Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 3.
December 13, 1993

1) Yiddishe linguistic Fihrers (Marnen Laibow-Koser)
2) Tante/Mume (Blumke Kirschenbaum)
3) Bergelson (Bob Rothstein)
4) Bashevis Singer (Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat Dec 11 17:14:41 1993
From: laibow@brick.purchase.edu (Marnen Laibow-Koser)
Subject: Re: Yiddishe linguistic Fihrers

Zogt Arre Komar:

: Got zay dank Yidn hobn kayn Fihrers un veln kayn Fihrers hobn. Mir
: veln Yiddish shprekhn un shraybn in unser aygene proste mameloshn
: azoy vie men vil.. Shen genug!

Ikh bin maskem mit Arre...lomir sprekhen und shraybn yidish, un nit
krign zikh az tor men dis un tor men nit dos! Efsher azoy vetn mir
toyten di yidishe sprakhe, un dos vet zayn a shande. Nitzt di
sprakhe, un krigt aykh nit!

I'll switch to English now, because my Yiddish isn't good enough to
say this (and if someone feels the need to point out mistakes in the
above, go ahead). I feel that, though we surely cannot deny what is
*actually* said by experienced Yiddish speakers, just as surely can
we not deny that there are *some* rules to the Yiddish language, as
indeed to every language. Perhaps because Yiddish is primarily a
spoken language, the rules seem to be looser in Yiddish than in,
say, Latin, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. However,
precisely because the rules *are* loose, we must be very careful
about saying "always" and "never".

The recent debate about verb-first construction is, in fact, a
perfect example. Those who claimed that it was always incorrect were
flying in the face of established evidence, trying to remold the
data to fit the hypothesis instead of the other way around. This is
obviously inadvisable, and can only hurt one of the loveliest and
richest languages around. Note that I am not saying that any
demented construction one would care to come up with is kosher,
merely that the range of possibilities is far wider than is dreamt
of in your philosophy, Weinreich. ;> (Sorry if i've rambled on too
long; I felt this was an important point.)

A freylekhn Khanuke!

Marnen Laibow-Koser

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat Dec 11 19:46:12 1993
From: Blossom S. Kirschenbaum (Blumke) <CO401002@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
Subject: Tante/Mume

As a child I said "tante" to the sisters of my father and mother;
but the grandmotherly generation of aunties (not all exactly
great-aunts) were called "mume" (which we pronounced "mee-me).  My
parents were from Zashkov (Ukraine).  I wonder did anyone else's
family distinguish the generations in this way.  ...  All my Zeyde's
sisters were called "meeme."

Blumke

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun Dec 12 22:24:30 1993
From: ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN <rar@slavic.umass.edu>
Subject: Bergelson

Sean Martin asked about the word _guralnies_ in Bergelson's story
"Yordim" ("Vifl hot Shmuel eygene guralnies?").  It should probably
be read _guralnyes_ and presumably means 'distilleries', given
Ukrainian _hural'nia_ (variants:  _horal'nia_ and _horil'nia_) and
Polish _gorzelnia_, all meaning 'distillery'.

Bob Rothstein

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon Dec 13 06:49:38 1993
From: "Monika and Christopher Garbowski/a" <MARCIN@klio.umcs.lublin.pl>
Subject: Bashevis Singer

Dear MENDELE subscribers (especially those interested in Bashevis),

A unique book has just been published in Poland: A collection of
Bashevis' journalism (essays, interviews, feuilletons written
before, during and after the war) translated directly from the
Yiddish into Polish by Tomasz Kuberczyk from the Jewish Historical
Institute in Warsaw. The preface to the book was written by Prof.
Chone Shmeruk. Published by Sagittarius, this is a beautiful hard
cover edition with an alluring photograph of the writer. As far as I
know no similar edition exists in any language. Like all works by
Bashevis published in Poland this latest one sells very well, too.
Let's hope similar editions in other languages will follow.

Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, English Department, Maria
Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland

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End of Mendele Vol. 3.164

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