Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.055 September 4, 1996 1) Basque and Yiddish (Ellen Prince) 2) Basque and Yiddish (Bernard S. Greenberg) 3) Basque and Yiddish (Sylvia Schildt) 4) Hebrew College's new on-line courses (Nathan Ehrlich) 5) Spinoza and Yiddish (Hershl Hartman) 6) Yiddish women's "work songs" (Jeri Fogel) 7) Rhyming disctionary (Alan Zaremba) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 03 Sep 1996 14:59:00 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: yiddish and basque i thank dan leeson for pointing out the _most_ hilarious thing i've ever seen on the web! for those of you who missed it, check out: http://www.islandnet.com/~edonon/homepage.html and, dan, no, he presents _no_ evidence of a relationship between yiddish and basque. in fact, given what we know about sound change in each of those languages, he winds up providing stellar evidence for _no_ relationship (as tho we needed new evidence...). ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 14:53:28 -0400 From: bsg@basistech.com Subject: Basque and Yiddish In Mendele 6.054, Dan Leeson writes that the author is not a nutcase, and (Dan) confesses his own ignorance of Basque. It took me about 40 seconds to appreciate this page, which is obviously an ingenious joke. Assuming, as I do, that the author's knowledge of Basque is legitimate, he has gone through great pain to find Basque phrases that sound like Yiddish ones and bear some hint of the Yiddish phrase's meaning. This is a favorite game of logophiles, as when I once described a former financial aide of mine as "Ba'al oni" "Master of my strength/wealth" ... Unless, of course, Dan's post is tongue-in-cheek, too... Bernard S. Greenberg 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 20:31:14 -0400 From: creativa@charm.net Subject: Basque and Yiddish Ikh hob gemeynt az es iz sheyn Purim in September ven ikh hob geleyent "The Origin of Yiddish" fun Edo Nyland vos Dan Leeson (vol.54) hot undz geratn opzukhn. Halb shleferik, vayl ikh hob a gantze nakht mitn kompyuter gehorevet, hob ikh dem veb-mokem gefunen. Eyb dos iz a shpas, vos makht khoyzik fun di lingvistn, lingvistish zhargon un metode, un azoy vayter, iz dos epes an ersht-klasish arbet. me ken platzn fun gelekhter. Eyb ober, khas v'khollileh, der mentsh iz ernst, vundert zikh mir vos dan leeson nemt im un zayne "gedanken" on far ernst. Mersnts zaynen di verter fun der reshime verter fun loshn koydish, un es iz zeyer gring zey oystzutaytshn, identifitzirn zeyer etimologie. Ikh volt gern gevolt leyenen vos undzer eygener "sholem aleykhem" - dovid herskovic - volt fun dem gemakht. Sylvia Schildt Baltimore 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 14:55:08 -0400 (EDT) From: nehrlich@lynx.dac.neu.edu Subject: Hebrew College's new on-line courses Do you know of anyone who whould like to teach an on-line Yiddish literature course? Nathan Ehrlich 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 17:04:57 -0400 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Spinoza and Yiddish Further to David Goldberg's reference to Khayim Sloves' play _Borekh fun amsterdam_, (Baruch [Spinoza] of Amsterdam), it should be noted that the 1960s NY performances he mentions were staged by the _nayer yidisher teyater_ (New Yiddish Theatre), successor to the legendary Artef (arbeter teyater farband--Worker's Theatre Alliance) and the _yidisher teyater ansambl_ (Yiddish Theatre Ensemble). (See Zilbertsvayg, Zalmen, _leksikon fun yidishn teyater_ Vol. 6, 5891-5895.) Hershl Hartman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 19:57:24 -0600 From: fogel1@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Subject: Yiddish women's "work songs" Hello! A local women's chorus here in Urbana, Illinois, is looking for women's "work songs" in Yiddish--meaning more or less any song about or by women doing work, in the house or out of it (I count as examples "Der Fodem", where the speaker is a seamstress, and "Di Trayengl-Fayer," a dirge written after the famous sweatshop fire that killed so many young girls). I have been through a few Yiddish song books in search of such songs, and have found very many beautiful lullabies and wedding songs and lots of humorous betrothal and courtship songs, but not as many "working" songs as I was hoping. Can anyone point me to some of these songs, suggest a collection, or give me ideas about composers, etc.? Thank you very much in advance... Jeri Fogel 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 08:24:35 -0400 (EDT) From: azaremba@lynx.dac.neu.edu Subject: Rhyming dictionary Is anyone aware of a Yiddish rhyming dictionary that is available? If so, please contact azaremba@lynx.neu.edu Thank you. Alan Zaremba ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.055