Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.059 July 17, 1994 1) Knibbers (Ellen Prince) 2) A Boy named Yi'vole (Zellig Bach) 3) Heri zayn ondenk (Zachary Baker) 4) Van shraybt men ej? (Peter Kluehs) 5) Sliakhtshitz (Andrew Cassel) 6) Note on the Romanization of Yiddish (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 1994 17:59:48 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: knibbers To: Yude Rozof in my neighborhood in brooklyn, we didn't know from knibbers... ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 18:53:26 EDT From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: A Boy named Yi'vole In the l930's, in Lithuania, I heard about a new-born Jewish boy who was named Yivo, with the diminutive and endearing name Yi'vole. Although Jewish parents usually named their children after a deceased person, for the purpose of perpetuating the name, calling a child Yivo was therefore quite extraordinary. Still, it sounded plausible knowing the love and respect for YIVO many secular Jews, especially with a feeling of warmth towards Yiddish, had. But I never saw about it anywhere in print. To find out the factual state of the matter, I recently contacted several people in YIVO (N.Y.). Zachary Baker, librarian, and Marek Web, archivist, also did not recall reading about it anywhere, and expressed doubts about the authenticity of the story. Thus, in their opinion, it is most likely apocryphal. Dina Abramowicz, YIVO's reference librarian, referred me to Mr. Lazar Ran, author of the three-volume, four-language "yerusholayin d'lite: ilustrirt and dokumentirt" (Yerusalem of Lithuania: Illustrated and Documented ) in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, and English, published in 1974. Ms. Abramowicz told me that Lazar Ran knows everything there is to know about Wilna (Vilne). This I did. And Mr. Ran advised me that there was, indeed, a boy named Yi'vole. He personally knew his parents and the boy. His father's last name was Mark. He was a teacher and a writer. Zellig Bach 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 19:08:20 PDT From: "Zachary M. Baker" Subject: Heri zayn ondenk Evelyn Feins's remarks (MENDELE 4.058) about her family's small town dialect reminds me of something I heard at one of the more interesting funerals I've attended. Paul Novick, for MANY years the editor of the "Morgn Frayhayt" (Morning Freiheit), died in his late 90s about five years ago. The completely secular funeral was conducted almost entirely in Yiddish. One speaker, probably a shtikl landsman of Ms. Feins's parents, concluded his eulogy with the words, "Heri zayn ondenk." Like the Puzzle-Master on NPR, I'd be curious to see how many MENDELnikes come up with the right translation of those words... Zachary Baker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Jul 1994 20:16:00 +0200 From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de Subject: Van shraybt men ej? Tayere MENDELE meyvins! Az ir veyst, ikh bin an aleyn-lernendiker daitsh un shoyn gevorn a baln fun yidish. Ch'hob a groyse hanoe leyenen ayere diskusyes un mayses, bazunder di vos zenen geshribn af yidish. Oyb mir felt a vort, ikh tu a kuk in mayn klejner yidish-daitsher Duden-verterbukh. A daitsh-yidisher hot men nokh nisht publitsirt. Ersht ikh kuk tsi existirt a vort wos hot mer-veyniker di glaykhe ortografye vi daytsh un seltn hob ikh mazl. (Lemoshl: nokh, ort, ikh, bin, er, vort) In der haintigen daitshn klal-shprakh men shraybt kimat alemol un seyer seltn kedey tsum oysdrikn dem yidishn diftong , un es existirn keyne verter nisht vos men redt oys vi . In inglish s'iz grod andersh arum. Men shraybt un redt oys . Ot mayne kashe: Ken mir emetser fun aykh derklern, van men shraybt yidishe verter vos shtamn von amoldikn daitsh, mit an un nisht mit an , oyb di glaykhn daitshn verter vern oysgeredt vi ? Lemoshl, az ikh zi di verter tsvey, meynen, eydem, eyn, heyln, heym, heysn, heytsn, af daytsh ale vern oysgeredt vi , dos iz asoy vi der inglisher in by. Iz do efsher faran a regl oder hot men gekont gefinen an altn daitshishn dialekt vos hot gehot a dosike ortografye??? Antkegn dem, s'rov fun di yidishe verter vos men shraybt mit pasn sikh tsu tsu der oysred fun di glaykhbadaytikn daytshn verter, lemoshl: mayn, dayn, zayn, ayn, paynikn, wayzn... A gutn shabes aykh alemen, blaybt gezunt! Peter Kluehs 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Jul 94 21:13 edt From: acassel@philly.cerf.fred.org Subject: Sliakhtshitz Fun mayne zeyde's zikhroines: "...Savitzki is geven a sliakhtshitz, un hot gekrogen a gantze gute dertzihung als kind. As di elteren zaynen im opgestorben un hoben ibergelozen a yerushe, hot er zikh avekgelozen trinken biz er hot zayn gantze yerushe farshikurt..." Ken emetsn vos meynt "sliakhtshitz"? Hobn mir a rusishe maven? A dank Andrew Cassel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Jul 94 12:45:43 EDT From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: Note on the Romanization of Yiddish in Mendele This subject deserves a lengthy presentation. The romanization of Yiddish in Mendele does not bear even a semblance to the YIVO Romanization Standard as adopted by the American National Standards Institute. The result is sheer confusion, a hodgepodge of multiple individual capricious and haphazard spellings based mostly on aural memories from childhood. Today I wish to comment briefly on a recent posting by Frank Boches (Mendele, Vol. 4.057, item 1) where he queries about the liturgical seven "ato's." He needlessly romanizes the Yiddish words "di zibn" as " die sieben" (German spelling). The German "die" in an English text is particularly jarring because the eye tends to read it not as an article (for the), as intended, but as a verb (to die--tsu shtarbn). So who needs it?... Similarly, Evelyn Feins (Vol. 4.058, item 8) signs her posting with "asheynem dank tzu allah." But for the lower-case of the initial "a" of the last word, did she extend a sheynem dank to the Islamic deity Allah?... What she meant, of course, was to "alemen" (all of you, everyone). We need greater care and self-discipline when romanizing Yiddish. Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.059 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. 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