Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.011 May 22, 1995 1) More about "melupm kind" (Zellig Bach) 2) NYBC (Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz) 3) NYBC (Stephen Dowling) 4) Greed and lust (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 17:32:45 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: More about "melupm kind" I received several requests from Mendelyaners with reference to my post "Vos iz a melupm kind?" (5.003,5) for additional information and explanations. Herewith my reply: The letter "pey" was inadvertendly left out from the spelling of the word "melupm." (My new spelling check system, Thunder 7, does not [as yet...] read yidishe oysyes and thus missed to alert me to the lapse.) Uriel Weinreich's Dictionary has four (4) entries of the word in question: a) An initial entry: "mem, lamed, _alef_, pey, vov, shlos mem," with the direction to see "melupm;" b) "Melupm" -- the diacritic of the letter vov; c) "Melupm vov" -- the letter /u/; and d) "Melupm kind" -- defined as: 1) babe in the woods (that I criticised since it may also apply to an adult), and 2) tyro (a beginner in learning, a novice). The latter definition corresponds with Harkavy's "abecedarian." Harkavy's Dictionary (1928) has a similar initial entry: "mem, lamed, _komets alef_, pey, vov, shlos mem," with a similar direction, as in Weinreich, to see melupm. Note particularly the letters _alef and komets alef_ in both W's and H' initial entries, but *missing* in the other entries, and especially the last three letters in both (PUM). This gives us a clue to the meaning of the source word from which it originated. The word is "molepum," comes from targem-loshn (Aramaic), and means "full mouth." (In Hebrew 'mole-pe'.) Fullness of the mouth is a reference to the way one has to shape the lips and cheeks in order to pronounc a /u/ -- lips rounded and cheeks stretched and puffed up with air. Is it possible that the task to teach and train a very young child to make the /u/ sound was found to be overly complex, and therefore stood out in the teaching process to the point where the child at this stage was called a "melupm kind"? Since melupm in Yiddish has no vowels, I erroneously assumed it to be Hebrew, but I was unknowingly quite close. How the Targumic "molepum" came to sound in Yiddish melupm, I do not know. The dot in the center and to the right of the letter vov ("Melupm vov") is also called shurek, or shuruk vov. . I mentioned that the langer nun of the spelled "melupin" takes in transcription the sound of /m/. This is similar to the word "kheshbN," for example, which when transcribed becomes "kheshbM." This has to do with the fact that the letter 'nun' is a palatal consonant, and some of my learned colleagues in Mendele can explain the phenomenon of the shift to 'mem' better than I could do it. It does not seem to me, however, that the same phenomenon also applies to the shift from /m/ to /n/ as in yoM-tov (Hebrew) to yoNtev (Yiddish). Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 19:08:52 -0700 From: shoti@eworld.com Subject: NYBC A nayer kapore hindl oyf der ydisher gas? Khob dem ayndruk az yo - di yidishe gas hot a nayer kapore hindl. Oyb shoyn oysforshn: vos hert men - un vos kumt for - in di azoy gerufene dakh organizatzies in NY? Oder andere shtet?, vos kumt for in di azoy gerufene sotsialistishe institutsies fun di amolike "brider un shvester fun arbet un noit", tzi farbandnikes - oder reshtlekh fun farbandnikes? zenen di ongeshtelte in di organizatzies mitn vigele in sotsializm mit velkhe me shtoltzirt azoy shtark - mit fule F/T or P/T ongeshtelte ongeshlosene in unions? Tshikave tzu visn. In Argentine flegt men zogn: ven me nemt arop a dekl fun a top ken amol aroyzkumen nit kayn gutn reyakh un...aleyn zikh onshmirn. Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 02:25:56 -0400 From: stdowling@aol.com Subject: NYBC I want to comment on something that someone wrote about the high prices that the NYBC charges for its books. To assume that because they get the books donated doesn't mean that they should sell them cheaply. The NYBC has to support a large network to guarantee that the books get collected, catalogued and distributed. It costs a great deal. Staff time, space, the truck and publicity all factor into it. They are the only search service that I know of for used Yiddish books. They provide an invaluable service and we would all be much poorer if they didn't do it. Their prices are determined by supply. I know of many cases where they charge peanuts for some of their titles and others where I feel they sometimes overcharge. It is all part of doing business. I'm not so sure that I mind the idea of a high value being placed on Yiddish books. I can think of far too many cases where they are thrown out. I know a little about what I write. I am the manager of the Jewish Book Center of the Workmen's Circle and to some extent am in competition with them. It is viewed as a friendly one on both sides and I respect them a great deal for what they do. Stephen Dowling Brooklyn, NY 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 11:17:37 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Greed and Lust I've just read Jack Feldman's posting about his search for a rare Russian-Ukrainian-Yiddish mathematical dictionary, a book that got away from him twenty years ago. I could not help but respond to the poignancy within that plea, for deep within Yiddishkeit's love of learning and our love of the oysyelakh, that world of words, is a powerful greed for the amassing of books, for possessing them. And when a rare, truly beloved one gets away, we can lust for it for a full twenty years or more. I extend my sympathetic wishes that he rediscover it one day. Is there a Mendelnik amongst us who has not suffered at least one such loss? Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.011 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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