Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.046 August 4, 1996 1) Non-standard Yiddish (Ronald Florence) 2) Non-standard Yiddish (Kalman Weiser) 3) Dutzn un irtzn (Doodie Ringelblum) 4) Yiddish names (Miki Safadi) 5) Yiddish names (Zachary Baker) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 17:35:19 -0400 From: ron@mlfarm.com Subject: Instructional materials for non-standard Yiddish [Regarding Eliyahu Juni's query (6.045)]: There is always H.E. Goldin, _The Yiddish Teacher_ (Hebrew Publishing Company, 1993), in the same format and style as _Shalom Aleichem_, which is used to teach Hebrew to adults. Ronald Florence Stonington, CT 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 18:03:52 -0400 (EDT) From: kiw2@columbia.edu Subject: Learning non-standard Yiddish In response to Eliyahu Juni's query: S.A. Birnbaum, son of the famous Nathan Birnbaum and himself a great Yiddish linguist and Hebrew paleographer, was firmly opposed to "klal-yidish" on both ideological and practical grounds. He denounced SYO (Standard Yiddish Orthography), which is based on "klal yidish" (which is in turn based on Vilna pronunciation) as "neo-maskilic," "heretical," and unreflective of the pronunciation of three-quarters of Yiddish speakers. His "Yiddish: A Survey and Grammar" (University of Toronto, 1979) provides instruction in what Birnbaum calls "Southern Yiddish," i.e. "Polish" Yiddish, although he offers notes explaining differences between it and the other dialects. Further, he employs in the book his own interdialectal orthographic and transliteration systems, allowing the reader to pronounce words according to any of the three major dialects. Birnbaum also published a spelling dictionary for his orthography some time in the '30s. Kalman Weiser New York, NY 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 21:31:49 +1000 (EST) From: doodie@melbpc.org.au Subject: Dutzn un irtzn Some years ago, when I did the Yiddish summer program at Colombia University, the advanced Yiddish class was castigated by the professor for addressing each other and occasionally him by _du_ instead of _ir_. He stated that when he was a student it was inconceivable to address the teacher in that way, and that even school colleagues used _ir_ except with their close friends. He felt our use of _du_ was a reflection of "thinking" in English since "you" is used both in singular and plural, and "thou" has effectively disappeared. However having grown up in Yiddish circles in Melbourne, Australia I think _du_ is used almost exclusively and acceptably by everyone and of all ages ie by both Australian born and European-born, old and young. If anything my impression is that _du_ is more acceptable because of the relative informality of relationships now rather than any grammatical transposition. In the Melbourne context this might be because virtually the entire Yiddish speaking community arrived together post-war and in many ways regard each other and all their off-spring as one extended family or it may just be a reflection of the late 20th century. But I would be interested to know if this is a common experience elsewhere in the world, and whether anyone knows if other languages have undergone a similar "deformalisation" - eg is _vous_ more likely to be _tu_ in 1990s France than it was in the 1930s? Doodie Ringelblum 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 16:12:09 -0700 From: msafadi@ucla.edu Subject: Yiddish names A fraynt fregt, fun vanen shtamt zayn nomen, Kugelman? Hot es tsu ton mit essenvarg oder mit a koyl? Miki Safadi 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 15:38:27 -0500 (EST) From: yivo1@metgate.metro.org Subject: Yiddish names Here are two sources for Jewish -- and Yiddish -- personal names, both of them in-print: Harkavy, Alexander. Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary. A reprint of the 1928 expanded second edition. New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; Schocken Books, 1988. See pp. [525]-530, "Fartseykhenish fun yidishe nemen. Mit zeyer iberleyg oyf english." Gorr, Shmuel. Jewish Personal names: Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive Forms. Edited by Chaim Freedman. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1992. (Rabbi Gorr's book includes a few questionable etymologies.) There are a number of dictionaries of Jewish surnames, but the state of the art for that genre is represented by Alexander Beider's two books: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1993. Covers the 15 gubernii of the Russian Pale of Settlement (i.e., excluding Congress Poland). A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1996. Covers the 10 gubernii of Congress Poland (= Kingdom of Poland). Each of Beider's volumes includes several thousand surnames that the author encountered in various types of lists, along with etymologies for, and geographic distributions of these names. The two dictionaries also include extensive introductions, of a substantial scholarly nature. The author, a computer analyst (and Soviet emigre) who lives in Paris, is said to be working on a companion volume that will cover Jewish surnames in Galicia. (N.b., As he points out in his introductions, many surnames are formed on the basis of personal names.) Zachary Baker ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.046 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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