Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.170 December 29, 1996 1) Rozhinkes mit mandlen (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Yehoash Bible translation (Al Grand) 3) Birthday greeting for Zellig Bach (Morrie Feller) 4) Yiddish in the Liturgy (Joachim Neugroschel) 5) Yiddish/English postings (Mimi Halkin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Dec 96 18:14 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Rozhinkes mit mandlen Ellen Prince inquires [6.167] about the origin of all the delicacies our parents were eating in Eastern Europe? Add to that a question about the "routes" along which the delicacies traveled. Enter the Yiddish Atlas: The Atlas will yield a large number of maps portraying the Central and Eastern European distribution of food items, processes of cooking and baking, and the Yiddish words related to them: The occurrence of specific food items and culinary processes, and the regionally different words which designate them; the occurrence of specific words and the regionally different objects or processes that they designate. Volume III of the Atlas, which will appear in 1997, will already present a limited number of these maps. Az me ve derlebn, some future volume will present a great many, if possible together with comparative data from some of the coterritorial languages and cultures. In projecting the design of the Atlas, Uriel Weinreich also projected a number of research problems upon which the Atlas data were expected to shed some light. These include several that may be relevant to the kinds of questions that Ellen raises. I cite from Atlas Volume I, p.4: i) Ritual Factors in the Export of Commodities. An investigation of the hypothesis that because Jews used certain southern produce (citrons, carob pods, etc.) in formal and informal rituals, the Jewish market for these items extended further north than did the non-Jewish market (assuming economically comparable consumers). ii) Grains: Availability vs Cultural Function. A comparison of the role of maize, buckwheat and other regionally-limited grains in Jewish and non-Jewish cultures. iii) Turkish influences on Balkan Jews and non-Jews. Some of these formulations can be expanded upon: Re i), the "formal and informal rituals" may have included a) the saying of "shehekhiyonu"; b) the kashrut classification which, for a variety of interesting reasons (or rationalizations) might have designated tomatoes, cauliflower, or mushrooms as treyf, thus restricting their availability to Jews in areas where they may have been available to others. Re iii), the "Turkish influences" go beyond the Balkans although that may be the area best suited to comparative study. Consider the distribution of words like _yarmlke_ and the _pey tsadik_ vulgarity, among others. Not exactly _rozhinkes mit mandlen_. Still . . . Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 18:20:19 -0500 From: savoyid@aol.com Subject: Yehoash Bible translation In response to Lisa Tomlinson's inquiry [6.169] about Yohoash's Yiddish translation of the Bible, I own a 1982 copy of the Tanakh translated by Yehoash. It's a publication of the Congress for Jewish Culture, 25 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010, Tel. (212) 505-8040. The English title page reads: The Hebrew Bible and is subtitled With a Yiddish Translation by Yehoash - S. Blumgarden. Each page has the Hebrew text in one quadrant with the Yiddish translation around the remaining three quarters of the page (sort of like the arrangement of Talmudic translation and commentary). But no commentary is given. It is strictly Hebrew text surrounded by a Yiddish translation. There is no English text. It may still be available. Al Grand 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 16:47:05 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Birthday greeting for Zellig Bach I heartily agree with Marjorie Shonhaut Hirshan (6.169) on the need to congratulate Zellig Bach on his forthcoming 90th birthday. I wish that there were some way we could create a giant birthday card for Zellig on Mendele for all of us to sign. Since this is not a likely possibilty, I would encourage each and all to send a birthday greeting directly to Zellig at his e-mail address . If anyone would like to send him a Yiddish birthday greeting, the following is one example of such a greeting: Tsu dayn geburtstog, Tsu dayn yom-tov haynt, Zaynen mir gekumen, Ale dayne fraynd. Lomir ale vintshn dir, Lomir ale vintshn dir, A freylakhn yom-tov haynt. Morrie Feller Phoenix 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 19:35:41 -0500 (EST) From: achim1@cris.com Subject: Yiddish in the Liturgy in his discussion of the Yiddish phrase "mir veln bentshn" in "birkhes hamozn" (Vol.6.169), Mechl Asheri feels that this locution resolves the ambiguity of the Hebrew expression "n'vorekh", which, he says, can mean either "Let us say grace" or "We are going to say grace." I wonder--and I'd like to throw in some ambiguity. How was the tensed Yiddish verb spelled in the earliest texts? The context that M.A. supplies uses khumesh-taytsh (e.g. the word "dan"). So I'd like to know if the Yiddish phrase originally went "Mir viln" or even possibly "mir voln"? This would then point to a slightly different meaning as expressed in a German contstruction that I've never encountered in modern Yiddish: "Wir wollen singen" = "Let's sing"--even though the literal meaning is "We want to sing". This is very common usage in German--a sort of polite way to sort of give sort of an order.... And if Khumesh-Taytsh took over that German construction, then the Yiddish phrase in Birkhes Hamozn would have meant "Let us pray." The only way to resolve this would be to dig up the very earliest versions of the phrase--and, of course, also to scrutinize Khumesh- Taytsh overall to see whether this German construction was ever calqued. Or could there have been variations (in various editions) of the Yiddish phrase, some meaning "Let us" and some meaning "We will"? Im talking out of a total ignorance of religious matters..... Joachim Neugroschel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 18:33:25 +0200 (EET) From: mhalkin@lib.haifa.ac.il Subject: Yiddish/English postings I'd like to thank those of you Mendelyaner who write Yiddish posts, and then take the trouble to append an English translation. My Yiddish is what might charitably be called minimal. When there's a Yiddish posting a few lines long, I'm happy to sit with a dictionary and work my way through it. But Yiddish postings longer than a single paragraph are more than I have time and/or patience for, despite the fact that they usually seem to be of great interest. The ones that have Yiddish text followed by an English translation are really fun learning experiences, and very much appreciated. Mimi Halkin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.170