Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 40 July 21, 1992 1) Romanization (David Sherman) 2) Yiddish ideology (Daniel Galay) 3) Anschel (Yitzhak Kertesz) 4) Geshlekhtikayt (Sholem Ruveyn Benjamin) 5) Another version(Ellen Prince) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 92 15:19:09 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Romanization Robert D Hoberman writes (Vol 2.25) : > > The problem is that some of these are clearly > loshn-koydesh, not Yiddish, others clearly Yiddish (e.g. > Khaykl and the family names), others could go either way. > A uniform system to accommodate both there isn't. You > COULD say, [here imagine gemore-intonation], all of these > were written and pronounced by Yiddish speakers, including > my client's parents, so stick with the Yiddish system, > hence tnoyem, khupe, Rokhl, Shloyme (Shloymoy?). But I > think those would look absurd to my client. After all, > people are ACCUSTOMED to seeing Sefardic-Hebrew-based > romanized spellings and pronouncing them more or less as in > Yiddish. So I think I'll have to make a lot of > compromises. I don't have any good answers, except that I agree you have to compromise and use a mixture, based on whether the word's presence in Judaeo-English is "mostly" from Hebrew or "mostly" from Yiddish. I have a related problem in the oral use of Yiddish. We use only Yiddish with our kids. I have many words in my vocabulary that are of Hebrew origin, or in some cases Yiddish origin, that entered my vocabulary before I knew Yiddish. I have adopted my wife's (and her parents') dialect, which is from Stashiv (Staszow), notable as is much of "Polish" (southern) Yiddish for the vowel shifts u->i, ey->ay and ay->aa. Now, there are many words I grew up with (with no Yiddish) that are in our Yiddish vocabulary. Peysekh, sukes, beygl and lot of others. I find it very difficult to say "paysekh" or "sikes", especially because I still use these words (with their "standard" pronunciation) in English. So the Yiddish we speak at home is a bit weird. It's a pretty good Stashiv-area dialect, as best I can tell; BUT there are a couple of dozen words where we follow klal-yidish and don't make the vowel shifts. Even "zayde" doesn't kling right, so our kids call my father-in-law "zeydi", which took him some getting used to. Comments, anyone? David Sherman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 19:56:21 IDT From: HISHTALMUT Subject: yiddish ideology Whoever is interested in discussing different ideological and political issues related to the Yiddish renesance of our days, is wellcome to contact me personally: morim@ccsg.tau.ac.il In Israel this issue is getting more and more importance. And I would like to share our experience with those interested. Ir kent shraiben oif mame loshn. Daniel Galay 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 11:30:44 PDT From: Yitzhak Kertesz Subject: Anschel Anschel is listed on p. 61 of Zunz, Leopold: Die Namen der Juden. Leipzig: 1837., along with Anschelm, and a mark indicates that according to Zunz the two are connected. Zunz quotes several occurrences in Medieval sources, such as the Maharil (xiv c.) Anselm is a German name, according to the Meyer's Enziklopaedisches Lexikon, ans = Gott + helm (helmet), the name became popular in the Middle Ages, after the xi century saint Anselm (Anselmus) of Canterbury. Sh and s were pronounced almost identically in the Middle Ages, see the French and German glosses in Rashi. Yitzhak Kertesz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 01:13:26 EDT From: sbenj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Geshlekhtikayt Regarding Vicki Fromkin's raising of the geshlekhte question, what about that old favorite on Shabbes and Yontif, "mekaye mitzvos?" On another subject, albeit less provocative....... Shloyme Axelrod was recently lamenting the poor condition of a video of The Dybbuk he recently saw. It might be worth checking out the Brandeis collection of remastered Yiddish films on video. They are a bit costly to rent so they are typically used for programs for organizations, however, they have been very well preserved and are worth the watch. Sholem Ruveyn Benjamin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 13:13:34 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Another version [Steve Dubin writes:] >...P.S. I would be most pleased if any experienced >Yidishists would translate my little musings into real >Yiddish. you got it. olsvanger did it--it's #10 in _royte pomerantsn_: 10. ISHO A VA... a rebe hot gelernt in kheyder mit di yinglekh. hobn zey gelernt a posik, in velkhn es iz geven der vort isho. taytsht der rebe "isho a va..." zogt der yingl vayter: "a vaser, rebe." "neyn, sheygets eyner! isho a va..." "a vants, rebe!" "yungatsh, amorets, grober yung! isho a va..." "rebe, a vald!" "goyishe kop! isho a va... dos iz aza zakh, vos ikh hob, un vos dayn tate hot, un du vest es nokh hobn." "a kile, rebe!" Ellen Prince ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.40 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.