Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.084 August 16, 1994 1) Yiddish Literature by women writers (Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky) 2) YIVO-standard pronunciation (Shleyme Axelrod) 3) Bernstein's proverb collection (Bob Rothstein) 4) Children's songs (Bob Rothstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 94 12:42 EST From: reyzl@mcimail.com Subject: Yiddish Literature by women writers -Reading Circle The Congress for Jewish Culture announces the formation of: A reading group for Yiddish literature written by women writers. The first meeting will take place on: Tuesday, August 23th, 1994 at 7:30 P.M at the Congress For Jewish Culture, 25 East 21 Street (bet. Broadway and Park Avenue South) New York, N.Y. 10010 Writers, themes and schedule will be selected at the at this first meeting. If you are interested in joining such a group, please call us at 212-505-8040 Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays from 10:30-5:00. (Fax:212-473-5102) If you can not attend the first meeting, call us and we will place you on our mailing list for future meetings and events. If you can not read Yiddish and are limited to reading Yiddish literature in translation, let us know and perhaps we can organize a secondary reading group. All are welcome (Travelling info: Take #6, F, N or R trains to 23 Street or any of the many buses that goes down Broadway, Fifth Ave., or Park Avenue South.) *************************************************************************** Such reading groups already meet in Toronto and Boston. I think we should have one in New York. This group will probably meet monthly. Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 15:35:54 -0400 (EDT) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: YIVO-standard pronunciation Rick Gildemeister (4.077) recalls that there have been criticisms of YIVO's "standard" pronunciation, based in part at any rate on the decision to make a minority pronunciation the basis for the standard; more native speakers, writes Rick, would say "meshige" than would say "meshuge". Indeed, Solomon Birnbaum (in _Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar_, U. of Toronto Press, 1979) estimated that in the 1920's-30's, there were 8.649 million speakers of what he calls the Southern [meshige] dialect of Eastern Yiddish, and only 3.226 million Northern [meshuge] speakers. I have no idea how far to trust his specific estimates, and I know that the dichotomy is a simplification, but I assume that he and Rick are at least approximately correct. (Incidentally, Birnbaum says that the three _klasikers_ were all Southern speakers, Perets and Sholem Aleykhem having been southern-born, and Mendele having adopted the Southern dialect after moving south in his youth.) I'm one of those who think that having a standard serves a good purpose. And I am personally delighted at YIVO's choice; my parents and most of my relatives of their generation came from around Vilna, so that the pronunciation I grew up with is close enough as makes no difference to the standard. But how did the standardizers *justify* their choice? Birnbaum writes: "The original proponents of this 'standard' were speakers of the Northern dialect and so, without further ado and without discussing the matter or giving any reasons, they decided that their own pronunciation was the 'standard.' ... It is ironic that the partisans of the 'standard'--all convinced democrats--should ask the majority of Yiddish-speakers to switch over from their own pronunciation to that of a minority, comprising only a quarter of all Yiddish speakers." [p. 100] Did the YIVOnikes really base their decision on such a parochial basis, and did they really give no reasons? There must have been a heated contemporary debate ("discussing the matter") around what was obviously seen by many as arrogance on the part of YIVO. Can someone familiar with the history of the standardization provide some details? --Shleyme Axelrod 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 22:36:38 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Bernstein's proverb collection This and the next forwarded message seem to have gotten lost after being sent on August 4, so I'm sending them again. The best edition of Ignaz Bernstein's _Yidishe shprikhverter un rednsartn_ was published 25 years ago in Germany: Ignaz Bernstein, _Juedische Sprichwoerter und Redensarten_, ed. Hans Peter Althaus, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1969. This edition is a reprint of the 1908 Warsaw edition with its facing pages of text in Yiddish and in a German- based transcription. Althaus also included Bernstein's collection of "oysgelasene un grobe shprikhverter" ("Erotica und Rustica") and added an introduction and an extensive bibliography. This edition also reproduces the index and glossary of the 1908 edition. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 22:36:55 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Children's songs Two answers to Paula Teitelbaum's inquiry about the composers of some Yiddish children's songs: 1. In their 1974 book _Perl fun der yidisher poezye_ (p. 198) Yosl and Khane Mlotek identify the composer of the music to Yehoash's "Kumt a foygl tsu mayn shoyb" as S. Golub. 2. In _Unzer gezang: lider zamlung far der yidisher shul_ (Montreal: Yidishe folks shuln, 1929) Y. Zaslavsky is listed (in the table of contents) as the composer of the music to the same poet's "Dos lid fun der frosh." Bob Rothstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.084 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