Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.214 December 5, 1994 1) Introduction (Robert King) 2) Introduction (Izaly Zemtsovsky) 3) Cryptolanguage (Arre Komar) 4) The British term "gaz(z)u'mp" (Howie Aronson) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Dec 1994 22:13:00 -0500 (EST) From: kingra@maspo2.mas.yale.edu Subject: Introduction/Yiddish in Chicago I am a child psychiatrist at the Yale Child Study Center. Growing up, I heard Yiddish spoken at home, but, as I suspect was common, most often when the conversation was for adult ears only. My interest in Yiddish has revived as I have children of my own and as I have become more interested in child development in Yiddish-speaking communities here and in Israel. (My family's yiddishkeit was very much of the left-wing flavor; my mother taught at the Jewish People's Institute in Chicago during the Depression.) Regarding M.-Yankl Sweet's query re YIVO in Chicago, there is an exhibit on "Yiddish in Chicago" at the Chicago Public Library's downtown main branch through the end of December. In addition to the exhibit itself, the curator may be of further assistance. Robert King 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 13:58:08 -0600 From: kunanbay@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Introduction For the moment I'm a Russian citizen but stay in Madison this academic year thanks to my dear wife Alma who is working here. We very hope to be in the USA much longer thanks to my Jewish studies in the USA (I'm a participant of two joint Russian-American programs in Jewish music). I was born in St.Petersburg (Russia) in 1936 to a very Yiddish family which descended from Nevel shtetl (this is the former Vitebsk gubernia well-known thanks to Mark Shagal). I was named 'Izaly' because of my grandfather's name 'Israel' who passed away in 1934 but in Russia that time was not so easy to have such Jewish name and my family decided to change it a little with some associations with a flower 'azalea' which blossoms just in Russian February. Yiddish was our family's language but, in my antisemitic time, not for children, unfortunately: it was a language for adults, for relatives who would like to say something secretely from us, the kids, and from 'goim-hazeirim', of course. But I was inquisitive enough and mastered my Yiddish 'in silence'... I graduated in St.Petersburg with degrees/diplomas from three faculties: as folklorist I have gained from extended contact, both personal and professional, with eminent Russian folklorist, professor Vladimir Propp, with whom I studied for fifteen years, and he became my second father (my own father was killed by Nazis in 1941); as musicologist and composer simultaneously in our Conservatory. Now I'm a full professor, doctor and so forth, head of Folklore Department of the Russian Institute for History of the Arts, and Vice-President of the Jewish Musical Society of St.Petersburg. I have already 19 books and about 400 scholarly articles including a few of Jewish folk music (in Russian). My last publication - "Jewish Folk Songs", St.Petersburg, 1994. 448 pages with music, in three languages -- Yiddish, Russian, English. This is a gift edition with nice illustrations. I hope the distributor of this book in the USA will be John Rauch, President of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, Los Angeles. His address: 423 N.Palm Dr. # 102. Beverly Hills, CA 90210. FAX (310) 479-3209. (He is a wonderful person, and contact with him should be for your pleasure). This book is the first and only anthology of Yiddish folk songs with music published in Russia. The songs are published as originally documented, and interesting variants are provided in the commentary. The Yiddish texts are published in transliteration utilizing the Soviet (sorry!) system of Yiddish romanization, for which a guide is provided. Russian translations, most of them in verse, have been created for the majority of songs, and English synopses are given for all selections. You know, of course, the name of Moshe Beregovsky (1892-1961). It was I who twice have saved his musical archives -- from Kiev to St.Petersburg in 1966 and from St.Petersburg to the USA two years ago (thanks to the support of the YIVO). In 1992, October, on Chanukah,in St.Petersburg I organized the First International Conference on Jewish Music. Now I am working on the unpublished materials of Moshe Beregovsky, David Maggid, Michael Gnessin and Zusman Kisselgof from Russian Archives. I would be glad to find the archives of Lazar Saminsky, Jewish composer and scholar, partly because I am Sominsky myself from one mother's side (from other mother's side I am Berezin, and from father's side I'm Monosov and Zemtsovsky, -- all last names are from Nevel). As to my Yiddish, today it's a passive enough, and that is so naturally in my Russian-Soviet case. I'm much more familiar with Jewish music, and my first Russian musicological publication in Yiddish song dated 22 years back, in 1973. At that time it was a sensation, a kind of a bomb... Such is my saga in brief. Being 58 years young, I start new life mainly in the Jewish field and I feel myself 'at home', but I am in need of the Yiddish cultural society. Let it will be not so active but thanks to you, I hope, I will be much more close to my linguistically hidden native culture. My dream is to apply my big knowledge in Slavic-Turkic-Baltic- Finnish musical field and to put it into my Jewish ethnomusicological studies. Thank all of you in advance for your attention and support. Izaly Zemtsovsky 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 16:37:21 -0500 (EST) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Cryptolanguage Recent crypto-German-Jewish does not only employ Hebrew roots. It was pointed out to me by one such friend that the comment "Gants net" when following an intellectual demonstration by some non-clan member is really code for "goyem nakhes". The need for such codes in a German speaking milieu is quite understandable. Arre Komar 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Dec 94 22:59:55 CST From: hia5@midway.uchicago.edu Subject: The British term "gaz(z)u'mp" Barry Schechter, a British Yiddishist friend of mine, is puzzled by the (British) English slang term "gaz(z)'ump" (with the stress on the final syllable). Chamber's English Dictionary (1990 edition) defines it as "to raise the price of property, etc., after accepting an offer from a buyer, but before the contract has been signed." The etymology given is "probably Yiddish "gezumph" [sic!] 'to swindle' [?!]. Can any Mendelnikes/Mendelnitses suggest a plausible etymology for this (apparently quite common) British colloquialism? Howie Aronson ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.214 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. 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