Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.128 November 3, 1993 1) Condolences (Bob Rothstein) 2) Lipman Bers (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Fencing and turtlenecks (Leah Jenschke) 4) Khoylem, komets, etc. (Jeremy Stern) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Nov 3 07:54:48 1993 From: ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN Subject: Condolences Condolences to Mendele colleague Victor Bers on the death of his father, whom yesterday's New York Times characterized as both a distinguished mathematician and an outspoken defender of human rights. Zol er nit visn mer fun keyn tsar. Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 3 09:28:36 1993 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: Lipman Bers I'd like to draw the attention of all our correspondents to the death of Dr. Lipman Bers, father of one of our subscribers, Victor Bers. Lipman Bers was scholar of high esteem and a man of unusual quality and and admirable personal qualities. I`d like to express my personal condolences to Victor and to his mother, Dr. Mary Bers. An obituary appeared in this morning`s New York Times. Mikhl Herzog. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 2 16:24:54 1993 From: Lisa A Jenschke Subject: Fencing and turtlenecks Dear Mendelniks, I have the great honor of teaching one section of Yiddish 101 here at Ohio State University this quarter, and I have been delighted by the curiosity of my students. This translates to "They are asking me questions I can't answer." Perhaps some of you can... I have one student who is on the fencing team and would like to use some Yiddish exclamation when he scores a point. Kind of the opposite of "oy vey." Any other fencing terms you might know in Yiddish will also be of help. Modern Clothing: When teaching basic words for clothing, I noticed that my students were wearing things that didn't fit these basic categories. I need words for "turtleneck," "leggings," "sweatshirt," "sweatpants," and "sneakers." Gender for professions: Do we have a consensus about how to designate a female doctor, lawyer, teacher, secretary, et cetera? In today's climate are we moving away from the suffixes (ke, in, and she)? If so, can I say di student as well as der student? Di lerer as well as der lerer? Both I and my students thank you in advance for your help. If you prefer, send replies to me personally at ljenschk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu zayt gezunt! Leah 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 2 18:42:32 1993 From: Jeremy Stern Subject: Khoylem, komets, etc. Dovid Braun writes: > In those American Orthodox institutions where most of life is conducted > in English but in which the Ashkenazic pronunciation is still prevalent > and largely uninfluenced by Modern Israeli Hebrew, the komets is > approximately the vowel sound in English _but_ and the khoylem-vov > is the vowel sound in English _home_. I've noticed this type of pronunciation on the part of people in the Yeshiva University milieu. The komets seems to be longer than _but_, however. An interesting point is that Y.U.niks pray using an English "r" for "resh." One question I have is why Orthodox people generally call the pre-marriage calling to the Torah an "ufruf". I would have expected the more common "oyf" prefix (more common in America). By the way, Yekkified Jews do say "Aufruf." Another observation. There is a tendency in modern Orthodox communities to prefer the Ashkenazic pronunciation in more formal instances, such as in Bar-Mitzvah invitations, announcements in the synagogue, all the while using Ashkenazic pronunciation in common speech. For example, a modern orthodox Jew would "Go to shul on shabes," but would write "Shabbat Parah" in the synagogue. As one moves more to the religious right, even printed materials show the Ashkenazic version, though Chabad is a little more ambivalent about this. Jeremy ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.128