Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.318 February 8, 1995 1) Yiddish proverbs (David Sherman) 2) What's happening at Oxford? (Ben Alpers) 3) Buloff and folktales in Yiddish (Cecile Kuznitz) 4) Buloff and folktales in Yiddish (Dovid Braun) 5) A tchaynik hakn (Michael Shimshoni) 6) "Az der bube volt gehat" (Alan Shuchat) 7) Talach (Victor Bers) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 13:36:49 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Yiddish proverbs > Daniella HarPaz requested a work on Yiddish proverbs. "Words Like > Arrows, a Treasury of Yiddish Folk Sayings," compiled by Shirley Kumove, > ... It is a small paperback. Warner Books, A Warner Communications Company. The copy I have is a nice hardbound copy, published by Schocken Books in New York in 1985. (Also bears a copyright of University of Toronto Press 1984.) I believe I've seen it in Judaica stores over the years too. David Sherman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 07 Feb 95 17:22:31 EST From: blalpers%pucc.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: What's happening at Oxford? What exactly is going on at Oxford? I have heard all kinds of rumors of wild Yiddish turf-battles. Does the formation of the Oxford Institute of Yiddish Studies mean that the world of Yiddish has been enriched? Or is this merely an apolitical version of the kind schism that used to cripple the Jewish left? If someone could simply summarize what has been going on at Oxford I would be very grateful. Ben Alpers 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 17:16:41 -0800 (PST) From: tsirl@leland.stanford.edu Subject: Buloff and folktales in Yiddish Norman Zide asked [4.316] about locating the original Yiddish versions of several works. As for Joseph Buloff's To the Old Marketplace, a typescript of the Yiddish version is in Buloff's papers in the YIVO Archives. I don't believe it was ever published in Yiddish in book form, but it may have been serialized in the Forverts. As for Binah Weinreich's Yiddish Folktales, the originals of the material used in the book are also from several collections in the YIVO Archives. Binah was, I believe, preparing a Yiddish version of the book with the original texts. I don't know the status of the project but you could contact her c/o YIVO to inquire. Cecile Kuznitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 07 Feb 1995 22:39:30 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Yiddish originals available To Neyakh Zide: Buloff's memoirs were printed in installments in _Di goldene keyt_ a few years ago (circa 1990-92, perhaps?). The originals of _Yiddish Folktales_ which Beatrice Weinreich edited have not appeared in their original. If I remember correctly, the YIVO intends/intended to publish the "YIVO Collection of Yiddish Folktales" in Yiddish, but has not made good on the plan yet. (Jews often call themselves the "am-haseyfer" 'People of the Book' because of our culture's emphasis on education, literacy and book knowledge. I have a new take on the expression, though: we're so appreciative of our books because their publication takes so long that we figure we won't see them in our lifetimes anyway.) Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 08 Feb 95 11:53:26 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: A tchaynik hakn Several posters to Mendele have done the opposite of "haking" tchayniks and have *seriously* discussed the origin of the term "a tchaynik hakn". I just wish to add that in this case modern Hebrew borrowed the term from Yiddish. In Hebrew it is used in the form "leqashqesh baq'umq'um", which means making noise (or rattling) in or with the kettle. It has essentially the same meaning as the Yiddish original. Michael Shimshoni Rehovot, Israel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 08 Feb 1995 13:52:17 -0500 (EST) From: ashuchat@wellesley.edu Subject: "Az der bubbe vot gehat.." I read with great enjoyment Zellig Bach's dissection of Steven Pinker's (as corrected) "az di bobe volt gehat beytsim volt zi geven mayn zeyde", the euphemisms he mentions, and the subsequent correspondence. In my family, this saying was sanitized even further: "az di bobe iz geven der zeyde." I never understood why everyone laughed! Alan Shuchat Wellesley, MA 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 08 Feb 95 13:54:12 EST From: vbers@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Talach A colleague asks me to ask the Mendelenikes the meaning of the word "talach." Victor Bers ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.318 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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