Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.384 April 11, 1995 1) Childish play with words (Zellig Bach) 2) Not only Spielberg's mother would have liked him (Zellig Bach) 3) "Aleykhem's" home? (Zellig Bach) 4) Schizographia (Zellig Bach) 5) A gathering in honor of Sholem Aleykhem (Zellig Bach) 6) Yiddish without ayens? (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Highly questionable childish play with words The Bulletin of Temple Israel of Northern Westchester (New York) announced the grand opening, just in time for Purim, of the "Paskin &Rabbis" kosher ice cream parlor, and published the menu of all the flavors and their Yiddish-Hebrew name "creations." The "naming" of the various kosher ice cream flavors appears to be the "creative" process of a child's innocent play with the sounds of Hebrew-Yiddish-Talmudic words and expressions, except that in this case it is but innocent and rather tasteless and even offensive. Except for a few names that may evoke a smile (Cherry-Bim, Lehitra-Oats, and Cashe Lepesakh /a kashe af peysakh/), what is one to think of the other obviously childish attempts at being "cute," as could be gleaned from the following examples: Rachma-nUt -- based on the modern Hebrew pronunciation of the word which we know in Yiddish as the heart-felt rakhmones; Olive-Hasholem -- based on the dear, intimate expression, both in Hebrew and Yiddish, when the treasured name of a departed parent, grand- parent, or revered friend is mentioned. Is it proper for adults to play with such words? This is the height of insensivity. Wailing Walnut -- an outrageous association that I would not even deign to explain; Or take the flavor "Lemon-tations" -- a play on the name Lamentations, one of the short five Bible scrolls, a set of poetic dirges commemorating the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First and Second Temples. It is read in the synagogue on _ti'she b'ov_,the ninth day of the month of Ov, a day of fasting and remembrance. Even a secular Jew can feel the pain of such desecration. This childish play seems to have gone on obsessively without let-up, forming many other ridiculous name coinages. The parlor supposedly offered its ice cream in "cohens" (read cones), frozen on a"shtick," and in "plastic Yiddish" (?), as well as a variety of "Sotahs" (read sodas), so called after the name of a tractate of the Talmud dealing with matters of a married woman suspected of adultery... And it offers these "sotahs" in a variety of flavors made with "korban-ate" water -- the last one a play on the Hebrew-Yiddish word _korbn_ (martyr)! Would the so-called "Rabbis" in the sign of the parlor of "Paskin and Rabbis" (itself a play on the name of the famous ice cream purveyor Baskin and Robbins) assume for one single moment that, by placing orders in the childishly distorted names, customers would feel uplifted and learn something --anything -- about Jewish history and its values? It boggles one's mind to imagine the obscene cheapening of such words and expressions as olev-ha'sholem, lamentations, korbn, rakhmones, and Wailing Wall, expressions and concepts evocative oftender feelings and historical significance. P.S.: And if all this was just a concoction for Purim, akin to a Purim Shpil (a "P.S." -- others, too, can play with words, even with their initials), no more than a spoof, a _shpas_, a joke for Purim -- a sadly and regrettably painful joke?... Zellig Bach 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Not only Spielberg's mother would have liked him My deep gratitude to the many Mendelyaner who inquired about my health, wished me a speedy recovery, and expressed their wish to "see" me again in Mendele. So here I go, hoping to catch up for my long silence. You probably heard the following story: Years ago a young Jewish woman signed up for the Peace Corp. She was assigned to a remote village in South Africa where she tended the sick and the frail, and instructed the women in pre- and post-natal care. She also learned, during her stay, the local dialect. She worked closely with the tribal medicine man whom she greatly respected for his knowledge of the medicinal properties of many plants and herbs. She also admired him for his personal qualities, and in time married him. When she returned, with her husband, to the United States, she was met by her mother with many { }'s [hugs] and :*'s [kisses], and then introduced her husband. "Mother," she said, "meet your son-in-law Kumba-Hee-Zu." In one glance the mother took in his outlandish outfit and the splendor of the regalia of his many trinkets -- in his hair, earlobes, the single pendant in his left cheek, and the many colorful necklaces, and, without skipping a heart beat, said: "My darling daughter, I told you to marry a rich doctor, not a witch doctor"... Well, this story came to mind upon reading (_Time_, 3/27/95) about the three giants in the entertainment industry who joined hands to create their own studio-- Director Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg (who supervised the million-dollar revival of the Walt Disney animated features, including "The Lion King,") and David Geffen, mogul of the record business. They then held various meetings with potential investors, all with deep, very deep, pockets. Example: Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, 500 million Dollars (if you have time and patience count them, one single C at a time). They also met with the boss of Microsoft himself, the multi- billionaire Bill Gates. When Katzenberg related during this meeting that it took 400 animators to make "The Lion King," Bill Gates asked: "Couldn't it have been done with just 40 animators and the rest on computers?" For some reason this remark did not sit well with Katzenberg, and he later expressed himself negatively about Gates. But Spielberg liked him, and the magazine quotes him as saying (p. 57): "When Bill Gates walked in the room I saw someone my mother would like. He is a _heymisher_ guy." Well, I think not just Spielberg's mother would have liked him... Zellig Bach 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: "Aleykhem's" home? Sholem Aleykhem lived in Kiev for a time. The home still stands but in a rundown condition. Thanks to the efforts of a group of khoyvevey (lovers) of Yiddish and admirers of the great writer it is now being refurbished and will be opened as a museum. The weekly _National Jewish Post & Opinion_ (Indianapolis, IN) carries a column called "Digest of the Yiddish Press" conducted by a rabbi from Delray Beach, Florida, and he reported the above news under the heading "Aleykhem's Home" as if "Aleykhem" were the last name of the writer's pseudonym. True, his first name was indeed Sholem, but his choice of the compound expression "Sholem Aleykhem" as a pen name carried a singular emotional significance -- to manifest his genuine fellowship with his readers, an ever-present reaching out, and a symbolic gesture of a strong and friendly handshake. Were the good rabbi minimally acquainted with Sholem Aleykhem's work, he would naturally know his famous monologues in which he portrayed himself as the verbatim chronicler of his characters. In these stories they addressed him familiarly with "you know, Mr. Sholem Aleykhem," but never, ever did he "address" himself in his own writing, through his characters, as "Mr. Aleykhem." You would think that a rabbi conducting a weekly digest of the Yiddish press ought to be sufficiently acquainted with the warm and homey expression "sholem aleykhem" and _not_ truncate it into two halves. P.S. I trust I am not trespassing on the specialized territory of my good friend and fellow Mendelyaner Louis (Leybl) Fridhandler who knows so much and writes so often about Sholem Aleykhem. After all, Sholem Aleykhem belongs to all of us. Zellig Bach 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Schizographia The same Digester referred to above did not, for some reason, digest the fact that when writing in English about Yiddish he can not and, indeed, should not use "mame-lashon" in place of mame-loshn. The two are simply not interchangeable. "Mame Lashon" is a sad hybrid spelling bordering on schizographia (when one spells a word with one pronunciation in mind but pronounces it in a different way). This touches on the wider question of why Yiddish-origin loanwords from Hebrew are practically always romanized in English dictionaries according to the modern Hebrew pronunciation and not in conformity with the Yiddish pronunciation from which sphere they were borrowed in the first place. If one were to be consistent and follow the rabbi's way of writing "mame-lashon" instead of mame-loshn, other Hebrew components in Yiddish would similarly have to suffer the same schizographic fate, such as "baal ha'bayis," for instance, for balebos. "baal agolah" for balegole, "bet hamidrash," for besmedresh, and so on and on. In such a process Yiddish would, of course, lose the specificity of the Ashkenaz way of forging and molding for hundreds of years its speech patterns, as well as the cadence and music of the spoken Yiddish. Two observations: One: Hebrew itself is called in Yiddish "loshn koydesh," not "lashon koydesh;" Two: in orthodox and conservative synagogues, and (I believe) also in reform temples the traditional greeting "Gut Shabes" is exchanged among the congregants after the Friday-night service, and not "Gut-shabath." Mame "lashon" is alien, cold, distant, and remote. I can imagine the following scene: To amuse her very young child, Yiddish once spruced all up in a totally unaccustomed outfit-- a bolero, Greek-toussled shoes with unusually high, Spanish dancers' stilleto heels, a Turkish wrap-around, and a dramatic hairdo supported by large, fancy combs -- and maqueraded before him as mame-"lashon." The child looked at her, got frightened, and started to whimper and cry. He did not recognized his mother -- mame loshn... Zellig Bach 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: A gathering in honor of Sholem Aleykhem Sholem Aleykhem's family -- grand-children, great- grandchildren, and loyal reader-friends -- observe the anniversary of his death with laughter, as he requested in his tsavo'e (Will) by reading some of his stories. This year this traditional get-together will take place on Sunday, May 7, 1995, 8 PM sharp, at The Brotherhood Synagogue, 28 Gramercy Park South, New York, N.Y. Seating room is limited. For reservations and directions write to Sholem Aleykhem's grand-daughter Bel Kaufman, 1020 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10028. Zellig Bach 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 15:52:50 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Yiddish without ayens? The French writer Georges Perec published years ago a book of almost 300 pages with not a single /e/ in it. It has now been translated into English with the same self-imposed restriction by the author, as in the original, again without a single /e/ in sight. Upon reading in the New York _Times Book Review_ about both the e-less original and its translation, I playfully asked myself, for curiosity's sake, if such a literary feat, completely without the letter ayen, (mostly pronounced [e]), were possible in Yiddish. Not that it would prove anything if it could be done; and it would not necessarily be a sign of paucity of Yiddish or a lack of its extraordinary rich and wonderful capacity to express itself if it could not be done. Still, my prompt silent answer to myself was a categorical "loy mit an alef" -- no! How could one write "Mendele" without the letter ayen? And how could one mention Bashevis-Singer, the only Yiddish writer who won the Nobel Prize, without ayens? As the letter /e/ is by far the most commom in both French and English, so it seems to me is Yiddish, abundantly and continually fed with ayens: the dear diminutives of children's names -- Beylke, Minke, Sorke; Arele, Motke, Zelke, and so on and on, ad infinitum; and all the hundreds of thousands of adjectives and nouns with ayens -- ekhte, erlekh, sheyne; hulye, gefeln, kheynevdik, munter, oso'be, o'tem, shpilkes, etc. etc., to mention but a very, very few for the sake of of a minuscule illustration of this class of words. And what about, when people drop in, the ever-ready urging invitations, in the form of questions: "Epes esn?" "A glezele tey?" or the constant chant of "SS Mayn Kind," the Jewish ocean-going steamship... And how about gehakte leber, knishes, kneydlekh, kreplekh, tsimes,and many other marvels of the Jewish kitchen that one could not possibly do without ayens? In short, I believe that Yiddish without ayens would not have a yidishn tam... Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.384 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