Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 169
February 10, 1992
 
1) For Berl Hoberman (Mikhl Herzog)
2) Kukn un hitn (Daniel Moishe Sherman)
3) For Toronto readers (Daniel Moishe Sherman)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92  14:15 EST
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET
Subject: Yiddish reader

To Berl Hoberman: Eureka! Found the Yiddish reader I
promised you. Please send me your mailing address.

Mikhl.

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 14:41:15 EST
From: dave@lsuc.on.CA
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.147

[catching up on old issues here... Mendele is starting to
 overwhelm my mailbox, but it's all wonderful.  Shkoyekh
 all.]

Bob Goldberg writes:

> The English "watch" also seems to be used as an active form of
> "see", but my gut feeling is that it's weird or special in
> some way.  In Yiddish, there's "kukn" for "look [at]" and
> "zehen" for the passive form, "see", but I don't know a
> word for "watch", which in some contexts is very active,
> e.g.,
> 
> 	Watch the kids for me while I go next door.
> 	
> implies considerably more activity than "Look at the kids
> ..." or "See the kids ...".  In Yiddish, there's an
> expression that literally means "keep an eye on", that
> would be appropriate in this context, but not for T.V.

What's the expression you refer to for keep an eye on?
Haltn an oyg of? (Doesn't sound right, or familiar, to me.)

We use hitn for this.  A babysitter is a kind-hiter.
(Should we be saying kind-hiter'n?)  "Hit di kinder veil
ikh gey tsum shokhn."

Which leads me to a followup question: how to translate
"while" in the above sense.  In cases where there is a
partial meaning of "because", veil might work; but where
it's purely temporal, it sounds wrong to me.  On the other
hand, I asked Mordkhe Shekhter (oh all right, Schaechter)
about this a while back and he said "veil" was acceptable.

The equivalents I know are "b'shas" and "az", but neither
of them sounds great in the above sentence ("Hit di
kinder..."). And veil sounds positively wrong in a setence
where the meaning is purely temporal ("Kon ikh geyn arop in
keler veil du bist in kikh?").

Suggestions?

> As usual, I have a frage of my own:
> 
> My native-Yiddish-speaking grandmother used to say  "di
> mime hodel hot genemen 'care' oyf untz" (Aunt Hodel took
> care of us).  Vizoy zogt men 'take care of' oyf Yidish?

Hitn, again.  Di mime hodel hot unz gehitn (I think).
Comments?

David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman

Has anyone ever done a translation/rendition of Casey at
the Bat into Yiddish?


3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 13:50:26 EST
From: dave@lsuc.on.CA
Subject: for people in the Toronto area

This flyer has been mailed out by the Canadian Jewish
Congress Committee for Yiddish:


A Yiddish Evening of Film, Discussion & Song
	For Young Yiddishists

The Film: MAME LOSHN
	A film on Yiddish in modern life
Stimulating discussion
Yiddish sing a long
Refreshments

Wednesday evening, February 19, 1992, 7:30 pm.
Lipa Green Building, 4600 Bathurst St., Toronto

All young people who have a love of Yiddish and wish to be
a part of the revival of Yiddish are specially invited.

Admission Free

For further information call: Gloria Morris, 416-635-2883
Ext. 139, or Sylvia Lustgarten, 416-635-2883 Ext. 155.

David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman

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End of Mendele Vol 1.169