Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.183 January 4, 1997 1) Yiddish dictionaries (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Yiddish dictionaries (Joachim Neugroschel) 3) Yiddish dictionaries (A. Joseph Ross) 4) Yiddish dictionaries (Andrew Cassel) 5) _Minskes' Yom Tov Bleter_ (Lyber Katz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Jan 97 16:27 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Yiddish dictionaries Am I alone in thinking that in his posting of Jan 2 (Mendele Vol. 6.182) about his search for _shvantz_, Gilad Gevaryahu overstepped the bounds of propriety? Is Gevaryahu possibly a non-native speaker of English who doesn't fully appreciate the nuances of his closing remark? I'd sooner believe that the formulation at the end of his posting was as inadvertent as it was unfortunate, than think that he is, in fact, what it makes him appear to be. If it was intentional, he should have looked for the _shvantz_ much closer to home. It would not be to the honor of Uriel Weinreich, _olevasholem_, to cite his particular personal or professional merits here, or to suggest that they, alone, should have precluded such nastiness. I don't think that the equal of Gevaryahu's remark has slipped past the watchful eye of our editor in all the years of Mendele postings that I've read. Perhaps, if Gevaryahu is as his name implies, perhaps he would offer a public apology. Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 10:29:29 -0500 (EST) From: achim1@cris.com Subject: Yiddish dictionaries: a correction Regarding my posting about the Weinreich dictionary (Vol.6.182), I erroneously said that Harkavy's dictionary indicates genders. I meant just the opposite: it seldom indicates genders--which is especially misleading for a Hebrew speaker since any number of Hebrew/Aramaic nouns change gender in Yiddish, and for a German speaker since an excruciating number of cognate nouns in Yiddish have a different gender than in German. The best and--so far as I know--only safe source for Yiddish genders is Weinreich's dictionary. granted, with some nouns you have a choice, but that's never been a problem for me. On the plus side, Harkavy does provide plurals--but since, as I've said before--he doesn't indicate the pronunciation of Hebrew-Aramaic borrowings in Yiddish, we have no choice but to turn to Weinreich. And within its limits, I find his dictionary close to excellent. Joachim Neugroschel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 19:26:20 -0500 (EST) From: lawyer@world.std.com Subject: Yiddish dictionaries I have another Yiddish dictionary, this one a small paperback by D.M. Harduf, printed in Canada and bearing a 1983 copyright. Harduf seems to have followed Weinreich at least in the absence of the word "tokhes." Does anyone know anything else about this dictionary's biases? Al Grand asked about the plural of "tokhes." According to the Harkavy 1898 dictionary, it appears to be "tokheser" or perhaps "tekheser." It's a Hebrew word, and its pronunciation is not given. The spelling ads Ayin-Resh to the singular. Right after it is what appears to be "tochesunim," meaning "trowsers." The 1928 Harkavy dictionary gives the pronunciation of that as "takhtonim." It doesn't give the pronunciation of the plural of "tokhes." Regarding the expression "Patch zikh in tokhes un shray 'bravo'!" my mother said it too, and she said that her mother used to say it to her. She pronounced it, "Patchekh in tukhes un shray 'Braba'!" A. Joseph Ross 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 04 Jan 1997 10:13:44 -0500 From: awcassel@philly.infi.net Subject: Yiddish dictionaries Among the other pros and cons in the Weinreich v. Harkavy dictionary discussion there is one that I find quite perplexing, not to say annoying. The physical quality of the typography in my edition of the 1928 Harkavy Y-E-H dictionary is very bad. Words are blurred, letters are broken and some passages are close to unreadable. This seems to have been a problem with the version that was photo-reproduced by YIVO for their reissue a couple of years ago. I recall thinking when I saw it what a shame it was, and chalking it all up to what I supposed must have been poor-quality printing back in the 20s. But I've since seen a friend's original copy of the same dictionary and noticed that it is much clearer and easier to read, as well as printed on apparently thicker paper stock. Might anyone know the production history, or have a theory about what circumstances resulted in such inconsistancy? Andrew Cassel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 97 12:29 EST From: 0002083904@mcimail.com Subject: _Minskes' Yom Tov Bleter_ In rummaging through my father's manuscripts, I came across a pamphlet entitles "Minskes' Yom Tov Bleter --- 20 yoriker yubileum albom", which contains excellent photos of more than 120 Yiddish writers (From Sholem Ash, Apatoshu and Olgin through Sholem Aleichem and Fradel Shtok) who appeared in the Yom Tov Bleter from 1896 to 1916. There is no introduction, no explanation, no place of publication --- just the photos and the contributor's names. Can anyone enlighten me on the background of this pamphlet? A second mystery. One picture has been cut out. It was either the upper right of page 21 (Probably someone between Dr. A. Kaspe and Z. Kornblith) or its obverse, the upper left of page 22, which contains the pictures of Morris Rosenfeld, Sh. Rosenfeld and Iun Rosenfeld. If anyone has access to this pamphlet, I'd be curious to know whose picture it was. Lyber Katz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.183