Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.330 February 21, 1995 1) Introduction (Dovid Moishe Goldstein) 2) Plurals ending in -im (Alan Shuchat) 3) Whence plurals in -im (Mikhl Herzog) 4) YIVO/Columbia Yiddish Summer Program (Yankl Salant) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Feb 95 16:54:49 EST From: 73051.2257@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction and a Cheer I grew up in a secular Jewish home. My father was in the labor movement and also wrote short stories and articles for the "Forverts". As a child (9 or 10) I went to Arbeter Ring Shule 3 in the Bronx. Although I only attended for a few years a lot of the mameloshn stayed with me. When I was 13 I went away for the summer to "kemp ganeden" (Camp Eden), in Cold Spring NY. I am a mostly retired CPA and despite my Yiddish shortcomings, I enjoy lurking in Mendele. My children went to Camp Boiberik for many years and I cherish the relationships that my wife and I made there. I remember a camp cheer which we used in Camp Eden (Yiddish naturally): Akachika boom boom risha risha Ekhla pekhla shmunya Di rebbe un rebitzen hobn gatantzd Un hobn forloyrn alles in gantz Ain tzvai ut azay Forvets tageblat hooray Alakazoo gezoo gezam We don't give a damn Alamem alemem Alemem etasha ishkeda boom boom Rah rah rah rah Team team team What memories! Dorian Goldstein (Dovid Moishe) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 17:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: ashuchat@wellesley.edu Subject: Plurals ending in -im Nekhten hob ikh geredt in eynglish mit a frayndine un ir man. Zey zenen geven shpet far a kontzert, un zi hot im gezogt, "If we don't move our tokhaysim, we won't get tickets!" Iz dos geven dos rikhtike vort? "Tokhes" iz nisht in Vaynraykh (1968 ed.). Alan Shuchat 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 95 20:59 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Whence plurals in -im Ellen Prince asks why Yiddish _poyer_ has the plural ending -im. As I recall, I once submitted a long posting on Yiddish noun plurals which included a discussion of _poyer_. I haven't learned to consult the Index but, if someone knows how to retrieve the relevant number of Mendele, it may be useful. [Vol. 3.113 nm] In a not sufficiently refined nutshell, with a somewhat reckless use of terminology for which I beg your indulgence: In large measure, the plural ending -im, derived in the first instance from Hebrew, probably has to be viewed, not only as an allomorph of the Yiddish plural morpheme {N}, but also as a morphophonemic alternant of its allomorph {n}. To wit: Standard Yiddish _ganovim_, _yontoyvim_, _katsovim_, etc. are actually realized with [im] a) in Standard Yiddish, b) largely in Litvish Yiddish. Elsewhere, the plural ending, in these words, is usually the homotopical nasal variant of the allomorph {n}, in these cases, the labiodental [m,]; thus _yontoyvn [= m,], _katsuvn_, _ganuvn_. Actually, in German, the word is written _Ganoven_ (see the paperback: Doris Mendlewitsch (hrsg.) _Ladies, Leichen und Ganoven: Kriminalgeschichten aus dem 19tn Jahrhundert_.) Similarly, Standard Yiddish _poyerim_ (cf. German Bauern), is actually realized as _poyern,_ (with velar "eng" [n,], as it surely is in German, too), except in Standard and, largely, Litvish Yiddish, which have led to the "literalization" or reinterpretation of the suffix as _im_. I'm not really sure how many words I can interpret this way but, my guess is that Yiddish _shabosim_, _taleysim_, _doktoyrim_, _naronim_ have undergone similar processes, starting out in Yiddish from *shAbesn *tAlesn (neither _shabOsim_, nor _talEYsim_ occur in Hebrew), *nArn (has anyone heard _narn_ used as the noun plural too?), *dOktern. (I imagine that today, if we were to render the plural of _dokter_ with anything other than _im, we'd say _dokters_.) In each case, stress shift and vowel change probably have had something to do with the transformation to -im. I'm afraid that's as far as I've gone. I'd welcome anyone's attempt to explain this connection and take the whole thing further (Neil?). I wonder if anyone, working with early or Western Yiddish texts (Marion?), has encountered documentary evidence of the starred (*) forms ("missing links") that I've posited above. Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 17:45:06 -0500 From: yankl191@aol.com Subject: YIVO/Columbia Yiddish Summer Program 1995 Uriel Weinreich program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture (co-sponsored by YIVO Institute and Columbia University) xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx The 28th annual Uriel Weinreich Yiddish Summer Program will be held from June 26th through August 4th, 1995. Study Yiddish in the morning on the elementary, intermediate* or advanced* level with veteran Yiddish teachers, Dovid Braun, Ellie Kellman, Avrom Nowersztern and Mordkhe Schaechter. Experience our afternoon program which includes conversation classes, lecture series, and workshops in Yiddish folksong, dance, film, drama and translation. To request a brochure and more information, contact: Yankl Salant YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 555 West 57th Street Suite 1100 New York, New York 10019 Phone: (212) 246-6080 Fax: (212) 734-1062 Act now! The deadline for applying for partial scholarships is March 22. *Those applying for the intermediate or advanced classes are strongly urged to attend a two-week refresher course beginning June 13 in which the first 20 chapters of _College Yiddish_ are reviewed. Yankl Salant ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.330 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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