Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 141 January 20, 1992 1) Geven un geveyzn (Ellen Prince) 2) Yiddish textbooks (Martin Minow) 3) Yiddish in Cairo (Dovid-Gavriel Hirsch) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 14:13:32 EST From: Ellen Prince Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.140 in response to dave: re the idea about geveyzn at the end of the verb phrase and geven in the middle, that's a nice project! i believe old yiddish had only geveyzn, and we know that old yiddish was verb final. it would be interesting to check on the rise of geven, whether it occurred only medially, i.e. where it was destressed, as yiddish became verb-medial. beatrice, do you have an undergraduate who needs a little topic? the data you got already... re the lack of negative concord in kenehore as a result of the fact that it's not a full sentence, sorry, but modern yiddish has negative concord in simple noun phrase or adverbial utterances (in contrast to french, black english, piedmontese...): ver iz gekumen? keyner nisht/*keyner. vemen host du gezen? keynem nisht/*keynem nisht. ven host du dos gezen? keynmol nisht/*keynmol. (the '*' means 'does not occur'.) so it looks like david braun's explanation is still the most plausible: kenehore must have been frozen way back in old yiddish, before yiddish acquired negative concord. (there's phonological evidence for that, as well.) re dort being from der ort and tsurik from tsu rik, that's extremely plausible, but it should be noted that it would have happened way back in germanic, long before the birth of yiddish. (however, analogous developments that i believed happened in yiddish are drerd, from der erd, and staytsh, from dos taytsh.) >There are a couple in English, incidentally, that sort of >caught me by surprise when I first noticed them. >"painstaking" is, of course, pains + taking, but there's a >tendency to think of it as pain + staking, which doesn't >contribute anything to the meaning. Second, "dishevelled" >is from the French deshabille', and is dis-helleved, not at >all related to the dish. ah, here's a nice illustration of the difference between the methodology of folk etymology and of historical linguistics. dave's note that dishevel comes from deshabille surprised me, since that's not how those sounds should have developed (given how they developed in other english words borrowed from french). so i looked it up and in fact it's not related to deshabille. here's what webster's third says: dishevel: back-formation from disheveled disheveled: middle english discheveled, transitive participle of middle french deschevele', from old french, past participle of descheveler, to disarrange the hair, from dis- + cheveler (from chevel, hair of the head, from latin capillus). go know... 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 16:52:50 EST From: Greater East Coast Co-prosperity Sphere 19-Jan-1992 1646 Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.138 In Mendele Vol 1.138, Khayim Bochner refers to "The Yiddish Teacher" as a possible textbook. Here's a reference: The Yiddish Teacher author: Hyman E. Goldin copyright 1939 Hebrew Publishing Company ISBN 0-88482-687-2 The publisher's address is 100 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201. It's a basic "Learn the fundamentals of Yiddish" -- there are some 60 short lessons, each with a vocabulary, a few paragraphs of text, and some "translate into Yiddish" or "translate into English" exercises. Harvard Hillel used it for an introductory adult-education course. The vocabulary index has about 400 words. It should be suitable as an adult education textbook, with a competent instructor of course, but I wouldn't recommend it -- by itself -- as either a self-study book (little exposition) or as a college textbook. Martin Minow minow@ranger.enet.dec.com 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 18:24 PST From: "David Hirsch, Bibliographers Group" Subject: Yiddish in Cairo I am really excited to see the interest in Yiddish in Egypt. I would have written sooner, but I have been on jury duty. I can add a few bits of information to Yuda-Leyb's list on Yiddish theater actors and actresses in Cairo. Rose Klein was the person that I was closest to in Cairo. SHe was actually Rose Weiss-Klein. Born in Cairo in 1909. Later married Abraham Belahovsky. Abraham died in 1977 or 1978. Rose remained in Cairo until late 1981/1982 when she emigrated to Isrel. She died in Tel Aviv in Spring 1989. The Peindrik sisters emigrated to the United States. At least one of them was living in Cleveland as late as 1983. I am quite familiar with the Ashkenazi synagogue in Cairo. After it was burned down in 1945 it was reconstructed in 1952. The Ashkeanzi community held separate services until 1967 by which mose Ashkenazim had left Cairo. They then attended services at the main downtown Cairo synagogue on Adli Street. The Ashkenazi synagogue has been closed since 1967. It is in fair condition. The Gan Yeladim imediately adjacent to the building was in poor condition in 1983 and I expect it may have been demolished by now. re: Yiddish printing in Egypt, I have seen books printed by the Farag Mizrahi press in Alexandria, but cannot remember the titles. There was an Imprimerie Moscovitch in the Jewish Quarter (Haret al-Yahud) Aside from the theatre programs ( I have a few myself from Cairo and Alexandria) the only other printed Yiddish I am familiar with is Yiddish/French sheet music and a broadside here and there advertising a visiting cantor for the holidays. re: Jewish life in Egypt in general, ther are perhaps 50-75 Jews left in Cairo and approximately the same number in Alexandira. The average age is over 70. Maybe one or two intermarried Jews left in Port Said. There were still at least 14 synagogues standing in Cairo and suburbs when I left in 1983, not including 2 Karaite synagogues. Alexandria had three remaining that I am famil iar with. Port Said, one...just a shell. Mansoura one... used as a mattress storage facility. The Jewish community in Egypt was very diverse. Sephardim came from all over the Ottoman empire and Ashkenazim from all over Europe. Even a couple of immigrants from the United States! I probably have more information on the individual actors Yuda-Leyb has mentioned and will try to dig it up. Dovid-Gavriel Hirsch ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1. 141