Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.210 January 29, 1994 1) Jewish languages (Marnen Laibow-Koser) 2) Korn's "A nay kleyd" (Shleyme Axelrod) 3) Puns (Chane Honig) 4) Yiddishe radiprogrammen in Philadelphia (Rob Frantz) 5) Yosele Hill (Arre Komar) 6) Learning Yiddish (Bob Poe) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 25 17:34:47 1994 From: laibow@brick.purchase.edu (Marnen Laibow-Koser) Subject: Jewish Languages While we're on the subject of Jewish languages other than Yiddish, I think I'll put in a word about Yevanic, or Judeo-Greek (I assume the word comes from Hebrew "Yavan" = "Greece"), which I understand bears much the same relationship to Greek as Yiddish does to German: it's basically a dialect of Greek written in Hebrew script. I think it's pretty much died out; I don't know that much about it, but I can check around if anybody's interested. (BTW, I've never heard Ladino called Judeo-Espagnol, though I have heard it called Judeo-Spanish or Djudesmo/Judezmo.) Marnen Laibow-Koser 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jan 26 09:46:07 1994 From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: Korn's "A nay kleyd" Mark Flumerfelfelt was struck by an English version of Rokhl Korn's "A new dress". Here's the Yiddish. a nay kleyd ikh hob zikh ongeton haynt, tsum ershtn mol nokh zibn lange yor a nay kleyd. nor s'iz tsu kurts far mayn troyer un tsu eng far mayn layd, un s'iz a yeder vays-glezerner knop, vi a trer, vos flist fun di faldn arop farshteynert un shver. Striking indeed. --Shleyme Axelrod 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 25 From: Alice Honig Subject: Puns David Sherman: A shaynem dank far die Yiddishe fractured puns. Du host gefregen az efshe onder Mendelnikes villen ondere fractured puns oifn Yiddish.. Ovade Yoh! please print them all and I for one will print screen them from the EMail. IN adance....a groisen dank! Alice Honig (Chane) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 28 15:59:56 1994 From: Rob Frantz Subject: Yiddishe radiprogrammen in Philadelphia Ikh vel forn tzu Philadelphia far bezukhen mayn Mama bei soyf fun dieses vokh. Vel ikh zayn in Philly fun 1/29-2/5 un vil vissen vos fara Yiddishe radioprogram oder programmen faran itzt in Philly. Bitte, shikt mir informatzia oyf diese frage. ROBELE 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 28 16:00:48 1994 From: "Dr. Arthur Komar" Subject: Yosele Hill Fro those mendelniks who are familiar with the old wobbly song Joe Hill I thought that you might enjoy an old Yiddish version from the 30's. Unfortunately I only managed to recover 3 stanzas but the tam is still there. Ikh leg mir shlofn do ba nakht In shtib siz sha un shtil Ikh efn op die aygelakh Hoo ha do shtayt Joe Hill Oy Yosele ikh sog tsu ihm 'Khob gemaynt du host geshtorbn Makh tsu dayn moyl du narish khlob Kuk ikh oys vie a korbn? Die balabostn hobn dikh umgebrakht Tsu hitn ihre raykh 'Svet zay gor nit helfn ven arbeter Fun velt feraynigt aykh! If anyone is able to add the many missing stanzas it would be much appreciated. Arre Komar. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 28 16:01:16 1994 From: poe@keps.com (Bob Poe) Subject: Learning Yiddish Khayem Bochner's note on January 17 reminded me that I actually had a copy of "Der yidisher lerer", by H. E. Goldin. It was given to me in the 1960's by my great-uncle, Pinkhes Rudoy, who wrote under the name Pinye Bal-Loshn; apparently he had used the book (which was originally published in 1924 and was re-published in 1939) to teach Yiddish, but I don't know when or where. He also gave me an old dog-eared copy of a book he had written himself: "Dos yidishe kind", described on the title page as "a lerbukh--bashtimt far di yidishe klasn in di talmud-toyres". The copyrights are from 1929 and 1931, by the Educational Stationery House and the Hebrew Publishing Co. It was based on his teaching experiences in New York. I found both books helpful when I was first trying to learn something of Yiddish, but I would think that "College Yiddish" would be more generally useful to an adult student, even for self-study. Bob Poe ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.210 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files