Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.028 June 20, 1995 1) Transcription and self-respect (Bob Hoberman) 2) A question for the language teachers (Daniella HarPaz) 3) A sakh (Harvey Spiro) 4) A sakh (Martin Davis) 5) Lobuz, pripetshik, zhe (Michael Falk) 6) Wexler (Khayem Bochner) 7) Friends of Yiddish, London, England (Roger Harris) 8) Sotn in Gorey (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 9) Translators and translations (Fishl Kutner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 13:57:49 -0400 (EDT) From: rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu Subject: Transcription and self-respect The Journal of the American Oriental Society (vol. 114, 1994) recently printed the Presidential Address by the president of the society, Jacob Lassner, a distinguished scholar of medieval Islam. In it he told a charming anecdote about his father's attitude to his studying such an impractical subject as Near Eastern Studies, in which it's clear that he spoke Yiddish with his father and has a great deal of respect for him. It was dismaying to see how he wrote the Yiddish: "Meyn zun," he said, "vaks'd eyn idyot!" The "ey" is inspired by German spelling (I think), and certainly the "eyn" where his father must have said /an/ is from German, and the silly apostrophe-d in vaks'd is from English with not a moment's thought given to the function of the suffix. He would never in a million years be so careless with transcription of Arabic! Bob Hoberman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 10:10:10 -0500 (EST) From: harpaz@binah.cc.brandeis.edu Subject: A question for the language teachers Tayere Yiddish lerers, Ikh farinteresir zikh in ayere pedagogishe teoriyes benigeye lernen mit "koledszh yidish". Vos meynt ir veygn dem seyder fun di kapitlen/lektsiyes? Dos heyst tsi lernt ir, in algemeyn, lektsiye nokh lektsiye punkt vi vaynraykh hot zay geshribn in bukh, oder lernt ir spetsifishe gramatishe lektsiyes frier/shpeter? Lemoshl, normal lern ikh lektsiye 15 ("future tens") a sakh frier. Daniella HarPaz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jun 19 11:23:54 1995 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: A sakh The word sakh is part of the Hebraic element in Yidish. A hint of the word's Hebraic origin is the lack of a pasakh-alef as a vowel, which one would expect in a Yiddish word with Germanic or Slavic roots. In Modern Hebrew, sakh means "sum," i.e., total quantity. I believe that its most frequent use in Hebrew is the expression "sakh-hakol," meaning total or summary. The spelling in both languages is samekh-khaf. Harvey Spiro Vienna, Virginia 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 95 17:38:41 EDT From: davism@cs.nyu.edu Subject: A sakh Zev bar-Lev writes concerning "a sakh": > sakh is hebrew for "sum", esp. as in sakh ha-kol "sum of all -- sum > total". Be that as it may, my parents (from Poland) certainly used it to mean "lots", "a sakh gelt" - lots of money "Ir zolt hoben a sakh nakhes fun dos kind." - May you have lots of nakhes (untranslateable) from the child. Martin Davis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 95 14:18:00 EDT From: falkm@imb.lan.nrc.ca Subject: Lobuz, pripetshik, zhe As a speaker of yiddish *and Polish, I want to respond to three of the "kashes" posed by Henry Mullish and Szalom-Lew Korbman in 5.026. 'Lobuz' is a very common Yiddish borrowing from an equally common Polish word whose meaning covers a fairly wide spectrum of mild to serious misbehaviour. 'Der kleine lobuz' could be "the little rascal", while 'der groise lobuz' is "the scoundrel". It is not mentioned in Weinreich's dictionary. 'Pripetshik' is not derived from the river Pripet, but from a Russian or Ukrainian "small cooking stove" (see Weinreich's dictionary). Mlotek's collection of Yiddish songs "Mir trogn a gezang" translates 'ofn pripetshik brent a fayerl' as "a flame burns in the fireplace". Needless to say, it was probably a small wood stove and nothing as fancy as an urban fireplace. The word has the diminutive ending and comes from the Slav root "piek" meaning "to heat, heat up, bake". In my childhood in Warsaw the corresponding Polish "przypiecek" was a brick ledge built into the side of an urban coal-burning fireplace, where a cat (or a small child or both) could curl up and catch a warm nap on a cold winter day. 'Zhe' is also a borrowing from Polish or Russian, in both of which it is a particle commonly placed after the imperative form of a verb. In Polish it has a sense of general encouragement, and this is preserved in 'zet-zhe kinderlekh', 'gedenkt-zhe teyere' and 'zog-zhe nokh ein mol'. Yiddish 'zog-zhe' corresponds to Polish 'powiedz-ze' (say, please say, please tell) etc. Zay-zhe ale gezint und shtark! Michael Falk Halifax, Canada 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 95 17:16:08 -0400 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Wexler Arre Komar writes: > i gather that a thesis was presented by Wexler that Yiddish is really a > Slavic language which was "relexified" into German. Is there any merit to > that point of view, or is it just narishkayt? When this subject came up on Mendele about 2 years ago, I made a point of looking up Wexler's paper on this subject in IJSL. My considered opinion, as someone with a Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics and with a fairly strong background in the history of Slavic, is that there is no merit to Wexler's arguments. An extended critique of Wexler's paper by Edward Stankiewicz (a very important name in Slavic Linguistics) was passed on to Mendele by Victor Bers; it should be possible to get it from the archives. I doubt that it's worthwhile going into this subject again at length on Mendele ... Khayem Bochner 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 23:22:41 +0100 (BST) From: rwsh@dircon.co.uk Subject: Friends of Yiddish, London, England Mendelniks who intend visiting London may like to know about the 'Friends of Yiddish'. This group meets each Saturday afternoon at 3.00 pm. at the Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London E1, in the heart of what was once the Jewish East End of London. Meetings end at 4.30 pm. There are readings and songs accompanied by a guitarist. The 'Friends of Yiddish' is led by Majer Bogdanski, a fluent speaker, singer and writer of Yiddish. The nearest Under- ground station is Aldgate East (Metropolitan and District lines). (Friends of Yiddish: +44 (0)171-488 3092). Much earlier on Saturday you may also like to attend the Shacharit service at the nearby Bevis Marks Synagogue, Bevis Marks, London EC3. The entrance is through an archway into a courtyard. This beautiful Sephardi synagogue was completed in 1701 and will in a few years celebrate its 300th anniversary. It is possible that you may hear Majer Bogdanski (Friends of Yiddish) taking part in the service. Shacharit is at 8.30 am. (Bevis Marks Synagogue office: +44 (0)171-626 1274.) Roger Harris 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 23:32:01 -0600 (CST) From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Sotn in Gorey Our local leynkrayzl will be starting to read Bashevis' Sotn in Gorey, and I'm stumped by the title of the first section "Sheynis [shin-nun-tav] t"kh [tav"ches] in Gorey." This is obviously some date--the translation has "1648 in Goray"--but it isn't in the usual Hebrew date form. Will someone please enlighten me as to how you get 1648 from "Sheynis tav"ches." A sheynem dank in foroys. Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 09:29:34 -0700 From: fishl@well.com Subject: Translators and translations Der Bay has been acting as a clearinghouse for translators and those seeking translations of Yiddish letters, memoirs and books. Much of this has been for genealogical purposes. While suggestions for both parties have been given, it is time for an agreed upon set of criteria of pricing, modes of transmission, standards, and mediation. There is no fee to either party for being listed. The financial arrangements are personal and may be kept private. The problems to be addressed are: how are the charges to be determined, will there be partial payments as submissions are made, how will the material be transmitted, in what format is the translation to be sent, how will disagreements be resolved. Here are the current metahods of operation. All material must be sent as copy and not original (in rare cases a visit may be made for items which cannot be copied). One must never, never leave originals out of oneUs possession. Currently, a list of several translators is given, varying in ability, price range, and ability to send online, typed, handwritten, or oral report. For long manuscripts several representative pages may be sent for an estimate to determine the cost and the translators style/performance. It, likewise, affords the translator an idea of the degree of difficulty. Long manuscripts should have partial payments, at agreed upon periods upon periods, after translations have been sent. A clearinghouse is also kept on problems encountered by both translators and submitters. In cases of disagreement a mediator should be available, and in major works one chosen by each party, and a third selected by the other two mediators. Please send suggestions and requests to Fishl online. For AOL subscribers use fishlfishl. Philip (Fishl) Kutner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.028 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. 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