Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.247 February 9, 1996 1) National Yiddish Book Center (Dovid Braun) 2) Yiddish words and rhyming dictionary (Dovid Braun) 3) Bokser and kharub (Hershl Hartman) 4) Yiddish in Israel, February 1996 (Yude-Leyb Prager) 5) American English _chutzpah_ (Yude-Leyb Prager) 6) Myron Cohen (Ellen Cassedy) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 02:02:36 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Is the National Yiddish Book Center on the Internet? If someone would let me (or "Mendeleyeners" at large) know whether the National Yiddish Book Center is contactable by e-mail, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks in advance! Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 02:16:38 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Looking for Yiddish words; Yiddish rhyming dictionary Can someone think of a Yiddish adjectival stem that ends in -rn or -rl? (Specifically adjectival *stems*, not derived adjectives like _a nay GEBOYRN kind_.) The only one I can think of is _modern_. And can anyone give me information about a Yiddish rhyming dictionary? (If I'm not mistaken, Nokhem Stutshkov compiled one. Is this right? Are there any others? Do you have one that I could borrow or buy?) Incidentally, I ask the above because I'm working on a project analyzing Yiddish word structure -- it's not for writing poetry (although after I finish this project, I could easily see myself writing some). My thanks in advance! Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 13:14:47 -0500 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Bokser and kharub I find it curious that there has been no response to my query about the origin of the Yiddish term "bokser"and how it came to be used when a (presumably) biblical Hebrew word for "carob" existed (kharub). Are Mendelyaner linguists too absorbed in the pluperfect? Hershl Hartman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Feb 96 20:17:19 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Yiddish in Israel, February 1996 A subtle strategy is best. It has been working effectively for some time now. Yiddish must be lauded -- and simultaneously lowered into place. There is no "Yiddish culture," only "Yiddish folklore." There is this immense body of juicy jokes which lose their tang in translation -- "be-yidish ze metsaltsel yoter tov" ('it sounds better in Yiddish'). One cannot praise you blacks enough for your musical talent and you women for your maternal touch. Yiddish is funny; the very name Yiddish puts one in stitches. It is Wednesday morning, February 7th, 1996, on the Voice of Israel and Dalia Meiri, hostess-commentator-interviewer-gossip galore of a popular talk show is chattering away in her typically flippant manner about the morning's offerings. These will include the subject of Yiddish, for that morning Yiddish is to be discussed in the Knesset's Education Committee. Meiri gleefully introduces the subject with the question, "Ma, hayidish adayin chay?" ('What, is Yiddish still alive?'). Her tone of unbridled hilarity is matched by that of her male sidekick (stooge?) Shocked listeners like myself had not caught on as to what the joke was, but those in the know knew the joke was Yiddish. It was soon clear that the interviewee, Gershon Viner, Chairman of the World Council for Yiddish, was at least as obtuse as I was. Meiri persistently -- indeed, obsessively and repellingly -- pestered Viner to "tell us a joke in Yiddish." He replied that this was not the occasion -- doubtless presuming (as who would not?) that the interview was tied to the serious deliberations regarding Yiddish being held that very morning in the nation's highest tribunal. But Meiri insisted again and again: "Tell us a Yiddish joke, tell us a juicy Yiddish joke, we want a joke, a joke, a joke." Viner ignored Meiri's sick request with dignity. Lying in bed with a monster cast on my broken ankle -- which explains why I had turned on the radio in the first place -- I heard a voice (could it have been my own?) shouting: "Barabolikhe, plaplerke, leptshikhe, yakhne, moylmakherin, kalekotnitse, yentushke, rekhilesnitse!" Zoln ameratsim un yidishfaynt khotsh visn as yidish iz an ernst inyen un in yidish ken men zidlen un shnidlen un nisht nor zikh vitslen! Yude-Leyb Prager 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Feb 96 20:17:19 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: American English _chutzpah_ Most instances of general English _chutzpa/chutzpah_ (the apparently preferred American English spellings) that one sees these days carry a positive sense in direct contrast to their pejorative meanings in both Yiddish (_khutspe_) and Hebrew (_chutspa_). As the instance below indicates, this shift is not universal. The word _nerve_ as used below preserves the full force of Hebrew _chutspa_ and Yiddish _khutspe_. However, we should note that the editor of _Maledicta_, Reinhold Aman (a native speaker of Bavarian German) knows Yiddish. (Indeed, his maverick journal is full of Yiddish items.) Recently released from prison for allegedly dangerous verbal behavior, the editor of "The International Journal of Verbal Aggression" (P.O. Box 14123, Santa Rosa, CA 95402-6123, USA (707) 523-4761) is now open again for business. You can get a copy of Abraham A. Roback's _A Dictionary of International Slurs_ (lots of Yiddish) from Maledicta Press quite cheaply. Yude-Leyb Prager 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 23:58:55 -0500 From: cassblum@aol.com Subject: Myron Cohen recording Louis Fridhandler asks about recordings of comedian Myron Cohen. Two of his monologues -- "Idle Conversation" and "Swimming Pool Story" appear on a cassette called "20th Century Yiddish Humor," put out by Banner Records, POB 1516, Boynton Beach, FL 33436. I ordered it from Workmen's Circle, 45 East 33rd St., NY NY 10016. The pieces are really funny. The one I like best is about a woman who has recently made it into a more refined crowd. To impress her sophisticated new friends, she claims she saw Mozart getting on the Number 5 bus to the beach. On the way home, her husband yells at her: "You know perfectly well the Number 5 doesn't go to the beach." Other comedians on the tape include Billy Hodes, Radio Aces, Larry Best, George Jessel, Leo Fuchs, Leslie Brothers. Ellen Cassedy Bethesda, MD ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.247