Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.152 December 20, 1996 1) Rusalke (Michael Schein) 2) Rusalke (Pinnie Saiger) 3) Slavic influences on Yiddish syntax (Dovid Braun) 4) Slavic component of Yiddish (Meyer-Leyb Wolf) 5) "Ikh fur aheym" (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 6) Poetry (for beginners) (Margaret Mikulska) 7) Poetry (for beginners) (Morrie Feller) 8) When is one considered a Yiddishist? (Iosif Vaisman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 12:35:55 -0600 (CST) From: mschein@comp.uark.edu Subject: Rusalke "Rusalke" probably comes from the same place as the Russian "rusalka", which is something like a mermaid. Michael Schein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 23:34:31 -0500 (EST) From: pinnie@freenet.toronto.on.ca Subject: Rusalke In Mendele vol 6.147 Khane-Faygl Turtletaub was asking the meaning of rusalke. In Ukrainian the word means a mermaid. Percy (Pinnie) Saiger 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 15:35:24 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Slavic influences on Yiddish syntax In reply to Ellen Prince's query [6.149] about Slavic influences on Yiddish syntax: Multiple WH-fronting is a relevant phenomenon. Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 23:22:28 -0500 (EST) From: wolfim@chelsea.ios.com Subject: Slavic component of Yiddish Ellen Prince (6.149) writes that in ten years she has "not yet found anything in Yiddish syntax that could be construed as Slavic, at least not by what theoretical syntacticians mean by 'syntax'". Given the level of abstraction with which theoretical syntacticians approach syntax nowadays, it may be difficult to find any significant differences between Yiddish & Slavic syntax in the first place. Still, those who claim that there is Slavic influence have a few (very few) examples and it would be instructive to learn why such examples as the following are not good examples. 1. The position of the reflexive pronoun after the infinitive verb when the verb is the subject of the sentence 'bodn zikh nokh heyser arbet iz a mekhaye" is like Polish, but unlike German. 2. The use of "negative" clauses of purpose after certain verbs, e.g. 'ikh hob moyre, dos kind zol nit veynen' -- I'm afraid the child might cry -- is again like Polish, but unlike German. 3. Regionally, negative imperatives are formed on the pattern 'nit veyn', like Polish, but unlike German (and the rest of Yiddish). Meyer-Leyb Wolf 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:53:16 -0500 From: lights4607@aol.com Subject: "Ikh fur aheym" Does anyone know, or know where I can obtain, the words (and the music) to the yiddish song "Ikh Fur Aheym?" I'd also like to know who has recorded this song and is it available on tape? Additional information on who wrote the song in what year would also be interesting to hear about. A shaynem dank faroys. Sema Chaimovitz Menora 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 17:52:14 -0500 (EST) From: mikulska@astro.princeton.edu Subject: Poetry (for beginners) [Regarding Chava Ermentrout's query (6.151)]: Try to find: Abraham Sutzkever, The Fiddle Rose (Poems 1970-1972) Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1990, ISBN 0-8143-2001-5, ISBN 0-8143-2002-3 (paperback) It's a bilingual edition with the Yiddish text in Hebrew script and an English translation on the facing page. Illustrated with Chagall's drawings. Beginning readers or not, the poetry absolutely stunning - but Sutzkever doesn't need an introduction here. Grab it. It's just beautiful. What I particularly like about his poetry is a sort of magic realism in it: one of the poems, for instance, has a cherry tree growing from the dream into the reality of the day ("...tsevig ikh oyf der vor die tsvaygn / aroysgevaksene fun kholem"). Margaret Mikulska 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 17:38:21 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Bilingual Yiddish poetry books In response to Chava Ermentrout's request in Mendele 6.151 for bilingual Yiddish poetry books, I can mention the following: (1) The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse (Howe, Wisse,Shmeruk-eds) (2) Onions and Cucumbers and Plums (Sarah Zweig Betsky, Wayne State University Press, 1958) (3) An Anthology of Modern Yiddish Poetry (Ruth Whitman, October House Inc., New York, 1966) Morrie Feller Phoenix 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:24:09 -0500 (EST) From: iiv@mmlds1.pha.unc.edu Subject: When is one considered a Yiddishist? Sarah Benor writes [6.151,1] that one of her Yiddish literature professors says that Morris Rosenfeld does not qualify for the Yiddishist title. I have no problems with that. What bothers me a little more is that some other Yiddish literature professors themselves easily qualify for true Englishists (my reading of Webster's dictionary suggests that Englishist is the one who advocates use of English language as oppose to e.g. Spanish or Yiddish). But, on a serious note, the classical definition of an Yiddishist was offered by Sholem Aleichem in "Kasrilevke progres" (chapter XII, "Idishistn un hebreistn"). There we learn that if one pronounces _mikhnosaim_ he (or she) is clearly an Yiddishist. But, if _mikhnataim_ is your choice, then sorry. The club is closed. The beauty of this test is that it can be easily self-administered, does not require any expensive equipment or an advanced degree in comparative literature. Do we need anything better? Iosif Vaisman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.152