Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.296 April 3, 1996 1) Yugntruf Activities: April 1996 (Ruvn Millman) 2) New Israeli bill (Dovid Yosef Hershkovitz) 3) Rav pninim (Arnie Kuzmack) 4) Du and ir (Arnie Kuzmack) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 00:40:48 -0500 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Yugntruf Activities: April 1996 April 1996 The Yiddish Discussion Group invites you to the second meeting in the series the older generation reminisces The speaker will be actor and YIVO co-worker David Rogow. Last year, Mr. Rogow performed in the Ivye Project, a mass spectacle in memory the Jews murdered in the shtetl Ivye (White Russia). He will show some video scenes of the spectacle in the woods near Ivye where the monument stands. There will follow an opportunity to ask questions both about the Ivye Project and about Mr. Rogow's reminiscences. Thursday, April 25, 6:00 pm at YIVO, 555 West 57th Street, 11th floor (between Amsterdam and West End Avenue), Manhattan. (Take the #1/#9 train to 59th Street or the M11 bus to 57th Street.) Refreshments will be served. RSVP by April 24: Brukhe Lang (212) 280-1168. We thank the YIVO staff for its help with the technical aspects of this Discussion, and for its permission to meet in the YIVO building. _____ Yugntruf's Yiddish Writers' Circle will meet Thursday, April 18, 6:00pm in our office (200 West 72 Street #40). Come and read your latest poem or short story, or just come and listen. _____ Come join in a game of basketball in Yiddish! Yugntrufistn play most Wednesdays at 8:00am. For further details call Ruvn Millman (718) 237-0961 or Ruvn@aol.com. _____ The Yugntruf Yidish-vokh is coming up! Our annual (and cheap!) Yiddish vacation in the scenic Berkshire Mountains will take place this year from Wednesday August 28 to Tuesday September 3. Netball, basketball, lectures, singing, hiking, boating--all in Yiddish! Last year there were over 100 participants from around the world. The number of places is limited--reserve yours now! Information: Binyumen "Ben" Schaechter (212) 989-0212. (Der Yidisher tekst kumt bald on) Ruvn Millman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Apr 96 07:42:08 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: New Israeli bill First of all mazel tov to Leybl Botvinik and the many others who worked for the Israeli bill that aims to preserve and promote yiddish. Anything of this kind for yiddish can only be a good thing. Now that the bill is passed could leybl perhaps give us an idea of the hurdles he to jump before getting this far. How many doors were closed in his face and how many calls were just hung up. After all the European Union has recognised yiddish as being worthy of support and special recognition long before the 'Yiddishe' state believed it to be necessary. I hope I do not sound overly cynical by assuming or even taking for granted that somewhere in the bill, tucked away in an obscure clause in klayn oysiyes are words, not explicitly, but to the effect that the bill is intended only where the committee feels yiddish is in need in preservation. Where, however, yiddish is found to be flourishing, spoken by big and small, rich and poor, old and young, it would be deemed that preservation is inapropriate and thus these communities would not be entitled to any of benefits of the bill. Or am I just afflicted by a bout of pre-Paysekh pessimism? a koshere in fraylikhe paysekh far akh ale. Dovid Yosef Hershkovitz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 15:18:13 -0500 (EST) From: kuzmack@cpcug.org Subject: Rav pninim The discussion of the book of thkines, Rav pninim, moved me to look at my copy, the Hebrew Publishing Company, 1916 edition. The language is *very* daitshmerish. In addition to exta heh's and ayin's, it's got a lot of very German vocabulary: on the title page, 'mit fiele perushim', on the table of contents 'inhalts-fertseikhnis', etc. But it also has a lot of purely Yiddish phonology, morphology and syntax, e.g., 'un ven ikh volt shoyn gelebt toiz(e)nt yo(h)r' ), p. 163. I think one could make an interesting study of the ivri-taitsh language of this and other sforim. Incidentally, in a surprisingly modern touch, the phrase 'eloyhey avoyseynu' is translated in a gender-free form as 'got fun mayne elter(e)n.' Arnie Kuzmack 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 15:18:13 -0500 (EST) From: kuzmack@cpcug.org Subject: Du/ir I think there are two things going on here. One is that the US is a very informal society, at least in terms of address. Our president is Bill and his oppenent is Bob. In daily interaction, we frequently address someone we have just met with his/her first name. If we use du with people with whom we are on a first-name basis, we would use du a lot more than, say, Yiddish speakers in the UK. The original question was whether that is in fact the case. Second, English speakers who are learning Yiddish tend to be taught du first, and it tends to stick even after they learn ir. I have noticed the same pattern with students learning French (including myself many years ago). Having used vous for you, they have trouble using tu when it is appropriate. Thus, there was a popular song years ago with the title, voulez-vous coucher avec moi? :-) Ikh vuntsh ale mendelnikes a zisn un koshern pesakh. Arnie Kuzmack ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.296 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. 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