-8/1 ?? (Khayem Bochner) 8) Family name, roots, etc. (Evelyn Feins) 9) Various problems and a correction (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 13:34:00 ADT From: robinm@gov.nb.ca Subject: Introduction My name is Robin Charles McKenzie-Boone. I'm a Systems Analyst and live (and work) in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. My interest in languages has been growing for a few years and recently made me aware of the contribution Yiddish has made to the vocabulary of my mother tongue (English). I have subscribed to the MENDELE list, hoping to learn more about this interesting language. My academic background is technical. However, I managed to squeeze in two courses in linguistics when I was at university. I have also read a couple of books and several articles in the topic. I consider my knowledge of linguistics to be very elementary in nature. And I know almost nothing about Yiddish! I don't even know what this means: "A sheynem dank." Robin Charles McKenzie-Boone 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 Jul 1994 14:40:53 -0400 From: Susan_Hauser@QuickMail.Yale.edu Subject: Introduction A guten tog, choshiver tzuhehrer. Sholem aleichem. Ich bin a neie mitglied tzu diesem listserve un tzu alle listserves. Ich arbit af Yale Universitat. Ich bin do a sach yoren. Ich interesiere mich far jiddish sprach un kultur. I hob keinmal nisht gehot a gelegenheit reden yiddish un yitst lern ich leynen. Es iz sehr langsam. Ich well mich sehr freuen fun eich allemen zu heren. Susan Hauser 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 11:59:26 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Re: Gettysburg Address in Yiddish Well, if you're researching the subject, there's always Emil Cohen's version from his comedy album. A couple of examples will suffice to give the flavour: "our forefathers" "unzere fir tates" "conceived in Liberty" "zi hot geshvenget in Liberty ... a kleyn shtetale lebn Monticello" (I'm always reminded of it when driving on Route 17 through Liberty, as we did last week.) David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 12:24:09 EDT From: EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Shalet/tshulnt We're talking a lot on Mendele about tsholent and varieties of pronunciations. Here's my two bits: we'll start west and move east. Mayrev Yiddish is commonly associated with areas in Western Europe, and to an extent also Central Europe (Czech and Hungarian territories). One variety of Mayrev Yiddish found its way east to the very border of then Eastern Hungary, an area variously called Carpathoruthenia, Transcarpathian Area, or Ruthenia, which is now in the Ukraine. The speakers of this language live in the Oyberland district, and they use the Western Yiddish term "shalet". Other migrants to this area came from Poland and the Ukraine and inhabit the Unterland district, primarily,and they brought with them the Central and Eastern Yiddish word "tshulnt". If my memory serves me, the Oyberland people show their disdain for the Unterland people by calling them "tshulntike yidn" or refer to their language as "tshulntiker loshn", I can't remember which. A thought: maybe "solnt" is a compromise between Litvak and Mayrev Yiddish? Rick Gildemeister 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 10:56:21 -0700 (PDT) From: rfrantz@u.washington.edu Subject: Yiddish language sports writing With the World Cup of Soccer in full swing, I've been wondering if Yiddish has been used to describe soccer games. I'm interested in all sports, baseball especially, but here, because of its greater international expanse, would like to find any writings in Yiddish about soccer. Concomittant with this, while looking in the index of Kyle Rote Jr.s COMPLETE BOOK OF SOCCER, I see references to a soccer club New York Hakoah (I've guessed, but could be wrong that this is from the Hebrew for strength, ha-koakh) winning amateur soccer titles in the USA in the 1950s, as well as the Los Angeles Maccabees winning in the l970s. While this may not directly touch on Yiddish (I beleive Hakoah originates in Vienna and must have had numerous Yiddish speaking followers) I would appreciate any references you have on these and other Jewish soccer clubs outside of Israel. Rob Frantz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 14:28:33 -0400 (EDT) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Knibbers Can it be that nobody at all with the exception of my immediate family has ever heard the expression "a little weak in the knibbers."?!!! Where are all the Brooklynites? Eyn mol far ale mol, lozt hern khevre!!! A dank vider amol, ikh'l vayter keyn spodik nisht dreyen vegn "knibbers." --Yude Rozof 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 15:32:23 -0400 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Yiddish activities in Europe 7/23-8/1 ?? A friend of mine is going to be traveling in Western Europe the last week of July, and asked me to ask the Mendelnikes about Yiddish activities; she'd be interested in lectures, leyenkrayzn, shmues-grupes, etc, particularly in any of the major cities, like London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, etc. I couldn't find anything in Fishl's International Schedule, but perhaps there are smaller things that didn't get into the schedule? If you know of anything, please send information either to Mendele, or directly to me. Thanks! Khayem Bochner 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 22:41:00 UTC From: e.feins@genie.geis.com Subject: Family name, roots, etc. Am not sure exactly to whom I should be addressing these topics, being new at this, but I'll give it a try, and hope that whoever is knowledgable in these areas, will be kind enough to reply. Having waited too long in life to develop a curiosity about my roots, I had given up on trying to find out. But now that I've joined Mendele, and started reading some of the mail, it has stirred up my brain again, so here are a few of the questions I hope someone will be able to answer for me. My parents both came from the same small shtetl in Russia, and I would like to know more about what the area was like in the late 1800's and early 1900s I do not know the exact name and location, but believe the town was called B'Polia, and that it was a small farmland area.My Father's name was Kvarten or Kwartin.(His cousin was the well known Cantor, Zavel Kwarten.) My paternal grandfather would go into the city to sell produce, and my father used to chant this little ditty:"In B'Polia gayt min pavolia, in Arrel gayt min shnell. So, I assume from this that Arrel was the somewhat larger city near them. My Mothers family was named Shames. And her mother came from a large family named Beck who also lived in B'Polia and owned a schenk (tavern). Does the name Kvarten stand for anything in Hebrew? The pronunciation of words, used by my family, was keegal, not kugel and fa'pitzed, not fapuhtzed. My grandma mentioned the Yapenazer malchuma. They said edena and eingalah (dropping the beginning letter y). Everything diminutive had a lah added. And they ate hochflaysh mitt cartoflehs. I have a feeling they spoke a small town dialect, such as buh-naay-en-aahs, not ba- nann-as. And they also tended to bunch their words together. It took me a while to figure out that feartzah as ve "endraym" (when being served homemade jam at a kuptzins home meant act as you would "in der haym." Does any of the above give someone a clue as to where in Russia they might have lived? They called themselves, "Rooshishah", and I think their area would be called the Ukraine," but might be from the border, which had belonged to Poland, and was returned to Russia. Hence the name B'Polia? They emigrated to US by way of Riga in 1922. Hope I have not asked too many questions, all at once. Ashaynem dank tzu allah, Evalah. Evelyn Feins 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 16:41 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Various problems and a correction A number of subscribers have written about 3 missing numbers: .049, .050, .051. I have no idea how or why such a thing could have happened but if you are one of the sufferers, please let me know. Second, please note that the address for such requests is to me and not to Mendele. Third, the gods of the machine have changed my address. It is now nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu . I want to thank everyone for cooperating in the matter of signatures and Subject: lines. It makes things easier at this end. I would also like to ask those who hit the "reply" button in writing to Mendele to be sure to write an additional Subject: line in the text. AND to make sure that their local machine does not echo back to me the entire text of the number in question. Finally, a correction. From time to time I take it into my head to make small editing changes (spelling, that sort of thing). I did so in the case of Harold Orbach's recent post (Vol 4.057), changing his "sleeress" to "seeress". I should have remembered that fellow-sociologist Orbach, unlike your hapless shames, is a careful writer. Ven er zogt azoy iz azoy. For further information on sleeress, see the OED. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.058 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