Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.092 November 2, 1997 1) Der Yiddisher Pinafore (Al Grand) 2) Shmerke Katriginski (Faith Jones) 3) Nisn (Elyet Hersh Gertl) 4) schmooze (Jacob Feldman) 5) schmooze (Julian Bielicki) 6) Mendele Review in Yiddish (Paul (Hershl) Glasser) 7) Schmozzing (Dan Leeson) 8) Weinreich et al. (Alexis Manaster Ramer) 9) davenen (Alexis Manaster Ramer) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 11:18:34 EST From: Savoyid Subject: Der Yiddisher Pinafore In response to Larry Mitchel's query about obtaining the libretto of _Der Yiddisher Pinafore_ (Vol. 07.088) I should like to make a general statement of policy both to Mr. Mitchel and to others who may have similar needs. I've received scores of requests for Yiddish G&S material since I began this project in the mid 80's and have had to tell people that the situation is as follows: I wrote the Yiddish "Pinafore" lyrics for The Yiddish Light Opera Company of Long Island and I have a contractual arrangement with them. I receive a royalty each time Yiddish "Pinafore" is presented. The company is very protective of this property and it is therefore not possible to send anyone the libretto. On the other hand if someone has a very special need, say to include an excerpt or two in a concert or recital, he/she should send me an e-mail (savoyid@aol.com) and I will try to arrange with the company for permission to comply. The situation is considerably brighter with Yiddish "Pirates of Penzance" (_DI YAM GAZLONIM_). I am, as yet, under no contractual obligation with "Pirates". However, Zalmen Mlotek, who is preparing to mount a professional production of _Di Yam Gazlonim_ , is seeking financial support for the huge budget that such a project entails. Accordingly, we have been sending portions of the libretto and of the musical score (and sometimes entire scripts and scores - depending on what we perceive as the level of interest) to potential "angels" or investors who wish to examine the material. We also send out the resume of a prolific TV filmmaker (Abba Eban's "Heritage,Civilization and the Jews", "Creativity With Bill Moyers", "Challenge to America With Hedrick Smith" and about 35 other widely viewed documentaries) who will be filming a TV documentary of every aspect of this production once it is under way. He has already shot an hour of raw footage interviewing us and having us sing excerpts of Yiddish "Pirates" in Zalmen's music room at The Workmen's Circle. Those who wish to support this project (which has the potential of being enshrined in a Public Television documentary) should send me a message and I'll reciprocate as stated above. Or else, please call Zalmen at (212) 889-6800 ext. 207. Those outside of New York State call Zalmen's toll free # 1-800-922-2558 ext.207. Al Grand Savoyid@aol.com 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 12:03:33 GM+5 From: "FJONES" Subject: Shmerke Katriginski A friend is looking for works by a poet named Shmerke Katriginski [[probably Kaczerginski/Katsherginski (1908-1954) --Mendele moderator]] (no idea if that's the right spelling). We think he was writing in the 1920s to 1940s. Ideally, side-by-side yiddish and english would be great, but if not either language alone would also suffice. If you have any citations for this author, please let me know. Thank, Faith Jones 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 17:09:49 -0500 From: Elliot Gertel Subject: Nisn Bay uns zogt men "Tsum gezunt" --aroysgeredt "Tsin gezint" un dos alts. Elyet Hersh Gertl Boka raton, florida 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 15:38:38 -0800 (PST) From: feldman@math.berkeley.edu (Jacob Feldman) Subject: "schmooze". In response to Ethan Hollander's query [07.091] I will venture the guess that "schmooze" comes from "shmues", which - from my mittlshul days - I believe means "conversation" (without negative connotation such as "gossip"), and with a verb version, "shmuesn". Jacob Feldman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 01:03:14 +0100 From: "Julian S. Bielicki" Subject: schmooze Re Ethan Hollander's question [07.091] there are three meanings in german language: 1) schmusen - to cuddle (in german) 2) Schmu [hebr.-jidd.] to behave in harmless but not correct way 3) Schmu reden - (austrian) to talk just for talking, without deeper sence, trying to be nice, typical austrian kind to talk Julian Bielicki 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 15:59:49 EST From: paullaure@juno.com (Paul D Glasser) Subject: Mendele Review in Yiddish In the Mendele Review (Vol. 01.024), Leonard Prager writes: "Mendelyaner who wish to read _TMR_'s romanized Yiddish texts in Yiddish will now be able to do so (provided they have the proper hardware and software)." I'm interested. Is more information forthcoming? Paul (Hershl) Glasser 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 18:31:55 EST From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@admin.fhda.edu" Subject: Schmozzing Ethan Hollander mentions [07.091] that on use of the word "schmooze" may be likend to "kissing-up" someone. In that respect, he is right on the mark. The German schmooze is the slang equivalent of "necking." Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 11:18:01 -0500 (EST) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Weinreich et al. Sylvia Schildt writes [07.091]: "the new theories should not only be linguistically cohesive -- they need to jibe with other subjects -- for instance, the story of Jewish migrations. Herein lies the greatness of Weinreich." I don't wish to quibble about Weinreich's greatness, but two things need to be added: (1) For some reason (actually we all know the reason, namely, the fact that he wrote a well-known and deceptively accessible book), Weinreich is often the only one of the great Yiddishists that non-linguists and even many linguists know about. But Saineanu, Fischer (later name Bin-Nun), Birnbaum, and at a slightly lower level Beranek, Prilutski, even Sapir, are some other names that should not be forgotten. Above all, we should not allow W's greatness to influence us as to accepting his theories or arguments, many of which are by modern standards completely unacceptable. (2) It IS important that linguistics jibe with history, but Weinreich -- and I dont think this is or can be controversial--allowed a received view of history (namely, that german Jews came from France) to impose conclusions for which he had no linguistic evidence. Of course, he was not alone: Fischer and Birnbaum seem to have made the same assumptions. A. Manaster-Ramer 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 11:53:54 -0500 (EST) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: davenen Dovid Braun writes [07.091]: "I see another problem: whence the -nen?" This is a good question, but it presupposes that all verbs of this sort have stems in -n- as well as ones in -e-. I do not know this to be correct. If it is, I would like to have this information, and then indeed we would have a problem. There is, however, a bigger problem anyway, which is to account in general for all these verbs. A lot of people have tried over the years, but teh problem is still open. If it is true that stems in -n- like darshn- are connected to nouns like darshn (as Birnbaum, Wexler, Jacobs, me, and perhaps others) think, then there is another possible problem for the etymology i have been defending, and one I had not thought of until Dovid raised his objection. As usual, more research seems to be called for. Alexis Manaster Ramer ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.092 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html