Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 6.184
January 4, 1997

1) Mir/mikh un dir/dikh (Joachim Neugroschel)
2) "Ven ikh volt geven a shnayder" (Perl Teitelbaum)
3) Scholarship, syntax, linguistics (Louis Fridhandler)
4) Jet lag af yidish (Mendy Fliegler)
5) Der Pakn Treger (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 10:15:44 -0500 (EST)
From: achim1@cris.com
Subject: Mir/mikh un dir/dikh

Regarding David Herskovic's question [6.181] about the difference
between the Yiddish object pronouns "mir" and "mikh", the answer is very
simple: "mir" ("dir, im, ir, etc.) is the dative, "mikh" the accusative.
Every Yiddish preposition but one takes the dative:  "mit mir, far mir"
etc and there are countless verbs that take the dative"  "er git mir,"
etc.  The accusative, as in most Indo-European languages, is used for
the direct object of a verb:  "Er zet mikh"....  The situation is
somewhat muddied by regional usage, etc.  But standard Yiddish makes a
clear distinction between dative and accusative (as does German), and
any serious Yiddish speaker ought to go along with that.  Weinreich also
offers succinct paradigms in his appendix.  so why not memorize them?

All this is explained in the early parts of Weinreich's College.

I suspect that the people who have trouble with the difference between
"mir" and "mikh" are native English speakers, who unwittingly force
English grammar on Yiddish.

Joachim Neugroschel

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 03 Jan 97 14:20:40 EST
From: 74031.775@compuserve.com
Subject: "Ven ikh volt geven a shnayder"

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan (6.159) dermont Sidor Belarskys lid "Ven ikh
volt geven a shnayder". Ot zaynen di verter:

Ven ikh volt geven a shnayder volt ikk tog un nakht gezesn
Un geneyt far dir a kleydl vi es past far a printsesn.

	Bin ikh ober gor a zinger, zingen zing ikh sheyne lider,
	Vel ikh dikh, mayn kind, bazingen, un kh'vel kushn dayne finger.

Ven ikh volt geven a goldshmid, volt ikh dir fun reynem gingold
Oysgeshmidt a tabas kidushin, dikh badekht mit heyse kushn.

	Bin ikh ober...

Ven ikh volt geven a gertner, volt ikh, kind mayns, flantsn blumen.
Kh'volt di shenste oysgeklibn, un mit zey tsu dir gekumen.

	Bin ikh ober....

Verter un muzik fun Sidor Belarsky

Perl Teitelbaum
Queens, NY

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 14:46:22 -0500
From: lfridhan@aol.com
Subject: Scholarship, syntax, linguistics, yasher koyekh

I am recovering from a painful pinched neck nerve that severely limits
my time at the keyboard so I can't participate in current discussions as
I would like to, but I want to say a word about a current discussion I
can't follow (for the most part): linguistics and syntax. However,
yasher koyekh to those who can. My faith in the value of scholarship is
deep and abiding. Research that extends knowledge which is then used
with judgment, reason and love can yield power to nourish life.
L'Chayim!.

I feel as though I am watching a parade behind taller parade watchers. I
can't tell what's going on except when the paraders extend themselves to
higher visibility. But I know they are going forward in exciting
progress. My faith in scholarship was greatly strengthened some time
back when it was clarified for me (mostly by ellen prince, I believe)
that the German word for ugly, mies, came from Yiddish, not vice versa.
A small detail, but decidedly an important detail, a lesson in language
evolution.

Louis Fridhandler

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 23:22:30 -0500 (EST)
From: efliegle@CapAccess.org
Subject: Jet lag af yidish

Dos letste vort?

Herts khevre Mendlyaner, Ikh bin dokh geven an indzhinir. Nu, nemt men
'jet', dos heyst a shneler (gevaldiker) luft shtrom. Un nemt 'lag',
tsurikshepndik, un men shtelt di por verter tsuzamen: a tsurikshlepndik
luft shtromiker krankhayt: {tsadik, samekh, kuf}.

A farshlepte krenk!

Mendy Fliegler

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 11:37:16 -0500
From: shirshan@aol.com
Subject: Der Pakn Treger

Der tate fleg dertseyln, my father used to tell, how raisins were
scattered on the tattered, magical book when you started kheder. A
three-year-old in his raggedy shtetl, Skalat, he believed his bobe's
tale that angels dropped them there just for him, so as to make the
oysyelekh and, hence, reading/learning the sweetest thing in his life.

I almost believe angels (secular ones, of course) delivered the Winter
issue of the Pakn Treger (the magazine of the National Yiddish Book
Center) to my mailbox. Heaped with ideas and conceptualizations sweeter
than ruzhinkes un mandlen un afile shokolad, it enhanced my thoughts
(and so my life) and reenforces the age-old Jewish concept of  beauty of
reading/learning.

Its visual aids from archives we could never visit are alone worth the
mighty tour of its pages. Its survey of books touched at their heart
with precision and intelligence, and the review of the world of Yiddish
was, as always, refreshing.

The heart of this issue, the presentation of Sholem Asch's work is ever
exciting to me, and the play - "The God of Vengeance" - worthy of a
revisit, leaped over old barricades of censorship with grace. It
presents, in its entirety, a new translation by our own Mendelnik,
Joachim Neugroschel, followed by his intriguing essay on the process of
translation.

The Center staff and Jeff Sharlett, their visionary editor, should be
lauded, extolled, and rewarded for a masterful, slick edition.

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan
Boynton Beach, Florida

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End of Mendele Vol. 6.184