Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 188
March 6, 1992
 
1) Yinglish on the West Coast (Martin Davis)
2) More on Glickl (Daniel Frank)
3) Modifiers; Arbeter Ring (Bob Werman)
4) Old Yiddish and Modern German (David Sherman)
5) Heymishe inyonim (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 92 22:40:04 -0500
From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu
Subject: RE:  Mendele Vol 1.186

Ellen Prince writes "and Berkeley is definitely not in the
yinglish zone"

Well! For years Berkeley had a restaurant called "Balabos".
It also has the Judah Magnus museum and the incredible
Ashkenaz folk dance center.

Martin Davis

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 92  12:28 GMT
From: DFRANK@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.187

Dr. Chava Turniansky (Dept. of Yiddish, The Hebrew
University, Jerusalem) is currently engaged in preparing a
definitive critical edition of Glickl's autobiography to be
accompanied by a modern Hebrew translation. So far as I
know she is not reachable via e-mail.

Daniel Frank, Oxford

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue,  3 Mar 92 17:37 +0200
From: RWERMAN@HUJIVMS.BITNET
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.186

In Mendele Vol 1.186, Ellen F. Prince writes:
 
>believe me that 'Enjoy!' is all over the country,
 
Wm. Saffire has written recently in the New York Times
[Sunday] Magazine on the use of modifiers without the
modified attached in modern English. Isn't the phenomenon
similar in the use of "Enjoy [it] [life]!"?
 
He lists - among many others: physical [exam],
soap [opera], cameo [appearance].  True these
are all adjectives with the noun left off and
"enjoy" is a verbal form, but ....

                  *****************

In Mendele Vol 1.186, Mark H. David writes:
 
       The Arbeter Ring (i.e., Workmen's Circle) schools in
       America were patterned after the Bund schools of
       Europe. .....

       So, I could accept the logic of calling both the
       European Bundist schools and the American Arbeter
       Ring schools generically "Bundist".  Doesn't seem
       like too big a deal.
 
Interesting.  If Mark is replying to my use of "Bundist," I
apologize for introducing an element that was foreign to my
concern.  I admit to ignorance about the Arbeiter Ring -
Bund dichotomy; for me they were cut from the same
[forbidden] cloth.  I merely mentioned that the Yiddishist
or Yiddish speaker from that background is less likely to
be familiar with the significance of religious terminology.
 
__Bob Werman    rwerman@hujivms.bitnet
rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il Jerusalem
 
4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 92 11:47:40 EST
From: dave@lsuc.on.CA
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.149

Catching up on old issues here... re #1.149:

Ellen Prince writes:
> >> ... we know that old yiddish was verb final...
> >We do?  I didn't.  Interesting.  You mean participle final,
> >like modern German?
> 
> i meant verb-final. old yiddish and modern german and
> also  dutch are sov--subject, object, verb, with the extra
> twist that, in main clauses only, the part of the verb
> that carries tense moves to second position.

Yes, I'm familiar with modern German.  But I find it weird
that you say it's "SOV with the extra twist that in main
clauses only...".  Aren't main clauses (with a single part
to the verb) kind of, er, main?  Shouldn't they be
considered the core rule, and subordinate clauses
considered, er, subordinate?  What am I missing here?

David Sherman

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 92
From: nmiller@trincc
Subject: A Purim numer

A long tome ago I promised Dave Sherman that we'd have a
Purim issue devoted of course to all manner of
light-hearted and foolish things.  Four robins on the lawn
this morning tell me that our very own mardi gras will be
here pretty soon.

March 19 to be exact.  So this is a call to everyone from
snowy Tel Aviv to balmy Minneapolis and places where the
weather is just plain dull but with a perceptible fresh
color in the willows to send in your contributions as soon
as possible.  Songs, poems, jokes, and in the spirit of the
occasion the dumber the better.

Noyekh

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End of Mendele Vol 1.188