Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.130 October 2, 1995 1) Oyf/af (Marti Krow-Lucal) 2) Oyf/af (Arre Komar) 3) Kultur Kongres Program (Ruvn Millman) 4) Yiddish teacher needed (Jo Ann Douglas) 5) Yiddish lives in many ways (Hershl Hartman) 6) Rivke Basman in New York (Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz) 7) Language tone: Yiddish/German (Leah Zazulyer) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 17:03:21 -0400 From: kromobile@aol.com Subject: The Internationale - oyf/af In my grandparents' book "dos revolutsionere rusland" (New York: yidisher sotsialistisher federatsiye in amerika, 1917) I find this version of the first two lines of the Internationale: shtet [shin-tes-ayen-hey-tes] oyf, ir ale, ver vi shklafen, in hunger leben muz, in noyt! The refrain is as follows in this version: dos vet zayn shoyn der letster un entshidener shtrayt; mit dem internatsional shtet oyf, ir arbeyt-layt! I too would like to know, from a native speaker (singer?), how "shtet oyf" would be pronounced. Marti Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 16:48:29 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Af vs. oyf and related questions I was surprised to learn that the pronunciation of oyf as written is regarded as nerdish. When I think back to my mother's speach it is true that she generally said "afn tish" or " mir darfn fri ufvakhn" (zi iz fun minske gubernya, belarus gekumen). However I have always had the Éàüûimpression that that was colloquial speach. As I recall, when she wantedßú to speak "proper" she would use "oyf dem tish" or "Ihr darft fri oyfvakhn". I know that she couldn't have learned that in school since she never attended a day of school in her life (and was rather proud of the fact that despite that she was literate in Russian, Yiddish and English, each requiring a different set of scripts ..both printed and cursive.) My question is, is the native Yiddish speaker generally conscious of the existence of a "proper" Yiddish despite the fact that he almost always speaks colloquially his native dialect? Or is Yiddish really _only_ a collection of related dialects which the modern academic is attempting to codify into a standard language? And if the latter is the case, by what criteria can this be accomplished (since there has never been a Jewish national state with a sponsored Yiddish dialect)? Of course if in the back of a native speaker's mind he is able to distinguish colloquial from "proper" that would be more than half the battle. A related question which I have posed on earlier ocassions, but never received a reply: How does the academic sponsored Yiddish dialect taught at universities relate to the language spoken in the surviving native Yiddish communities of the khasidim? And in case of a conflict shouldn't the native speakers of the living language carry far more weight than the academics (unless of course the speakers of the living language concede that they are really speaking coloquially, and they recognize the existence of a "proper" Yiddish")? From the resounding silence I seem to have heard whenever I have raised this question in the past I get the impression that no one in our khevre either knows or cares how the living language is being employed in the real world. Is this an unfair or untrue characterization of our current situation? I beg enlightenment. Arre Komar 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:23:57 -0400 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Kultur Kongres Program Der "Aleveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-Kongres" shtelt for a program mit gast redners vos veln redn af Yidish. Men derlangt a spetsyel hanokhe far studentn un mitglid fun Yugntruf. Far nokh informatsye shraybt ruvn@aol.com. Der Program: - Dr. Arthur Herzberg: "Muzeyen fun der shoah? Vos darf men dort gedenken." - Dr. Berl Zumoff: Araynfir. - Moshe Bear: Singt lider fun Yidishn repertuor - Miron Galperin: Pyano - Yonia Fain: Forzitser **************************************************** The "Congress for Jewish Culture" presents a program of guest speakers who will make their presentations in Yiddish. A special discount is being offered for students and members of Yugntruf. For more information write: ruvn@aol.com. The Program: - Dr. Arthur Herzberg: "Holocaust museums? What should they remember." - Dr. Berl Zumoff: Introductions. - Moshe Bear: Sings songs from his Yiddish repertoire. - Miron Galperin: Piano. - Yonia Fain: Chair. Ruvn Millman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Oct 1995 07:57:22 -0400 From: k9kastle@aol.com Subject: We need a Yiddish teacher for our children! Our small secular Yiddish Shul needs a Yiddish teacher to work with our children every Saturday morning from 10 to 1. We meet in lower Manhattan, usually in someone's home. Our children range from 6 to 17 years old, and we split into groups by age and ability to learn music, culture, history, holidays, customs, and, with someone's help, Yiddish. If you are interested, please E-Mail me at: K9Kastle@aol.com., and I'll put you in touch with our director. We are the Chaike Klebansky "Little Mittle Shul," we are very small, and very heymish. Thanks. Jo Ann Douglas 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 13:12:04 -0400 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Yiddish lives in many ways A Yiddish-impaired (but, he insists, not Yiddish-deprived) friend, Milton Riback, posted the following to me under the subject, "News from Borough Park": "A friend from there told us of a new baby in the neighborhood. She was named Sheyndele--after her grandmother. "The grandmother's name was Stephanie!" Hershl Hartman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 12:43:30 -0700 From: shoti@eworld.com Subject: Rivke Basman in New York An intimer kabolas ponim far der bavuster dikhterin Rivke Basman fun Israel vet forkumen in New York, Fraytik dem 6tn October 11 in derfri in 1133 Broadway (rog 26te gas) oifn 2tn shtok. Rivke, eyene fun di grinders fun "Yung-Israel" vet leyenen ire lider. Der tzunoyfkum vert aranzhirt fun de journal "Yiddishe Kultur", mir farbetn aikh. Araynagang fray, lost unds visn az ir kumt, tel.: (212) 243-1304, nit shpeter vi donershtik. Shoshana Balaban-Wolkowicz 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Oct 1995 09:50:41 -0400 (EDT) From: watson@uhura.cc.rochester.edu Subject: Language tone: Yiddish/German In the process of translating the collected poetry of a Yiddish writer, I came upon one poem which survived only in a German translation done under I know not what circumstances. Or so I thought. Later I acquired a Yiddish version of the same poem. They are substantially the same poem, with a few line differences. I have no data about the actual chronology of either, nor can I ever obtain any. The poem, in either version, is substantially influenced by Rilke in tone and subject matter... I do not know German. But I know that the translation I have is a good literal one...as is the Yiddish translation. What fascinates me is the difference in the two literal translations, tone wise, though I can recognize that they stem from basically the same text. But since I do not know if one or the other was chronologically prior, and/or a revision, I have come to wonder about the larger question of tone--or is there a better word?-- in the two languages. The closest analogy I can think of is the difference in English between the use of Latinate and Anglo-Saxon word synonyms. But that is a misleading analogy in ways too, since it is not only the difference in the word choices but in the sentence structure I refer to--i.e. the emphasis points and logical sense. I think of a comment A German Jewish psychoanalyst once made to me about his reason for wanting to learn Yiddish: something about the German word for "ambivalence" (?) and the Yiddish, which literally means, he said, that which one turns around inside oneself (?). I'd appreciate any thoughts on this fairly esoteric subject! Thanks. Leah Zazulyer ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.130