Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.383 April 11, 1995 1) Aramaic (Bob Hoberman) 2) Aramaic (Yude Rozof) 3) Sheytl, shtrayml (Lou Heynick) 4) Sanctification of Yiddish (Morrie Feller) 5) Vos makhstu? (Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz) 6) Tsvey plener (Sholem Berger) 7) Soviet Yiddish writers (Marvin Friedman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 12:16:54 -0500 (EST) From: rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu Subject: Aramaic dead?! Khas vekholile Moshe Waldoks, shem zikh! "Thanks to "brich shmey" even though Aramaic has not been spoken for close to two millenia its sound resounds throughout synagogues all over the world." Not a bit! Modern Aramaic is the "Yiddish" of the Jewish and Christian minorities in Kurdistan and a few smaller spots in the Middle East. The Muslim majority (10 or 20 million) speak Kurdish, a language related to Persian, but the native language of the Christians and Jews is Aramaic; I guess there are roughly 200,000 speakers. The Jews have all (borkhashem) gone to Israel, where their Aramaic is popularly called Kurdit, and most of the Christians, who call themselves Assyrians or Chaldeans, have emigrated too, to Europe and North America. In Chicago, Detroit, and San Diego you can hear radio programs and sometimes even TV in the language. There are even piyutim which the Kurdish Jews recite in shul in their modern colloquial Aramaic, which has of course changed a good deal in the past 2000 years. In the 1970's at this time of year I heard a Kurdish Hakham in Jerusalem telling his congregants about the laws of Peysakh. He mentioned the (old) Aramaic text "Kol Hamira ve-Hami'a" which one says at the time of searching for khomets, and said that anyone who cannot understand it in the original may recite a translation into "our language"! I've exchanged e-mail messages in modern Aramaic with Prof. Yona Sabar of UCLA, who is a native speaker, having left Iraqi Kurdistan as a teenager. By the way, the Jews and Christians of Kurdistan agree that the latter are the Assyrians who exiled the former to Assyria, i.e. northern Iraq, i.e. Kurdistan, in the 700's BCE. Consequently the ten lost tribes aren't lost; they're here, speaking Aramaic. Vos den? Bob Hoberman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 15:34:37 -0500 (EST) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Aramaic A note to Moshe Waldoks: Aramaic has in fact never ceased to be spoken. Modern forms persist in such variants as Syriac among the Christians of Syria, Targumic among the Kurdish Jews, and in other variants among various Middle Eastern Christian denominations. With the exception of Syriac, a literary church language akin in status to Latin, these Aramaic languages served as a daily means of communication in some towns, surrounded by Arabic speaking populations. Although neo-Aramaic dialects are not mutually comprehensible with Talmudic Aramaic, they are direct descendents of popular Aramaic before the rise of Islam. I have heard that in Detroit the "Chaldean" Christian immigrant community maintains Aramaic radio in Detroit, although I cannot confirm this. Among the Christian dialects, I believe that Syriac is by far the most conservative. It is written in its own script. As for archaic Jewish Aramaic, I have often thought that it would be fun to revive it, and pronounce much better than modern Hebrew which has a European phonetic inventory. At present I believe that all living Aramaic dialects are seriously threatened by their coterritorial languages, much as is the case with Yiddish. Yude Rozof 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 14:52:06 -0800 From: louhey@ix.netcom.com Subject: Sheytl, shtrayml To: Shleyme Axelrod My stromg apologies! I missed seeing that there was no lamed at the end of the two words in your query. Lou Heynick 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 20:52:34 -0700 (MST) From: feller@pcef.pc.maricopa.edu Subject: Sanctification of Yiddish As a response to Moshe Waldoks' remarks in Vol.4.378, let me offer the following. My wife has been teaching a Yiddish chorus at Temple Chai (Reform) in Phoenix for the past year. Now the young associate rabbi and the cantor have asked her and her chorus to participate in next Friday night's service (April 7). Although there are no specific prayers available in Yiddish for the Reform prayer book, we have chosen Yiddish songs which, as much as possible, fit in with the prayers. Inasmuch as we have been given essentially carte blanche, we look upon this as an opportunity to promote our Yiddish language. As part of the service we will sing "Shabbes Yontef", "L'cho Doydi", "Sabbath Prayer" (Yiddish version from Fiddler), and "Zog Nit Keyn Mol". In lieu of a sermon, we will give a "program" following the service. This will include a reading of that very special letter by Matt Dailey, "Why Study Yiddish?", Yiddish readings by two members of the chorus, and the following songs: "Tum Balalayke", "Lomir Zingen a Yiddish Lied", "By Mir Bistu Sheyn", "Abi Gezunt", "Vu Iz Dos Gesele?", "Dayenu", "Tayere Malke", and a Yiddish version (our translation) of "Let There Be Peace on Earth". We also plan to have handouts of the program songs and the Matt Dailey letter. Morrie Feller Phoenix 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 01 Apr 95 16:50:07 PST From: shoti@eworld.com Subject: Vos makhstu? In Argentine (der iker ven mir zaynen geven talmidim in seminar) flegn mir entfern tzu der frage "vos makhstu?": 1) Ikh makh a gutn ayndruk. 2) Ikh makh mit di zaytn. Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 20:37:21 -0800 (PST) From: zdb@cco.caltech.edu Subject: Tsvey plener tayere yidish-libhobers: ikh hob tsvey idees; ober 'kh veys nisht, tsi zey zaynen meglekh, oder afile geroten. zayt azoy gut un shikt mir ayer bamerkungen, eytses, un entfers. a) 's iz nisht faran genug yidish afn internet. ikh halt bay oyfshteln a "heym-zaytl" (homepage) far yidish, ober ikh volt gevolt oykh etablirn a yidishe nayes-grupe (newsgroup) vi a heym far algemeyne diskusie _af_yidish_. (ikh hob mendele groys lib, ober shmuesn do-hi zaynen bagrenetst tsu literarishe un lingvistike temes.) vos trakht men fun "bit.listserv.yidish"? b) yidishe zhurnaln in nyu-york (vu ikh vel zayn student bay n.y.u.): forverts iz an oytser, ober noyte-lomes; di tsukunft hot a groysn shem, ober batrakht internatsionale-yidishe (un nisht amerikaner-yidishe) frages. vos trakht men vegn aroysgeben a khodeshlekhn zhurnal far naye amerikanishe shraybers--fun beletristik, kritik, politik, un humor? haynt-tsu-tog, zaynen faran a sakh lerners un studentn fun der yidisher shprakh, un s'muz zayn, az etlekhe shraybn.... (yo, 'kh veys--s'geyt in gelt. ober lozt ot di teme in a zayt, dervayl.) Sholem Berger P.S.: Many thanks to all who have helped me plan my travels to Europe. Things (on the Eastern European side, at least) are now going swimmingly. 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 19:17:09 -0500 From: marvinf629@aol.com Subject: Soviet Yiddish writers I am interested in recommendations for source material regarding the 21 Yiddish writers who were murdered in, I believe, August 1952, by order of Stalin. I am trying to find historical information on the event itself, its background and repercussions, and also would like to know if the literary works of the victims has ever been collected, or in what form it might be available. Marvin Friedman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.383 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. 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