Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.180 November 13, 1994 1) Introduction (Jeff Warschauer) 2) Eve Sicular's address (Zachary Baker) 3) Identifying French Jews as Jews (Martin Davis) 4) P-rk (Bernard S. Greenberg) 5) Romanization, Yivo-Style (Evelyn Quartin Feins) 6) Di etimologie fun "Shprintse" (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 7) Mendele-on-disk: a correction (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 19:21:00 -0500 From: warschauer@aol.com Subject: Introduction I am a Klezmer musician. I play guitar, mandolin, and tenor banjo, and I sing in Yiddish and English as well. I play with the Klezmer Conser- vatory Band, the Lipovsky/Mlotek/Warschauer Trio (mostly in Europe), and the Jeff Warschauer Klezmer Ensemble. I also teach at KlezKamp and Buffalo on the Roof, etc... My Yiddish language skills are at what you might call an intermediate level-I took one semester when I was at school, and did one summer of the Oxford Programme. Since then, I have tried to improve my Yiddish by attending meetings of a Yiddish club that meets at a senior citizen's center here in Boston, thought lately I have not been able to do that as much as I would like. It is really great to see so many familiar names here on Mendele. If I had known, I'd have been here sooner... Jeff Warschauer 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 94 14:26:53 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: Eve Sicular's address Eve Sicular is YIVO's curator of photographs and films. She can be reached by snail-mail (c/o YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 555 West 57th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10019), phone (212/ 535-6700), and fax (212/734-1062) -- but NOT by e-mail (at least not directly). I gather that the issue of "Jewish Folklore and Ethnology News" to which she referred is due out imminently, if not sooner. N.b. "JFEN" is no longer co-published by YIVO. The editor, Prof. Guy Haskell, is at Oberlin College (address not handy at the moment). As previously announced, the YIVO Library will be reopening on Monday, November 14th. In addition, the YIVO Archives will reopen the following Monday, November 21st. No appointment is necessary to use the Library, but an appointment is now required to use the Archives. We are still working on ways to retrieve materials from the warehouse; until that matter is resolved, however, only those library and archival materials that are on premises at 57th Street will be available to readers. Zachary Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 94 20:31:09 -0500 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: Identifying French Jews as Jews In connection with this discussion, it may be worth noting that the monument to the "deportees" of the second world war (on the Ile de la Cite just in back of Notre Dame) never finds it worth mentioning that the deportees were mostly Jews. On the right bank not far away is a monument specifically to the Jewish victims of the Nazis. However, while the first is an official government sponsored facility, the second is strictly under Jewish auspices. Martin Davis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 20:44:56 -0500 From: bsg@world.std.com Subject: P-rk In the wonderful film "The Last Klezmer", I heard the subject of this cinematic biography, Leopold Kleinman/Kozlowski, when speaking about various animals stolen at night for sustenance by Jews in the Hanaczow forest refer in Yiddish to pigs as "Schwein". I have never heard other than "Khazir" for this animal in Yiddish. Anyone? (This film, by the way, in Yiddish, Ukranian, and Polish, subtitled, is also great fun for those with a linguistic bent.) Bernard S. Greenberg 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Nov 94 14:47:00 UTC From: m.feins@genie.geis.com Subject: Romanization, Yivo-Style I would like to thank Shleyme Axelrod for the Romanization List and Information he posted on Nov. 6th. I copied it post haste, and will use it as a reference to reinforce the info from Zellig Bach, and some other friends I have made on Mendele. The List will not only help in learning to write yidish correctly, but to more easily understand some of the wonderful array of questions, jokes and stories written in yidish by some of the Mendelniks. Thank you again. Evelyn Quartin Feins 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 21:29:03 -0600 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Di etimologie fun "Shprintse" In a recent review (3/94 issue of "Names") the Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz excoriates a non-scholarly book called "Jewish Personal Names" by Shmuel Gorr. In the course of this review Katz quotes an admittedly incoherent paragraph by Gorr, which states that the Yiddish name "Sprintse" means "Hope". Katz treats this as a ridiculous assertion, claiming that it comes from a Middle High German name, "Sprinz", meaning a female sparrow hawk. Isn't "Hope" the usually accepted (but perhaps incorrect) etymology of this name, from the Spanish Esperanza, via Ladino? It makes a lot more sense to me that Jews would name a daughter "Hope", something that we've needed through the ages and had in abundance, than after a treyfe bird of prey! Ober, gey veys. Harkavy has "hope", and I'm sure that I've seen this explanation elsewhere--looked in "College Yiddish", but in vain. Does anyone know of other references on this question? Is it Hope or Sparrow Hawk? Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Nov 94 12:36:25 EST From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Mendele-on-disk: a correction A brokh! The announcement in Vol. 4.176 was an early draft and wrong in one respect. Mac users _will_ also have an uncompress utility included with their disks thanks to Khayem Bochner and Meyer David. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.180 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 Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu