Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 3.102
September 12, 1993

1) Introduction (Sander I. Gilman)
2) Introduction (Nathan Greenberg)
3) Re: Yamike (Howie Aronson)
4) Re: Yehupets (Howie Aronson)
5) Yiddish clubs (Avrom Yitzkhok Blair)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 10 16:02:16 1993
From: slg3@cornell.edu  (sander l. gilman)
Subject: Introduction

I teach (among other things) Jewish Studies at Cornell.  I have
taught Yiddish and Yiddish culture here and have had as my focus
19th and early 20th century Jewish cultural studies.

Sander Gilman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 10 16:29:24 1993
From: FGREENB@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu
Subject: Introduction

My interest in Yiddish is real but uninstructed. Please allow me to
be a "lurker" - a passive kibitzer. I teach Latin and Greek. I have
some German and Hebrew. I remember going to the store and buying
"Der Tog" for my father. He claimed it was superior to the other
Yiddish newspapers. Was it?

Nathan Greenberg
Department of Classics
Oberlin College

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 10 22:58:22 1993
From: hia5@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject: Re: yamike

Bob Goldberg asked about the pronunciation  /yamike/. For what it's
worth, here in Chicago, when I was a kid, ages ago, the 'standard'
-English- pronunciation was /yamilke/ (stress on 1st syllable; final
syllable varying between the /e/ of English 'get' and the
traditional Anglo-Litvak /ij/, e.g., as in 'party,' or 'holly' (not
the wreath, but the bread),although it seems to me that a
pronunciation with out the /l/, i.e., /yamike/ was also possible. In
any event, the /r/ was never pronounced.

Howie Aronson

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 10 22:58:26 1993
From: hia5@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject: Re: Yehupets

Dovid Braun suggests that  "Yehupets is, ... purely oysgetrakht....
I don't know whether Yehupets was a creation of Sholem-Aleykhem, but
it's used idiomatically to mean 'some far off place', 'some random
geographical location' (like Podunk).

I must respectfully disagree. Yehupets is, I am certain, a
Yiddishization of the Ukrainian Yehypet "Egypt," i.e., Mitsroyim.
The final /ts/ may be due to the Ukr. adjective, yehypet'skyj. Why
Yeh/u/pets and not Yeh/i/pets. Two possibilities come to mind: (a.)
a deliberate hypercorrectism, similar to "Lutwak" for "Litwak," or
(b.) a possible Ukrainian variant, since historically /h/ (/g/)
didn't occur before /i/> /y/. Since the reference is to (Biblical)
Egypt, Yehupets doesn't mean some far off place, "Podunk," but the
major cultural center of the local universe, i.e., for
Sholem-Aleykhem a metropolis such as Kiev.

Howie Aronson


5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Sep 10 23:15:16 1993
From: Allan E Blair <ablair@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Yiddish clubs

     A gutn Yontif ahf aykh alle!

     The First International Conference on Yiddish Clubs held at the
U. of Maryland by the Wash. DC Yiddish Clubs was a huge success.
Watch this space for news of the SECOND Internal'l Conf. on Yiddish
Clubs to be held in Toronto, Canada the first weekend in October,
1994.

     A happy new year and an easy fast

Avrom (Allan) Yitzkhok Blair

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 3.102