Yiddish Mailing List, Issue #47 October 6, 1991 134 lines =============================== Catching up (David Sherman) Yiddish classes in NJ? (Evelyn C. Leeper) Yiddish alphabet? (Evelyn C. Leeper) Yiddish alphabet (David Sherman) ------------------------ Digest-Message: 47/1 From: dave@lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman) Date: Sun Oct 6 19:52:31 EDT 1991 Subject: Catching up A gut gezunt yor tsu ale layeners! Shoyn tzeit aroistsushikn a naye exemplar funem post-rshime! It's been a busy time for me since issue #46, and I've had less impetus to put an issue together since MENDELE has been quite active. We went to the Yugntruf Yidish-vokh again for the week leading up to Labour Day, and it was as good as always. This year there were even more kids speaking Yiddish than in the past years, as our kids all get older and more fluent. Including kids there were about 50 of us living in Yiddish for the week. Yasher koyakh to Yugntruf, and maybe we'll see some of the mailing list members next year? In July we went to see "Those Were The Days", a musical revue that had been on Broadway and came to Toronto for a few weeks. It's superb! Anyone who has a chance should see this. It's combined English and Yiddishh, in a way that Yiddis speakers will really appreciate it but English-only speakers won't feel left out. I don't know where the show has headed after Toronto. Nu, ver vil shreibn eps farn nextn numer? ------------------------ Digest-Message: 47/2 Date: Sun, 4 Aug 91 05:14 EDT From: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Subject: Yiddish Class Wanted Date: 19 Jul 91 21:00:48 GMT [reposted from soc.culture.jewish] Does anyone know of any beginning Yiddish classes being offered in Monmouth or Middlesex Counties starting this fall? We have two (maybe four) people interested. Something within an hour of Middletown would be best, but we could stretch that if the course met only once a week. (I'm looking for something at a temple or adult education center--I don't want to pay college-level tuitions!) Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com ------------------------ Digest-Message: 47/3 Date: Fri, 27 Sep 91 13:19 EDT From: mtgzy!ecl@lsuc.on.ca (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Subject: Beginner's Questions Is there any difference between the Hebrew alphabet and the Yiddish alphabet? Is there any difference in how Hebrew and Yiddish handle vowels in the written form? (I know there are differences between Russian Cyrillic and Serbian Cyrillic, for example, and the English alphabet and the Spanish one.) (I finally found a conversational Yiddish course but it doesn't start until the spring!) ------------------------ Digest-Message: 47/4 From: dave@lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman) Date: Sun Oct 6 19:52:31 EDT 1991 Subject: Yiddish alphabet To begin answering Evelyn's questions: The basic alphabet is the same. However... In Hebrew, there are no letters that are vowels. Vowels are handled with diacritical marks (dots, etc., called "nekudot") over, under and next to the letters. Aleph and ayin, and to some extent yud and hey, are silent letters that help the vowels along. In Yiddish, vowels are implemented as follows: patakh-aleph ah kometz-aleph oh yud i or ee ayin eh yud-yud (two yuds) ey (as in "fleysh") yud-yud with a patakh underneath ay (as in "mayn", pronounced "mein") vov oo Consonants that differ from Hebrew: vov-vov (two vovs) v beis (no dot need be shown) b veis (beis with a line over it, but ONLY for words that come from Hebrew and that use a veis in Hebrew) v khaf kh khes kh, but ONLY for words that come from Hebrew and that use a khes in Hebrew) pey (no dot need be shown) p fey (pey with a line over it) f kuf k (kaf is only used for words borrowed from Hebrew) shin (no dot need be shown) sh sin is only used for words borrowed from Hebrew. Except for words borrowed from Hebrew, Yiddish is quite strictly phonetic. As indicated, above, it becomes clear how to spell words that use 'k', 'v', and so onl one form is used, except for the words borrowed from Hebrew. Words from Hebrew keep their original spellings. Except for the aleph, which always appears with a patakh or kometz (except for words borrowed from Hebrew that use a different nekudah, e.g. esrog), none of the Hebrew nekudos are ever used. One further warning about vowels: there are lots of dialect variances, but the best known and widest variants are the ey/ay and oo/ee pairs. The ones described above as "ey" (yud-yud, as in fleysh) and "oo" (vov, as in shul), are the "standard Yiddish" pronunciations, which happen to correspond to the "Litvish" (Lithuanian Yiddish) vowel. The "Polish Yiddish" pronunciations, for the same spellings, are fleish and shil. Anyone wish to add more? ------------------------ SOF FUN NUMER 47 ------------------------ David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman, Toronto Moderator, mail.yiddish dave@lsuc.on.ca (416) 889-7658