Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.042 July 30, 1997 1) new dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic terms (Marion Aptroot) 2) Vus tit zikh dortn..... (Mendy Fliegler) 3) Honourable name (Siegfried Risse) 4) Whither Mendele? or wither Mendele (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 5) Drimpln and Fraytig (Heynkeh Sapoznik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:41:01 +0100 From: aptroot@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de (Marion Aptroot) Subject: new dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic terms The Medem-bibliotek in Paris has just published a new dictionary of Yiddish words and expressions of Hebrew and Aramaic origins. The dictionary comprises about 6000 terms, every one with a phonetic transcription (in Yiddish characters) and a gloss in Yiddish. Synonyms as well as antonyms are provided in Yiddish, wherever appropriate we find gender and plural ending indicated, and often an example of the term's use in Yiddish literature is given. As far as I can see, it is the best collection of this nature available. _Verterbukh fun loshn-koydesh-shtamike verter in yidish_ tsunoyfgeshtelt durkh Yitkhok Niborski mit der mithilf fun Shimen Noyberg. Pariz: Medem-bibliotek, 1997. (The book is completely in Yiddish, but it does have a French title page too: _Dictionnaire des mots d'origine hebraique et arameenne en usage dans la langue yiddish_ compile par Yitskhok Niborski avec la collaboration de Simon Neuberg. Paris: Bibliotheque Medem,1997.) Marion Aptroot 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 21:12:54 -0100 From: emenems@juno.com Subject: Vus tit zikh dortn..... Az Iosif geyt avek, iz dokh puste in hoyz... Kevre, dakht zikh mir az es iz dortn tvishn di naye shamusim, geven andere vus gibn akhting oyf di 'bizness', di Yidishe oysyes... vus hert zikh dortn?.... Noyekh avu bistu? Dus Yidish vaserl tur men nisht farshtopn, es darf dokh flisn..... fun iber der gantzer velt! Nu, ot is a vertl far aykh: "Meshugene reydt arum rundt hoys" Iz dus a daytshish vertl tzi nisht?? Fun vanen kimt dus?? Mendy Fliegler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 17:16:33 +0200 From: Siegfried Risse Subject: Honourable name I am working on the Yiddish translation of the psalms by Mosche Stendel, printed in 1586. In psalm 81 after vers 6 (the Hebrew Bible has only here the name Jehoseph with an additional He) Stendel has inserted a midrash. In order that the gentiles should not slander Israel, god gave two letters of his name for their name. The Talmud has a similar story (Sota 10b) concerning the name Jehudah. Probably Stendel is thinking of the name Jehudah, too. But why does he say: a He in front and a Jod behind? In Jehudah it is the other way round! Or is he avoiding a too great likeness with the Tetragramm? My second question is: Where does this story come from? Or is it invented by Stendel? Here the verses of the midrash: ejn gizejgnis hot got den kindr jisrael gebn da mit si mit irn mechtn lebn. den da si ojs mizrajim gingn un got ht si zum folk tun dr wiln da tet itlichs gischlecht in sundrhejt sejn adl ziln. da sprachn di andrn felkr zwar si hobn kejn adl untr in as um ejn har. wen si sejn giwesn der mizrajim knecht drum kan ir adl nit sejn recht. den so wol as di mizrajim hobn giweltigt ibr irn lejb, so hobn si auch ejnm idrn gischlafn bej sejnm wejb. un sejn ejtl hurn kindr gimejn un is nit recht untr in gimejn. den hlbn ds si nit soltn hobn disi nach sag, sagt unsr her got, so wil ich brengn an dem tag, ds si al echt un recht giborn sejn, wejl ich bizejg mit dem namn dejn. un wil in fun mejnn namn zwei buch stabn gebn, da mit si soln wejtr mit irn lebn. un gab im ein he vorn un ejn jod hintn, da mit si sich fr entwrn kintn. da mit gab im hkbh edut ob si schon wern giwesn der mizrajim knecht, noch glejch wol warn si giborn echt un recht, un wer andrs sagt, der tet lejgn. ds tet er mit sejnm herlichn namn bizejgn. Siegfried Risse 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 11:45:02 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Whither Mendele? or wither Mendele Mitn tifstn derekh eretz and admiration for the doctor and his recent diagnosis that "Mendele is alive and well", I pose 'fir kashes' as a member of this newly reorganized HMO. Di ershte kashe iz: Why are postings so sparse now? Di tzveyte kashe iz: Why have we stopped communicating? Di drite kashe iz: Has the Mendele Review affected the number of postings on Mendele? Di ferte kashe iz: Any suggestions to make Mendele more alive and well, to increase its bloodflow to daily publication again, instead of weekly? For the years Mendele has embraced us, gestaltwise it flourished and grew to be much greater than the sum of its parts. Its daily entrance into our homes fulfilled our expectations and created for us a treasured, unique time for thought. It befriended us, and befamily-ed us. Each posting took on a personality, proof that words stand for soul. We grew to know who was the nudnik, self-aggrandizing uncle; who was the kibitzer and fun seeker; who was serious and somber and self=righteous; who was our Platonic 'other half'. If one day passed without a Mendele, distress signals were sent out seeking the "Mendele fix". And as we read and learned from Zellig Bach, Lou Friedlander, Mikhl Herzog, Bob Rothstein, Ellen Prince, Zachary Baker, the Mloteks, Noyekh of course, and on and on, we were swaddled into a meshpokhe. We could weather personal critiques, dialectics, heated debates, even angers, and still come together as an international family - linguists, hasidim, secular yidishists, 'faddists', intellectuals, abi leydik geyer, et al... And we sent in postings of our discoveries, of our questions, of our thoughts and beliefs, of our feelings. And we sent in postings during heat waves and vacations and school breaks. Communicaton was the keynote, the frequent, pulsating keynote. I, for one, miss the frequency. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:35:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Drimpln and Fraytig Mendelyaner, My mother and late father used to use an expression to describe my endless banjo practicing as "drimpln" ("Er drimplt vider!") Searches through Weinreich and Stutchkoff produced no reference to this word. Any ideas? Vis a vis the song "Fraytig ay der nakht" there were several popular songs with this title but I believe the one in question was one credited to M. Rubinstein and was one of the earliest popular Yiddish 78 hits recorded several times by Solomon Smulewitz (1903,1904), Frank Seiden (1903) and Simon Paskal (1905). Heynkeh Sapoznik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.042