Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.189 December 10, 1995 1) Long and short vowels (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Intonation (Mikhl Herzog) 3) History of klezmer music (Ruvn Millman) 4) Yiddish and language loyalty (Paul Ritterband) 5) Bekeshe vs. kapote (Zavi Beer) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Dec 95 12:59 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Long and short vowels Bob Poe's interest in long and short vowels could best be satisfied by reading Chapters 7 and 9 of Max Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_. As for the "scenario" in which he attempts to reconstruct the process of phonological development, he makes some good inferences, assuming that he is actually starting from ground zero. But, why start from ground zero? America has already been discovered! A new voyage of discovery can be fun but, it would be safer to take earlier discoveries into account. For example, go to: i) Max Weinreich, _History of the Yiddish Language_, Chicago, 1980, Chapters 7 and 9. ii) Marvin Herzog, _The Yiddish Language in Northern Poland: Its Geography and History_, Bloomington and The Hague, 1965, Chapters 5 and 6. iii) _Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry_, Volume I, Tuebingen, 1992, Editor's Summary, pp. 34-35. Finally, to one of Bob Poe's questions: It is, in fact, the case that in part of Southeastern Yiddish, the words are _ile_ 'all' and _ilemul_ 'always', but there is no reason to think that they are derived from _ale_. As in a number of other cases in Yiddish, we may have to posit a proto-doublet from which to derive the known variants (as, for example, the variants, Northeastern Yiddish _klaybn_ and Southern Yiddish _kloybn_/_klubn_ 'to gather'). They are not derivable from one another. (If anyone has access to the _Deutscher Sprachatlas_, please check the map for _alle_. Is there, perchance a recorded German variant that would help a account for Yiddish _ile_? Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Dec 95 12:59 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Intonation In my recent message to Philologos, which he was kind enough to publish in full, I posed 6 explicit questions. I've only read his reply to three of them. I know that there's more to come, and I wonder if he addresses a 7th, implicit question, unstated in the hope that he'd pick up on it: the origin of the three sentence sequence, which I repeated with different intonation patterns-- a) You were _right_! I was _wrong_! I should _apologize_! b) _You_ were right? _I_ was wrong? _I_ should apologize? The setting is a meeting of the Comintern in the Kremlin. Stalin rushes in, gleefully waving a telegram which he had just received from Trotsky. It read "you were right stop I was wrong stop I should apologize" Saying "I've been vindicated," Stalin read, aloud, "*You* were right! *I* was wrong! *I* should apologize! Trotsky." "Wait a minute," said Kaganovich, his brother-in-law, the only Yiddish-speaking member of the Comintern, turning the whole thing on its head, "let *me* read it to you: "*You* were right? *I* was wrong? *I* should apologize? Trotsky." Need I say more? Only that the study of Yiddish intonation, the comparative study of the intonation patterns of various Jewish languages, and of both in the context of the intonation patterns of _lernen_, of _gemore nign_, etc. is one of the major jobs that begs to be done before it's too late. The ability of certain Yiddish intonation contours, like those of gemore-nign, to convey meaning independently of the words that accompany them, is a unique feature of the language. (As an example, take Uriel Weinreich's article on the so-called Rise-Fall Intonation: "This is coffee?" It takes a Yiddish (influenced) speaker or a New Yorker to read that one properly--declarative word-order with interrogative intonation. Or, closer to home, remember the passage in Eliyohu Juni's recent eloquent, if controversial posting, which he marked for reading with the appropriate gemore intonation? How could anyone know what the appropriate intonation pattern was? Because of the nature of the argument. In other words, if we know the nature of the argument, we can convey it with the intonation pattern alone; if we know the intonation pattern, we can infer the nature of the argument. Take a so-called _kal vekhoymer_, for example. Eliyohu, this is a job for you. I'm sure that it would earn you some _oylem-habe_. Enough for today; for the month, perhaps. Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 23:32:07 -0500 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Itzik Gottesman - History of Klezmer Me lozt visn vos... D"r Itzik Gottesman asistent profesor fun Yidish shprakh un kultur, Universitet fun Texas in Austin, gevezene shef redator fun _Yugntruf_ zhurnal vet gebn a letsye vegn: "Di geshikhte bekitser fun klezmer muzik" mit muzikale dogmoes... dem 24stn Detsember, 1:00 far nakht, bay der Sholem Aleykhem kultureler tsenter 3301 Bainbridge Ave. un di 208ste gas, Bronx NY Mitn khoshevn shtulmentsh: D"r Mordkhe Schaechter Fort mit der "D" ban tsu der letser stantsye oder... Fort mit der "#4" ban tsu stantsye Mosholu Informatsye, meld zikh tsu tsu: (718) 231-7905 *********************** Please note... Dr. Itzik Gottesman assistant professor of Yiddish language and culture, University of Texas at Austin, former editor in chief of the _Yugntruf_ magazine will deliver a lecture on: "A short history of klezmer music" with musical examples... December 24th, 1:00 PM, at the Sholem Aleykhem Center 3301 Bainbridge Ave. and 208th St., Bronx NY With chairperson: Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter Take the "D" train to the last stop or... Take the "#4" train to Mosholu Information, contact: (718) 231-7905 Ruvn Millman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 12:00:22 +0200 (WET) From: uap@soc.haifa.ac.il Subject: Yiddish and language loyalty I am interested in the question of Yiddish language loyalty, in comparative context, as a way of evaluating Jewish acculturation to America. I have gone through Joshua Fishman's Yiddish in America and his Language Loyalty and remain perplexed. [my limitation, not JF!] A key problem of course is the census question on mother tongue, introduced in 1910 and routinely repeated thereafter, except I believe for 1950. While this is the best comparative datum, we are left with a great deal of subjectivity and ideology. I would be grateful for references to the historical and social scientific literature as well as personal wisdom from various sources. Paul Ritterband 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 6:48:28 +0000 From: szbeer@mailbox.syr.edu Subject: Bekesha vs. kapote A couple of months ago, in response to the "khopt im" discussion, I posted a note using the word "bekeshe", denoting the long black khasidishe coat. Another expression is "kapote". Are these two terms interchangeable? If so, why two terms? Are they sectional? Sylvan (Zavi) Beer ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.189