Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.192 December 5, 1994 1) Membrum virile (Stephen Dubin) 2) Sholem Aleichem in America (Bob Rothstein) 3) Litvish grammar;rhymes (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Taytshn (Jascha Kessler) 5) Yiddish Children's Literature (Zachary Baker) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 4 17:29:26 1994 From: "S. Dubin" Subject: Membrum Virile [Mikhl Herzog writes:] >3. Ellen: Your "pishy-tushy" analogy is a nice one. The only >Yiddish childhood reference to the male organ that I recall is, >strangely enough, "pipikl". Am I alone in this? How about "petzele"? As in, "A leben af don petzele." I assume it is the affectionate dimunitive of putz. Stephen Dubin 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 4 22:16:05 1994 From: ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN Subject: Sholem Aleichem in America Noyekh asked some time ago about an American version of Sholem Aleichem's story "Vos iz khaneke?" Khone Shmeruk mentions it in his paper "Sholem Aleichem and America" in the latest volume of _YIVO Annual_ (vol. 20, 1991). In fn. 34 (p. 237) he gives the title as "Khaneke in der finfter evenyu: a bild der yidisher 'hay layf' in Nyu-york" and indicates that it was published in _Yidishes tageblat_, 2-3 December 1907. Shmeruk doesn't mention any other publication of the story. Can any of our literature- and/or bibliography-mumkhim help? Bob Rothstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 4 22:41:20 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: Litvish grammar; rhymes 1. Peretz Mett: Further to the question of Litvish Yiddish grammar. I wonder if you've been assyuming that the grammar of Standard Yiddish is essentially Litvish. Not so! Standard Yiddish is an amalgam of essentially Litvish Yiddish phonology and Southeastern Yiddish grammar. Strange, but true. 2. Tom Leverett: I'm trying to guess your family's origins but the evidence is contradictory. Here's a possible reconstruction: Shmid, shmid, shmid Nem dem hamer mit (1) Ven du vilst dos (2) ferd bashukhn Must dem hamer mit zikh (3) trogn (1) The vowels of "shmid" and "mit" make a perfect rhyme only in the Litvish area; the final consonants only in the Polish area. (2) Neuter gender "dos ferd" is non-Litvish. (3) Your transcription "mitchik" suggests Litvish "mit zhikh" (i.e. "zikh"). So, what's the story? Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jan 5 02:40:19 1994 From: KESSLER Subject: re taytshn Isnt what I am hearing, to work, to be of use, to be availing? Es teugt nit, my father would say, when was saying, It's no use, it wont work, it doesnt go, such as flogging a dead horse to make him get up and go. I always heard the 'g' i n it. It could have been toyt nit, perhaps. But he was from Bessarabia. That was the sound one heard on the radio in the 1930s, which was the Yiddish I heard . Kessler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jan 5 10:47:52 1994 From: Zachary Baker (bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu) Subject: Yiddish Children's Literature In response to Barbara Sicherman's question, "Was there a children's lit in Yiddish, ca. 1900, in US or Russia?" (MENDELE 3.191), I would like to refer her and others interested in the subject to the following article by Dina Abramowicz -- YIVO's long-time reference librarian and my predecessor as head librarian: "Yiddish Juvenilia: Ethnic Survival in the New World," in "Wilson Library Bulletin," vol. 50, no. 2 (October 1975), pp. 138-145. "The beginning of children's literature in Yiddish," writes Miss Abramowicz, is the Sholem Aleichem story, "Dos meserl," first published in 1888. Other S.A. stories about (and to a degree, for) children were collected in vols. 7-8 of his works as "Mayses far yidishe kinder." "Stories about Jewish children were also written by other great writers of the pre-World War I era, and there was also poetry, which could be adapted for juvenile readers," states Miss Abramowicz. "But as a contemporary observer noted, it was rather 'literature about children than for children'." (The reference is to the article "Kinder-literatur," by the Yiddish literary critic Sh. Niger [Shmuel Tsharni/Samuel Charney], in "Di yudishe velt," no. 9 [Sept. 1913], pp. 143-146.) As Miss Abramowicz notes, "Literature for children as a special genre began to develop with the first attempts to create Yiddish schools, around 1911-1912," citing such chrestomathies as Jacob Fichman's "Far shul un folk" (Warsaw: 1913). The heyday of Yiddish children's literature comes after World War I, and the role of Yiddish(ist) school systems in disseminating and popularizing this genre cannot be understated. This holds for Poland, the Soviet Union, Argentina, the U.S., and Canada. "The first Yiddish juveniles on American soil appeared in 1913 and were related to the Yiddish secular school movement," notes Miss Abramowicz, citing Yosl/Joseph Mlotek's article, "Di yidishe kinder-literatur in di Fareynikte Shtatn," in vol. 5 in the series "Yidn" of the "Algemeyne entsiklopedye" (New York: 1957), pp. 220-224. Another relevant citation is Kh. Sh. Kazhdan/Hayyim Solomon Kazdan's article, "Finf -un-draysik yor yidishe kinder literatur," in "Shulpinkes" (Chicago: 1946), pp. 335-379. Now I would like to draw MENDELnikes' attention to a collection of over 1,000 Yiddish children's books that have been preserved by YIVO on microfiche. A guide to the collection, "Yiddish Children's Literature from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research," selection by Dina Abramowicz [and] Stanley Bergman, was published by Clear- water Publishing Company (NY), in 1988, and includes a brief intro- duction by Miss Abramowicz. A more detailed catalog, bearing the same title, was prepared by Tammy Shemer and published by the Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA: 1990). The original catalog and the project on which it was based have (loy aleykhem) been severely criticized by Khone/Chone Shmeruk, in the latest issue of the Israeli national bibliography, "Kiryat sefer" (vol. 64, no. 1, 1992-1993; pp. 327-329). Prof. Shmeruk's criticisms are directed at the collection's exclusive reliance on a single library's (i.e., YIVO's) holdings, on the selection criteria adopted for the project (why were certain titles included, and others excluded from the project?), and on the inadequacies of the Clearwater finding aid (which, he concedes, have largely been addressed by the published Harvard catalog). In defense of the project directors, I would like to state for the record that "Yiddish Children's Literature" was conceived of as a library preservation project primarily, and only secondarily as an effort to provide bibliographical coverage of a neglected field. The funding source (New York State Education Dept.) precluded reliance on out-of-state libraries and in any case intended its support to go toward microfilming of the maximum number of books possible within a very limited time frame (one year). Although I claim no responsibi- lity for the results of the project (I came on board as it was winding up), and will certainly grant some of Prof. Shmeruk's criticisms -- particularly as they touch upon the Clearwater finding aid's quality -- I am more than satisfied that the taxpayers of the State of New York got plenty of bang for their buck, and that as a consequence future researchers in the field of Yiddish children's literature not only have secured their access to a very large proportion of the overall corpus but now have the bibliographical foundations to enhance the already considerable achievements of Miss Abramowicz and Mr. Bergman in preserving these materials. That last paragraph is aimed especially at avid readers of Prof. Shmeruk's review in "Kiryat sefer." Zachary Baker, YIVO Library ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.192 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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