Yiddish Mailing List, Issue #28 July 8, 1990 190 lines =============================== mail.yiddish in the press (David Sherman) A yidish vort (Ellen Prince) Oi! Kompiuter! (Jack Woehr) New member, un a vitz (Bob Goldberg) [Nu, ver vil shikn a pur verter farn nekstn numer...? - DS] ------------------------ Digest-Message: 28/1 Date: Sun Jul 8 21:08:26 EDT 1990 From: dave@lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman) Subject: mail.yiddish in the press Bob Goldberg (ze di letste artikl in dem numer) hot mir geshikt dem "Northern California Jewish Bulletin" fun June 15, 1990. Oif zeit 23 gefint zikh di shures: "ONLINE If you have a computer and a modem, there is an entire Jewish community and a wealth of information available to you *free*. First you need an account on the WELL, Portal, or the university networks that are connected to InterNet. But an example of the information you can tap into once you're online is the "Yiddish" mailist, put together by Dave Sherman in Toronto. It comes out about once a month. A typical "issue" consists of information about Yiddish resources, transliterated messages in Yiddish, snatches of Yiddish poetry and song, etc. To subscribe, send an electronic message addressed to: "dave@lsuc.on.ca" (in English, that would be read as "Dave, who is at the computer "lsuc" in Ontario, Canada")...." [Nokhdem iz du veiter vegn dem "Jewish studies" post-rshime, un andere informatzies fun ari@well (Ari Davidow). A dank, Ari!] ------------------------ Digest-Message: 28/2 Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 00:30:05 EDT From: Ellen F. Prince ikh heys ellen prince un ikh bin a profesorke fun lingvistik in der pennsylvania universitet (univ. of penn.) in philadelphia. ven ikh bin geven a kind, flegn mayne eltern redn yidish, i tsvishn zikh, i mit mir. ikh fleg ales farshteyn, ober ikh hob keynmol nisht geredt, nor english. mit 7 yor tsurik hob ikh zikh ongefangen lernen yidish kedey tsu makhn forshungen deroyf far mayn arbet. eyn zakh vos vet efsher aykh interesirn--ikh hob zikh bakant mit etlekhe alte yidishe shraybers un zhurnalistn in tel-aviv vos zenen zeyer fayne mentshn un vos hobn a sakh hanoe tsu trefn a yungen mentshn (dos heyst, a mentsh vos iz yinger vi 70 yor!) vos interesirt zikh in yidish. oyb ir fort a mol keyn tel-aviv, ken ikh aykh gebn zeyer adres. zayt mir gezunt. ------------------------ Digest-Message: 28/3 From: uunet!well!jax (Jack J. Woehr) Subject: Oi! Kompiuter! Date: Wed, 20 Jun 90 21:29:06 PDT Reb Noyech shreibt: >Ikh shlug on dos folgendes. Anshtat ibersetzen computer verter fun >aynglish oyf idish, volt shener geven un beser ven mir voltn emesse >idishe nemen gegeben, dos hayst, verter vos shtamen direkt fun unzer leben >un shprakh. Nisht a leikhte arbet, nisht an orovanie far yedn mentsh, >aber a vikhtike. Ikh hob nit kein eytses vegn terminologie, nor a shtikl leid: werter: nigun: (abCDEFGA) 4/4 shpatsirendik Oi! Kompiutor! Di / gist mir aza shrek. //A--EFD--/CCbba--- Oi! Kompiutor! / Zolstu weit awek! /A--EFD--/CCDDE--- Oi! Kompiutor! Mo/yekh'le fil mit drek. /A--EFD--/CCbba---// Geit a mensch arein in Bank, //aCECDEa- Shteit antkegn kleiner shank, /aCECDEa- Git er op mazumah tzun Kom/piu-tor; /CEGEFGED/C---b--- Bei der arbet, bei der heim, /aCECDEa- Iz men kein mol nit alein, /aCECDEa- 'Reingeringelt is er fun Kom/piu-tor! /CEGEFGED/C---E---// Oi! Kompiutor! Di gist mir aza shrek. Oi! Kompiutor! Zolstu weit awek! Oi! Kompiutor! Moyekh'le fil mit drek. "Oi! Kompiutor!" (C) Copyright 1988 Jack Woehr ------------------------ Digest-Message: 28/4 Date: Sat, 7 Jul 90 04:58:52 EDT From: xidak!poseidon!bob@uunet.uu.net (Bob Goldberg) Subject: Contribution to mail.yiddish I never fully gave you my background as far as Yiddish is concerned. Here it is, for whatever it is worth. My grandparents came from eastern Europe to New York City between the years 1903 and 1920, and were native speakers. My parents used Yiddish as a secret language when my sister and I were growing up (you know--"sha, di kinder ..."). This is probably a typical story. Anyway, at age 5 I knew a handful of Yiddish words, like "pipik", "pulke", "makh es shnel", etc. Because of my grandparents, who had instilled in me an insipient love of Yiddish and Yiddishkeit, in high school I obtained a little book, "der yidishe lerer", and taught myself the Yiddish vowels (I already knew how to read Hebrew). I then proceeded to write my very first Yiddish letter to my grandparents, which, me darft nisht zogn, was very well received. In college in the '70's, I obtained Uriel Weinreich's college Yiddish text and dictionary. I also learned by reading my grandmother's letters to me (oy, is genuine Yiddish handwriting hard to read!). And I got my other grandmother and one grandfather to record for me on tape part of their life history, in Yiddish! And for pure, non-Yinglish Yiddish source, I have letters written by my great-grandparents in Poland to my grandparents, dated 1938-9, just before the Holocaust. More recently, I have been singing in a Yiddish Chorus in Palo Alto, CA, which has introduced me to many Yiddish songs that stir my neshome. A frustration I have is that I learned galitsianer pronunciation but find that most speakers I meet insist on "standard" Yiddish. In theory, this should not be a problem for written Yiddish because one is supposed to spell in a standard way. However, I run across lots of songs and books where the words are transliterated so that an English speaker will pronounce them as a galitsianer would, and this makes it hard to read. Genug. (I pronounce this "geneek"). Here is a slightly racy joke, told to me by my father-in-law, who was born in Berlin and learned Yiddish as a second language, after German. It is about a couple of Yeshiva bokhars in a shtetl in Europe, who are studying with a rabbi, and who also live with the rabbi and his wife. [Any mistakes in Yiddish are mine] During the course of their study, the question arises: Does the soul exist without a body? The rabbi asks this of his young resident scholars, and they are not sure what to answer. Finally, one of them, a mischievous fellow, answers "neyn" (no). rebi: farvos zogstu 'neyn'? (Why 'no'?) der bokhar: vayl a neshome hot zikh fis! (Because a soul has legs!) rebi: un vi-zoy veystu az a neshome (How do you know that a soul hot zikh fis? has legs?) der bokhar: vayl du host gezogt azoy, rebi! (Because you said so, Rabbi!) rebi: ikh hob es gezogt? (I said that?) der bokhar: Yo, vayl shabes bay nakht, hob (Yes, because on Friday night ikh gehert fun dayn shloftsimer I heard you say from inside arayn az du host gezogt: your bedroom: 'Neshomele (sweetheart), 'neshomele, tseshpreyt di fis'! spread your legs'!) It's hard to argue with logic like that! If there is interest in genuine, slightly racy, jokes in Yiddish, I'll be happy to transcribe some more from my father-in-law. ... Nisn (Bob) [Avade. Lomir hern nokh! - DS] ------------------------ SOF FUN NUMER 28 ------------------------ David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman, Toronto Moderator, mail.yiddish { uunet!attcan {AT&T Sites}!att utzoo } !lsuc!dave dave@lsuc.on.ca attcan!lsuc!dave@uunet.uu.net