Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.013 June 6, 1994 1) Introduction (Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner) 2) Introduction (Ruth Levine) 3) Introduction (Paula Horwitz) 4) Pro drop (Delphine Bechtel) 5) Kibitz about Kibosh (Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner) 6) Yiddish comics (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch) 7) Pronouncing vav ("and") before bilabials (Shleyme Axelrod) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 18:33:01 1994 From: REISNER%PLEARN.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Introduction Some of you may recall my occasional comments from Moscow last year. Now we're in Warsaw. I am now Director of Research and Archives of The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, a private, U.S.-based foundation doing educational and cultural work in Central Europe. My task here is to assist the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland in its library, archives and expanding museum of Polish Jewish history and culture, in a variety of ways. My wife, Helise Lieberman, is also a Foundation employee, and she will, be-ezras HaShem, be opening Warsaw's first Jewish elementary school in decades this fall. (THe foundation has supported a kinder- garten for nearly four years already.) It's quite exciting. I welcome queries on Poland or Lithuania. Zayt mir gezint. I look forward to fruitful collaboration and enjoyable discussion. Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 21:33:57 1994 From: NKRR12B@prodigy.com Subject: Introduction I wish I could write to you in Yiddish but I don't have a command of the language. I came from Yiddish speaking parents and I have a profound love of the language and its literature. I'm not sure what you send though the system but my Mom is still alive and 88 yrs. old and I'm sure she would enjoy your stories even if tranliterated. I read about you in Hadassah magazine. Thanks. Ruth Levine 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 22:44:27 1994 From: PQH5922@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Introduction I have been lurking on this list for months and want to take advantage of our shames' suggestion to share information of a Jewish cultural nature. My name is Paula Horwitz; I was born of Jewish parents and raised in a secular home. The only Yiddish spoken in my midst was when my parents conversed and it wasn't meant for my ears. However, being a native New Yorker I have a limited vocabulary of Yinglish. I also have a strong sense of Jewish identity and therefore have been enjoying the numerous informative discussions by the many learned people who so avidly contribute their knowledge to this list. In fact I have shared several of those messages with my friends and family. Paula Horwitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 2 10:11:37 1994 From: BOULANGER@MESIOB.OBSPM.FR Subject: pro drop To Ellen Prince and Bob Rothstein: I just read the evidences of pro drop cited by bob Rothstein from Zaretski, and strikingly enough they were all from Der Nister, but for one instance. Having translated Der Nister myself and having spent lots of time wondering about his style, I would just be cautious about accepting these quotes as general evidence for Yiddish as a whole. Der Nister developped a very idiosyncratic style, dropping many things, for example also articles in places where no Yiddish speaker would have done so. These examples testify to the creative poetic intentions of Der Nister, but I think they cannot be used as evidence for such a use in spoken or written Yiddish otherwise. Delphine Bechtel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 2 19:08:34 1994 From: REISNER%PLEARN.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Kibitz about Kibosh Dan Kirschner asks (4.012) about possible Yiddish etymology for "kibosh." This question has been around for a long time and has not, to my knowledge, been entirely resolved. I just wanted to mention that Leo Rosten, in his book, THE JOYS OF YIDDISH, spends page after page (see entry for "kibosh") citing sources that say that kibosh is, isn't, or might be from Yiddish. No-one seems to have a credible Yiddish etymology for it. His discussion ends with the written equivalent of a throwing up of the hands. He seems to feel it's not Yiddish; it just feels Yiddish. I think "kibosh" needs to be added to the dictionary of Yiddish "wannabes" along with words like umbrella (accent on FIRST syllable, please!), spatula, and -- my personal favorite -- farfetched. :) Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jun 3 08:55:09 1994 From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Subject: Yiddish comics I have recently discovered a comic book in Yiddish by Will Eisner, "An opmakh mit got - a grafisher novele fun Will Eisner". It is a very nice yiddish story published in many languages before it finally appeared in its original yiddish version in 1984. It was published as a special edition by the "Strip-Antikvariat Lambik" in Amsterdam. If anybody is interested, I can provide the address of the comic store where I found the book in Germany. Does anybody know about more comics in yiddish, eventually of comics with yiddish/jewish topics??? Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Jun 4 13:26:45 1994 From: PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Pronouncing vav ("and") before bilabials Oyver botl again. In the takeoff on "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" published in the Yiddish Forverts on May 13, the expression is spelled ayin-vov-veys-reysh vov-[b]veys-tes-lamed. The question is, how should the second word and its prefix be pronounced? /v'botl/ sounds right to me, and to fellow Mendelenik Chaim Rosmarin. But I've been told that in Hebrew the vav meaning "and" is pronounced /u/ before bilabials, with /b/ going to /v/ (and /p/ going to /f/). This would mean /uvotl/, I believe. Is Yiddish bound by the rule? IS it a rule? A dank. Un gut shabes alemen. --Shleyme Axelrod ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.013 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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