Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 163
February 4, 1992
 
1) Various (Yude-Leyb Proger)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 11:11:53 IST
From: RHLE302@HAIFAUVM.BITNET
Subject: Mendele vol. 1. 160

to Ellen Prince:
 
Thank you for pointing out the normalcy of variation.  I
had my sights on the transcription issue and may have gone
overboard.  I am pleased that your evidence confirms the
authenticity of the singer's delivery, which I was not
questioning.  You are absolutely right that the term
_contamination_ is value-loaded and inappropriate.  But I
am also grateful to you for confirming that it makes sense
to use either SYR or phonetic transcription, since the
actual realization of any text cannot be represented by the
supposedly dialectal transcription we get in the Vidman
song brochure.
 
A considerable part of the pay-off of participating in
_Mendele_ -- in addition to the fun -- is the virtually
instantaneous corrections we get for our feebler or
unsubstantiated notions.  I appreciate this.
 
to Meylekh:
Re: vol.1, no. 160
 
Dear Meylekh:

Of course I was being inconsistant.  I should have written
"the Weinreichs and Mordkhe Schechter" (I think that is how
he spells his name in English) or "di Vaynraykhs un Mortkhe
Shekhter".  I normally give the Yiddish name in SYR
followed by the common form in brackets.  This is not the
only possibility, but some formula is necessary in the
making of bibliographies, which are used by all kinds of
people for all sorts of purposes.  (It is even conceivable
that Moyshe-Nosn might consult a bibliography and be
pleased that there is some system behind it.) In SYR
Shekhter would have to spell his name _Mortkhe_, because
the Hebrew-Aramaic component of Yiddish is transcribed
phonemically, i.e. ignoring the form (which includes a
daled) in the interest of the sound (best represented by a
t).
 
re: general comment on _Mendele_ and LP I am always
interested in the reactions of our professional linguists
-- of which fraternity I am not a member -- to my comments
on Yiddish.  I think of myself as a student of language and
literature rather than as a linguist.  My work in Yiddish
literature and bibliography has forced me to learn
something about Yiddish linguistics, including dialectology
(especially with regard to problems of prosody) -- about
which I have much to learn. I eagerly await publication of
_The Linguistic and Cultural Atlas_, which will help us all
be smart about Yiddish dialects.  My work in Yiddish
bibliography, especially, has forced me to learn how to
romanize Yiddish in a sane, consistant manner.  I have even
wandered into the recondite field of onomastics -- where
the linguists are truly liable to massacre me, into the
history of Eastern European Jewry, of the Jewish labor
movement and numerous other fields. For me, a
self-confessed generalist (interdisciplinarist?) _Mendele_
is a learning tool.  I am especially grateful to Mikhl
Herzog -- who is a card-carrying Yiddish linguist -- for
his running comments on many of our mistakes.  But we
should not be afraid to betray our ignorance if it leads to
its removal. Too, we will all learn to romanize Yiddish
correctly if we keep practicing.
 
to Mikhl Herzog:

On three different occasions I made the mistake of calling
Naomi Shifra. This must be because I know a Shifra Ziv in
J-m -- who, incidentally, works on Yiddish.  Thank you for
the Geniza comment -- I was not being sufficiently
_pinktlekh_.  The quadruple bypass was sent home after six
days, which I think must be something of a record -- but of
course graduates of Hashomer Hatsoir are a remarkable breed
in general (as opposed to, say, graduates of certain other
movements).  I am a little late in sending in my talk
subject for the J-m meeting, but I imagine they will accept
my suggestion.  In any event I will be on hand to listen to
others and I would be very happy indeed to see the
legendary vol. 1.

yours, lp

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End of Mendele Vol 1.163