Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.223 January 19, 1996 1) Pluperfect (Ellen Prince) 2) Pluperfect (Rick Gildemeister) 3) Columbia/YIVO Yiddish Summer Program (Yankl Salant) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 13:29:02 EST From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Pluperfect thanks, dovid, for the long post. i see i didn't make myself clear. (or maybe you didn't. :) ) first, i don't know why you say olsvanger uses _gevest_ as an 'invariant auxiliary in the pluperfect' -- all the tokens of _gevest_ i see are in the past *conditional* (i.e. with _voltn_). for the pluperfect, i've found about 6 tokens and he uses _geven_ and _gehat_ as one would expect, e.g.: zey hobn beyde gehat gedint in soldatn, hobn zey gekent shisn. (RP51) 'they had both served as soldiers, so they knew how to shoot.' az der yid iz geven avekgegangen, fregt der toyber dem zun:... (RP168) 'when the guy had gone away, the deaf man asks his son:...' but now to more serious misunderstandings. of course you're right that SOME northeast yiddish (ney) speakers have leveled the hobn/zayn distinction in general. obviously, they are therefore of no relevance whatsoever to the form of the pluperfect i'm looking at and so i haven't considered them at all. the ney speakers i was referring to are those like olsvanger who still have a hobn/zayn distinction in general AND keep the earlier pluperfect, with _geven_ as the past participle of _zayn_, e.g. the second example cited above, rather than use _gehat_ with both _hobn_ and _zayn_ verbs in the pluperfect. ok, is this clear now? sorry for leaving so much to inference. >If being a litvak is significant to auxiliary selection, and given that >_some_ levelling in _some_ areas of Lite and Vaysrusland has taken place, >wouldn't we dafke expect instances of _gehat_ with _zayn_-verbs? [i know noyekh doesn't like such quotes -- but this question is too complicated to paraphrase! zayt mir moykhl.] this is a slight restatement of what i just said: so far as i can tell, those ney speakers who retain a hobn/zayn distinction in general do NOT use _gehat_ with _zayn_ verbs in the pluperfect! it's the central yiddish speakers (and maybe southeast?) that do. which is very interesting and in fact fits in with my little story that what's going on is a syntactic reanalysis, not a lexical confusion. thanks for bringing it to my attention! ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Jan 96 11:04:38 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Gewesst/gevezt The Olsvanger book [see 5.216, 5.218] was first published in German. I have a copy which was given to me as a gift by colleagues at NYU who knew that I had a real interest in Yiddish (I also cataloged most of their old Yiddish newspapers and perio- dicals). The supplementary material and footnotes are in German, texts are in Yiddish. The book claims to use Northeastern Yiddish. "Oy" is rendered ej. Double s is used to render Yiddish samekh, and single s is for zayen. W is used for v, so you get "gewesst". There are some gender conflicts, and I think the texts don't use neuter, so you get "di kop" instead of der. The hobn/zayn usage is like the klal-shprakh. But the gewesst always attracted my attention since my first excursions into Yiddish were I.B. Singer (btw, Der knekht was the first Yiddish novel I ever read, and I highly recommend it to beginners), and he uses "iz gehat gegangen". In Dutch you get geweest, and in Schwyzerduetsch you get gzi (gesein). Is there an attested Yiddish use of gezayn, I wonder? Rick Gildemeister 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 12:43:56 -0500 From: yankl191@aol.com Subject: Yiddish Summer Program tayere mendelyaner--ot iz undzer hayorike prese-reklame vegn der kolombye/yivo-yidish-zumer-program. zayt azoy gut un kumt shtudirn yidish bay undz in nyu-york. oyb nisht, shikt andere. a sheynem dank. yankl salant 1996 Columbia/YIVO Yiddish Summer Program accepting applications New York City--January 9, 1996--Applications are now being accepted for the Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture, which will take place on the Columbia University campus from June 24 to August 2, 1996. The program, jointly sponsored by the Max Weinreich Center of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Columbia University, is a six-week, non-matriculating, three-credit college course offered on three levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced. The program proper will be preceded by an optional two-week review session for intermediate and advanced students beginning on June 10. Elementary students with no reading or writing knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet are required to attend a one-day reading and writing workshop on Sunday, June 23. People worldwide have discovered the importance of Yiddish as a key to understanding a significant component of the Jewish heritage. Every summer for the last twenty-eight years, several dozen people from diverse backgrounds, professional pursuits and places as far-ranging as Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Argentina, China and Australia make their way to New York City to study Yiddish in the world's first and most acclaimed, college-level Yiddish-language program. Many summer program students have gone on to become fellows of the Max Weinreich Center, an accredited institute for advanced study of East European and American Jewish history and culture. Others have entered graduate programs in Jewish studies offered by major universities throughout North America, Europe and Israel. The program has thus served as an essential stepping stone in the careers of such prominent scholars in the field of Yiddish as Janet Hadda, Michael Stanislawski, Jack Kugelmass and Irena Klepfisz. Participants in the program not only learn the fundamentals of Yiddish grammar and read Yiddish literary classics, but also explore the riches of East European and American Jewish culture through lectures in Yiddish and English, Yiddish films, Yiddish conversation groups and a variety of workshops in translation, theater, folksong and traditional dance. As a means of expanding the opportunities for verbal practice and creating a feeling of camaraderie, out-of-towners are given the option of staying in single rooms in Yidish hoyz, a Yiddish dormitory suite on campus. Excursions to Jewish points of interest in and outside of New York City add depth and immediacy to subjects covered in the classroom. Dr. Allan Nadler, Director of Research at YIVO, has called the program "an intensive, intellectually stimulating experience, whose rewards remain throughout one's lifetime." For an application including information on housing and partial scholarships, call, fax or write to Jeffrey Salant, Director of Yiddish Language Programs, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 555 West 57th Street Suite 1100, New York, NY 10019, (212) 246-6080, fax (212) 292-1892. The deadline for scholarship applications is March 28. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.223