Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.163 December 25, 1996 1) Vlach/vloch/voloch (Sophia Adler) 2) Paul Abelson's English-Yiddish Dictionary (Joachim Neugroschel) 3) How many colleges teach Yiddish? (Stanley Werbow) 4) Merry Christmas in Yiddish (Morrie Feller) 5) Gender and the New Testament (Les Train) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 11:24:07 -0500 (EST) From: sadler@suffolk.lib.ny.us Subject: Vlach/vloch/voloch Before my zeyde, Nathan Warshavsky, brought his large family to the U.S. in 1906, they had lived in the town of Dubossar, Bessarabia, a Romanian territory, at that time swallowed up by Russia. My Zeyda had been a travelling mmerchant dealing in dried fruits, nuts, tea and spices. He was gifted musically, and liked to sing, and his travels thru remote towns and villages gave him the opportunity to learn many lidlakh which his children loved to listen to in the evenings. When I was growing up in the Bronx I heard these things from my mother and aunt, as they recalled how "der tate" had inspired their childhood with his wide collection of songs, and their pride in his rendition of a song called "a Volokhl" entered my consciousness. But it was not till I was 13, in 1929, that I had the chance to hear my zeyde's songs, when he came to visit us from his home in Cleveland. During that visit zeyde was in his glory among family and friends as he responded to his childrens hunger for his old songs. Tho I had only a smattering of Yiddish, some few of those songs planted fragments in my memory, so that some 30 years later, when I started to teach myself Yiddish, those were the first songs I searched out. Yet, to my regret, all that my memory retained of the "Volokhl" is the enthusiasm surrounding it... how caressingly the request was uttered: "nuzhe, tateh, a Volekhl! ... a Volekhl, tateniu, a Volekhl!". I must have listened, because I concluded that a "Volekhl" was Gypsy music. I have no idea what language the words might have been. Now that Bob Rothstein (Mendele V6.136) identifies slavic Wallach as "vlach/vloch/voloch" name of migrant shepherds in the Carpathian mountain region, I realize that it could have been within my zeyde's travelling range (50 to 100 miles from Dubossar) and I like to think that it was there he found his "Volekhl". The Baal Shem is believed to have emerged from the Carpathian mountain region. I believe it was Peretz who wrote the mystic, evanescent play (?) sketch(?) (surrealistic like "Bay Nakht Oyfn Altn Mark").... The youmg Israel is here envisioned in solitude, gathering up his inner forces among sprites and demons in that ravine and cave haunted region. I cannot remember its title or where I might have read it, whether in Yiddish or translation. I would appreciate hearing from whoever might identify this work and its title. Sophia Adler Southold, N.Y. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 11:09:30 -0500 (EST) From: Achim1@cris.com Subject: Paul Abelson's English-Yiddish Dictionary In der diskusye vegn yidishe ekvivalentn far "sui generis," tsitirt Esther Goffstein Paul Abelsons english-yidish verterbukh (Mendele vol 6.159). tsum badoyern iz dos dozike verk zeyer a defektivs--'s rov "yidishe" verter un terminen vos me gefint dortn zenen oder reyn daytshe vos me hot zi keynmol nisht banitst af yidish oder daytshmerizmen vos zenen zeltn ven ongenumen bay natirlekhe yidish-reders. der aroysgeber funm dozikn leksikon hot bahandelt yidish vi a fardreyte versye fun daytsh. vifl loshen-koydesh-terminen ken men antdekn in zayn werterbukh?... Joachim Neugroschel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 15:13:46 -2206 From: s.werbow@mail.utexas.edu Subject: How many colleges teach Yiddish? Can someone please give me the number of U.S. colleges and universities which offer instruction in Yidddish? Also please point me to a published list. Thanks. Stanley Werbow 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 17:42:56 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Merry Christmas in Yiddish In response to Irv Goldfein's comment in Mendele 6.161, I have always taken the title of Marie B. Jaffe's book "Gut Yuntif, Gut Yohr" to mean "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year". This view stems from the prominent place given the piece entitled "Erev Krismes" which is written in transliterated Yiddish, and also translated as "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Morrie Feller Phoenix 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 00:46:09 -0500 (EST) From: ltrain@chass.utoronto.ca Subject: Gender and the New Testament I had suspected that words of loshnkoydesh (semitic) origin, that were borrowed into Yiddish, had genders ascribed to them based on their morphology; that is, words with a 'masculine'-sounding ending (-s,-os,-us) were slotted into masculine gender, unless of course their meaning precluded it. Thus, talis, shabis, tunis (fast), tues (mistake) - and of course bris (especially because of its male association) are all masculine in Yiddish, though feminine in Hebrew. The entire nominal phrase 'bris chadoshe' was lifted from the Hebrew, so of course the modifier wasn't changed. Similarly, teyve, (nature), matbeye (coin) - are feminine.In Hebrew - masculine. I could mayrikh zayn, but I think I had better cut short this discussion on the bris. Les Train ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.163