Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.114 September 29, 1994 1) No one should be intimidated! (Louis Fridhandler) 2) "Rov" vs "Rabay" (Shloyme-Khayem Cohen) 3) Oranges and pomegranates (Dan Leeson) 4) Welcome "Bobe Marcia" (Harvey Spiro) 5) Hebrew for the Mac (Jesse Rabinowitz) 6) Rav-K'tav for Macintosh (Steve Jacobson) 7) Case in macaronic constructions (Shleyme Axelrod) 8) Dutch Yiddish: Hartog Beem (Marion Aptroot) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 25 Sep 94 23:59:27 EDT From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: No one should be intimidated! No lover of Yiddish at whatever level should feel intimidated by contributions from the more learned. Kumt un varemt zikh oys nebn mekhayedike pripetshik. Of course Mendele should welcome _all_ who show an interest in Yiddish language and literature whether they are expert grammarians and Romanizers or not. Here's my two cents worth. I believe that nobody is calling for Mendele to adopt an exclusionary policy. My own attitude grows out of experience with local study groups who meet face to face. By analogy, it might apply to e-mail groups like Mendele. Some show up with love for knowledge with time and ability to study and share their fruits. Some have love for knowledge and ability but little time to spare for study. All the aforementioned should be warmly welcomed. The only ones not welcome are the rare anti-intellectual yahoos with absolute resistance to learn anything, growing out of disdainful disrespect for knowledge and scholarship including Yiddish. I have come across one or two of the latter in my local Orange County, California neighborhood. I expect that Mendeleniks with ardent love for learning (I hope to be included) will continue to argue for consistency in Romanization (e.g. according to a system like YIVO's), and for high grammatical and orthographic standards, but I sense no hint of a desire to exclude anyone with a love for Yiddish. As the song says, "Lomir ale in eynem di ale Mendelenikes mekabl ponim zayn, un lomir ale in eynem trinken a gleyzele vayn!" Lomir dertseylen epes nayes af yidish (a maysele, a vits, vos ir vilt) fun tsayt tsu tsayt. Az me leyent un me shraybt romanizirtn yidish tog ayn tog oys, lernt men zikh oys gants fayn. Der iker iz: a libe far yidish, un koved farn mame-loshn. A libe far gramatik, un zukhn a glaykhn veg far ale tsu tretn zenen oykh zer sheyn un nutslekh, ober nisht der iker. Louis Fridhandler 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 09:00:35 EDT From: smc5@Lehigh.EDU Subject: "Rov" vs "Rabay" I have noticed that in Yiddish, including the supposedly left-wing "Forverts", that we discriminate against the Orthodox rabbis by using a separate term for them, e.g., an Orthodix "Rov" versus the term "Rabay" for every other rabbi. Is it not time that we stop this discrimination and use one common term, say, "Rabay", for all rabbis? There is enough division within the people of Israel that we don't need pejorative words for our sages. Shloyme-Khayem Cohen (Steve) 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 10:31:18 EDT From: leeson@admin.fhda.edu Subject: Oranges and pomegranates As a child I always found the song about "A cousine" fascinating because of a certain line. The young and attractive female cousin, who had just come over from the old country, was said to have cheeks like red oranges: "Beckelech vie rote pomerantsen." But then, if the Yiddish for an orange is "pomerants" what is the Yiddish word for a pomegranate? Dan Leeson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 27 14:36:54 1994 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: Welcome "Bobe Marcia" I'd like to welcome Marcia Gruss Levinsohn (Mendele 4.109,2) to Mendele. Since she is too modest to sing her own praises, let me make an unsolicited attempt. Marcia's class, Mishpokhe Yiddish, is a labor of love, an institution in the Washington area (she's run it for more years than I remember). It's her own personal mitzva and mission to expose very young children (ages 3-7) to Yiddish, through songs and activities. When my son attended kindergarten in a Maryland Jewish day school, he enjoyed a minicourse in Yiddish that Marcia taught at that school. Mendelniks with young children should also know of Marcia's children's book, _Di dray bern_, nicely illustrated and accompanied by a tape. It's available from her directly (mashinke@wam.umd.edu), and also I believe from Workman's Circle. There are few modern books available for very young students of Yiddish, but here's one with a story line that all kids will recognize. Harvey Spiro 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 12:22:34 PDT From: panisse@mendel.Berkeley.EDU Subject: Hebrew for the Mac Can anyone suggest reasonably priced software to permit one to write in Yiddish on a Mac? Jesse Rabinowitz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 10:56:44 -0800 From: FFSAJ@aurora.alaska.edu Subject: Rav-K'tav bidirectional word processing program for Macintosh Does anyone have an address for "MicroMacro Ltd." in Israel? This company made Rav-K'tav, a bidirectional word processing program, which I use for writing in Yiddish. The version I have only works with older Macintosh machines, apparently only with those have a 68000 central processor (the new machines have 68030 or 68LC040). Maybe someone would know how to make my version of Rav-K'tav work with a newer machine? Thanks. Steve Jacobson 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 17:14:46 -0400 (EDT) From: PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Case in macaronic constructions A recent solicitation for contributions, from an organization whose officials certainly ought to know what to think of germanisms, closes with "... best wishes to you for a _gut yontef_ and a _gut yohr_." The "_puster_ (empty) h", as Zellig Bach (4.102) would call it, should by the YIVO convention be dropped from the last word, which ought therefore to be written _yor_. Of more general interest: Is there an agreed-upon way of dealing with foreign words from inflected languages in English sentences? In the phrase quoted, _yor_ is neuter, and "a" is the indefinite article, so "for a ... _gut yor_" is OK. But because _yontef_ is masculine, shouldn't the dative adjective (following the preposition "for") be _gutn_; or could the writer argue that the English preposition doesn't govern the case of the Yiddish adjective in a _mishshprakhiker [mishshprakhikn?] zats_? The problem would of course vanish if we followed Leybl Botvinik's advice (4.111) and avoided mixed-language sentences altogether; but that seems unnecessarily restrictive. Shleyme Axelrod 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 18:25:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Marion Aptroot Subject: Dutch Yiddish: Hartog Beem In reply to Meyshe-Yankl Sweet (vol. 4.108): A complete bibliography of Hartog Beem's publications has been compiled by Shulamit Vomberg-Samuel, _Mekhkarim al toledot yahadut holand_ 3 (1981): 273-276. In the same volume of _Mekhkarim_ a description of Beem's life can be found. A shorter obituary of Beem with reference to his most important work on Dutch Yiddish has appeared in _Oksforder Yidish_ 1 (1991) and an article which describes the importance of his work for research on Northwestern Yiddish came out in Dov-Ber Kerler, ed., _History of Yiddish Studies_ (London, 1991). _She'erith. Resten van een taal. Woordenboekje van het Nederlands Jiddisch_ (Sheyris. Remnants of a language. A small dictionary of Dutch Yiddish) has been reprinted. I believe everything else is out of print. _Jerosche_, a collection of Dutch Yiddish proverbs and expressions and _Uit Mokum en de Mediene_, a list of Dutch words of Jewish (Yiddish and Hebrew) origins, both deserve to be reprinted. Marion Aptroot ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.114 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu