Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.241 February 26, 1997 1) Ende oysiyes (Rick Turkel) 2) Ende oysiyes (Andrey Bredstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 11:54:03 -0500 From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Ende oysiyes I am compelled to take issue with ellen prince with regard to the following comment on this question (6.240): let's keep our time frame straight -- the orthographic modifications were a long time ago; the ussr was, i believe, the second country to recognize israel in 1948. besides, there is no reason for them to have believed that the state of israel would endow the alphabet with sacred status. so i see no evidence that the orthography issue had anything to do with zionism. if there is any, i'd love to hear about it. She is, of course, correct that the USSR was the second country to recognize Israel in 1948. However, Zionism as a political movement is over half a century older than that. I agree that the revised orthography had nothing to do with Israel, since, as she wrote, the change long predated Israel's establishment. In addition, there was no need for the Soviets to have worried about the State of Israel endowing the alphabet with sacred status - religious Jews had already done so at least as far back as Talmudic times. Rather, it was the general antireligious stance of the USSR (which was an integral part of Communist ideology and ultimately led, among other things, to the conversion of one of Leningrad's cathedrals into the Museum of the History of Atheism) and the obvious connection of the Yiddish alphabet to Hebrew, the liturgical language of the Jews, that so bothered the Soviet authorities. They supported anything that would weaken that connection, and messing with the orthography of the Hebrew component of Yiddish was an ideal mechanism for that. Eliminating the lange oysiyes was probably an afterthought, and a less meaningful one at that - after all, it's of no more significance than the use of capital letters, which Cyrillic also has (and ellen eschews). As for the comment of Meinhard E. Mayer later in the same issue of Mendele that: Di reforme iz gekumen fun di yidishe shrayber gufe, nisht funen "tsentral-komitet" un hot reflektirt di modernizatsie fun dem Russishn alfabet nok 1917: vu me hot eliminirt "yery, tvyordyi znak, etc" kedey tsu "fonetizirn" di shprakh. I just don't buy it. The history of Yiddish literature in the USSR is replete with instances of writers and poets who didn't toe the official line being arrested, deported to Siberia, and worse. I think it's naive to believe that no official pressure was exerted on the writers and publishers of the time. He also went on to write: Oykh di popularitet fun shrayb-mashines hot mistame geshpilt a rol. Der Ratnfarband hot oykh arayngefirt lataynishe oysies in etlekhe mitl-azyatishe shprakhn. Actually, the central-asian languages were given modified Cyrillic, not Latin, alphabets, as was Moldavian. And typewriters most likely had nothing to do with it - it takes fewer different characters to write Yiddish than it does most other languages because it lacks capital letters. I hereby descend from my soapbox. Be me well and strong. :-) Rick Turkel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 01:15:46 +0300 From: anbredstein@glas.apc.org Subject: "Sovetishe" ortografie Dovid Herskovic's question in 6.238 about "ende oysies" aroused nearly as many responses as recently the toponimical problem did. Since I live in Russia and have the honour of being acquainted with some nearly related to Yiddish philology people, maybe my comment on it will be useful for all those, who are interested in this extremely vexed and tough problem. To begin with, it was not a "movement to remove the end letters", but a serious language reform, inspired by a group of Yiddish linguists of world-wide reputation (Falkovitsh, Zaretski, Shtif) and carried out in practice in 1919-1920 in the former USSR. This reform 1) removed five end letters; 2) made the orthography fully phonetic (not only the words of Hebrew origin are spelled exactly as they are pronounced, but some German as well: ufklern [not 'oyfklern'], farat [not 'farrat'], aynemen [not 'aynnemen'] etc.); 3) cancelled "shtumer alef" in the middle of the word: vu [not vau], fareynikn [not faraeynikn]; and 4) changed the gender of some words: der bukh, di lid. It is important to notice, that in certain cases the Hebrew words were spelled consonant. For example, in this passage from "Der farkishefter shnayder" (published in Moscow, "Der emes", 1947): "Bist nebekh avade zeyer gerekht! - makht Shimen-Elie gelasn. - Faran a medresh: Kol Yisroel yeysh lohem kheylek - itlekher yid badarf hobn a tsig. Kakosuv, vi in posek shteyt geshribn..." the words 'avade, shimen-elie, medresh, posek' are spelled phonetic, and 'kol yisroel yeysh lohem kheylek' and 'kakosuv' - like in Hebrew (even without pintelekh), because Sholem-Aleykhem made a special emphasis on them; the same with "Tevie der milkhiker" and other books, where the author quotes sforim: Tanakh, Talmud, sidur etc. The end letters returned in Russia not in the early 90's (Les Train, 6.239), but in 1962. I have a book "Azoy lebn mir" (published in Moscow, 1964) with all the five lange oysies, including tsadik: the publishers were obviously too far from having enough khitspe to dare mess with Dovid Herskovic's beloved ende tsadik... Other basic principles of reformed orthography are still valid, although there are no books in Yiddish to be seen in Russia today and therefore it is difficult to judge about it. The only magazine ("Di yidishe gas") which is still alive, tried in early 90's to parenthesise phonetic spelling, but it looked so foolish, that the editors soon desisted from it and restored pure phonetic spelling. Now they publish stories, letters and other materials strictly according to the authors' orthography - there is no standard spelling in this magazine. And of course, there are people who keep up the phonetic principle today. I am one of them, and it is a real pleasure for me to assure A. Joseph Ross from Boston that "these orthographic idiosyncrasies still exist in Russian Yiddish" [6.239]. After all, it is a matter of linguistics and personal taste. The only thing which makes me feel sad is a deep and strange infatuation for the politics: "soviet attempt to severe relations between Hebrew and Yiddish [Michael Shimshoni, 6.239]; communist Russia imposed two innovations [Mechl Asheri, 6.239]; the reason for the differentiation was probably political [Les Train 6.239]; the authorities required [A. Joseph Ross, 6.239]". Only two voices try to object: "i see no evidence that the orthography issue had anything to do with zionism [Ellen Prince, 6.240]; di reforme iz gekumen fun di yidishe shrayber gufe, nisht funem "tsentral-komitet" [Meinhard E. Mayer, 6.240]. I am sure that the problem is worth discussing, but only within the framework of philology. Mendele is a perfect place for such discussion; I hope thus that all the friends mentioned above will find time to precis their position towards Yiddish orthography (without mentioning Communist Party yimakh shmoy) and I would appreciate to take part in it. Andrey Bredstein Moscow ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.241 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. Mendele archives can also be reached as follows: via WWW: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mewais.html via gopher: gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele via ftp: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele