Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.290 January 22, 1995 1) Litvish [e] and [ey] (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Yiddish in Schopfloch (Marion Aptroot) 3) Mendele who-is-who (Anno Siegel) 4) Konen/kenen (Rick Gildemeister) 5) Konen/kenen (David Sherman) 6) Glatshteyn and Ozick (Janet Hadda) 7) Teaching Yiddish literature in translation (Dvosye Bilik) 8) Yiddish and the North American Indian (Joe Ajzenman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 17:41 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Litvish [e] and [ey] Yude Rosof, say it's not true. You didn't _really_ believe that Litvaks don't distinguish [e] and [ey]. DID you? What do you do with pairs like _bret_ 'board' and _breyt_ 'broad', _zet_ 'sees' and _zeyt_ 'sows', _shtet_ 'cities' and _shteyt_ 'stands'? Write them all with _e_? Furthermore, comparing the [ey] in Litvish [leyng]'length' with [ey] in Polish Yiddish [teyg] 'days' is like comparing apples and oranges (to coin a phrase). Acknowledging, but with no apology to the non-linguists, the [ey] in [leyng] is a positionally determined, thus non- distinctive variant of the phoneme /e/ in Litvish Yiddish. It occurs only before the sequences _ng_ and _nk_. Similarly, [ay] in Litvish [layng, shlayng, baynk, kraynk]. The Litvish /ey/ and /ay/ phonemes in words like _breyt_ 'board' and 'bread', and _tsayt_ 'time' do not occur in the stated positions. The [ey] or[e:] in Polish Yiddish _tejg_ 'days', _leybn_ 'to live' _reygn_ 'rain', etc. is the sole variant of the phoneme /ey/ or /e:/, free of any ordinarily discernible positional variants. Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 18:55:13 -0500 (EST) From: aptroot@husc.harvard.edu Subject: Yiddish in Schopfloch In Mendele Vol. 286, Zellig Bach mentions Schopfloch and the local slang of the town which contains many words of Yiddish origin. Hadassa Shy wrote an interesting article about that topic, with the help of Dov-Ber Kerler. It was published in _Oksforder yidish_ II. I believe a second article on the same subject is forthcoming. Marion Aptroot 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 13:03:50 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Mendele who-is-who Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan proposed (Vol. 4.277) a collection of introductions to the Mendele list. I think this is an excellent idea. The minhag to introduce oneself is a nice one, and collecting the introductions in one place would make them even more useful. So I have started to (automatically) extract introductions from the back issues of mendele up to current. The count is now near 350. This is just to tell you that something of the sort is certainly coming. So, if you haven't sent an introduction yet and want to be in the who-is-who (I like ver-iz-der-doziker), you can do so now. Anno Siegel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 09:23:34 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Konen/kenen Peter Kluehs had asked about the difference in kenen/konen, in the context of the German verb koennen. Mikhl Herzog and I both had our replies placed side by side on one issue of Mendele. Sometime later I received a private note, "correcting" me but not helping me in any way as to what the real scoop is. I feel very strongly, that if people disagree on Mendele, that it's pretty important to put it to the list, especially if it is an error of fact. And so, I would like comment from others about kenen/konen as possibly arising from an attempt to regularize the conjugation of the verb (which in German has "kann" in the singular, and "koennen" in theplural) I just want to know whether kenen/konen are regularizations of corresponding older Yiddish forms corresponding to konen in singular and kenen in plural. Nu? Rick Gildemeister 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 12:00:01 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Re: kenen / konen Mikhl, when you say Yiddish doesn't seem to distinguish kenen and konen, does it matter which meaning you're talking about? I believe that in our dialect, we use kenen for more "to be acquainted with" and konen more for "to be able to", though I think there's some overlap in both directions. Konstu zogn az du kenst dem untershid? David Sherman, Toronto 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 09:42 PST From: ibenbfx@mvs.oac.ucla.edu Subject: Glatshteyn and Ozick There was indeed a ceremony in which Cynthia Ozick spoke about her story "Envy, or Yiddish in America" and I believe your memory serves you well, Mikhl, in recalling it as a Bnai Brith event. If I remember correctly, Glatshteyn was posthumously awarded a Bnai Brith Book Award for his 1971 book, "Gezangen fun rekhts tsu links" and Ozick gave the speech. Other speculation has it that the untranslated Yiddish writer was not Glatsh- teyn but Khaim Grade. Incidentally, when I asked Ozick about all of this, she told me that the story actually had nothing to do with Yiddish, but was rather her rendition of experiences around her uncle and meetings of the American Hebrew Poetry Society in the Bronx during the 1930's. The decision to present the characters as Yiddish writers was sparked by the fact that she was doing some translations from Yiddish for Irving Howe at the time. Janet Hadda Los Angeles 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 12:42 EST From: dorothy_bilik@umail.umd.edu Subject: Traching YIddish literature in translation Daniela HarPaz: I have taught the subject for many years and have much to say. However, I also have an injured right hand and posting is painful. B'kitzer use Irving Howe, anthology intro.and any other stuff he does on Yidlit. Do include Hillel Halkin's translation of Tevye although some colleagues find it cumbersome. Give them opening lecture stressing earliest Yiddish literature and language, mention Bove Bukh. Use theory only when it works. Don't show Hester Street it's not Yiddish, show Yidl mitn Fidl, Tevye-after they have read it or anyother of the good Yiddish films available from Sharon Rivo at Brandeis. There's much more ober es tut mir vey di hant. good luck, Dvosye Bilik 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 18:37:22 -0800 From: asi-joe@ix.netcom.com Subject: Yiddish and the North American Indian Last night I attended an interview with Dan Gordon, the screenwriter of the new film "Murder in the First." Although it was fascinating to hear how a film develops from the original screenplay to the final production that is released to the public, Dan offered an interesting anectode about the Yiddish language. It is a tale about Americana and Yiddishkeit that I would like to share with you. Apparently some of Dan's relatives migrated to Canada from eastern European in the early part of this century. At the time, Canada did not want any more Jews settling in the eastern part of Canada. Immigration for Jews was restricted to the western part of Canada. These immigrants settled as storekeepers, farmers or ranchers. One of Dan's uncles became a rancher (i.e. a Jewish cowboy). Once, on a visit to his uncle's ranch in the 1950s, Dan was invited to visit an Indian tribe, called the "Schwartzer Feeselech" (the Blackfeet), that lived nearby. When they reached the Indian village, Dan's uncle greeted the village elder in the Indian's native tongue. The Indian responded in Yiddish...with a perfect inflection of an Eastern European Jew. Now what's an American/Canadian Indian doing speaking Yiddish? Apparently there were no Europeans, other than the Jewish ranchers in that area of the country. The Jews learned Blackfoot and the Blackfeet learned Yiddish. So it seems that Mel Brooks was not too far off the mark in Blazing Saddles when he had his Indians speaking Yiddish. Joe Ajzenman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.290 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 subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu