Yiddish Mailing List, Issue #50 February 12, 1992 177 lines =============================== Request (Deborah Jacobsen) Report from San Francisco (Fishl Kutner) "Khazak" and "khoyzek makhn" (Najman Kahana) Leo Winz and word-processing requests (David Brenner) A Yiddishe Poeme (Ali Lemer) What is the purpose of mail.yiddish? (Meylekh Viswanath) Berl Shmerl (Ellen Prince, Rama Porrat) ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/1 Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1991 10:49:46 -0500 (EST) From: NOVICKD@SERVAX.FIU.EDU (David Novick) Taire Fryndt, David Sherman, ich nisht ge heart fin deer in a zeit. Vee a zoy vest deer se reiden Yiddish? vus machst der? Ich ge learnet reiden dem sprach fin mine boobe levashoolum. enfer me ich vill hearen fin deer. ich read Yiddish mit mine mame a zoy vee english. ich abet mit a friend vus reeft sach David he vest neesht can Yiddish. dus is zein account. ich veel veesen if dee vest fin a program vus macht de typing en hebresh de Yiddish David het de program fin bitnet fin Tel-Aviv University. Dee vest vee a zoy se usen dem program? Haub a geete tug and nemsach care. Deborah Jacobson Miami, Florida ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/2 Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 05:07:32 -0800 From: Philip Kutner We just had the annual conference of AAPY in SF and it was great. Prof Adam Furstenburg gave an excellent presentation on the Canadian Yiddish Writers. Prof. Dov Noy was here for 4 lectures in 3 days. He's tops in Jewish folklore. ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/3 Date: Mon, 27 Jan 92 14:44 JST From: "Najman Kahana" Can anyone explain to me the connection between the Hebrew word "chazak" ("strong"), and the Yiddish phrase "choyzek machen" ("to make fun of")? ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/4 Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1992 13:14 CST From: glaa303@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu (David Brenner) Ikh farshtey zeyer gut, vus du host mir geshribn. Ikh vil take alts briv bakumen, vus du vilst mir shikn. Aleyn sukh ikh informatsies vegn Leo Winz un zayne tsaytshrift "Ost und West," a kulturzhornal, vus er hot aroysgegebn in Berlin tsvishn 1901 un 1923 af daytshe sprach. Der zhornal iz der tem fun meiner dissertatsie, vus ikh shrayb bei der universitet fun Texas. ... Ikh vil nokh a freg ton, oyb emetser ken mir gebn dem nomen fun a gut, uptodate tekstfararbetungsprogram (wordprocessing program) far yidish, vayl ikh vil shraybn tekste mit yidishe oysyes. Ikh sukh a program, vos iz Macintoshkompatibel un vos ken arbetn af a sistem (system) mit a kraft fun 6.0 epes. A sheynem dank! David Brenner Department of Germanic Languages E. P. Schoch 3.102 University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712 Phone (512) 471-4123 ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/5 Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 14:17:26 EST From: Ali Lemer Subject: A Yiddishe Poeme Ikh bin a studentke bay Columbia University, un ikh bin in a tsveyt yor klas. Do iz a poeme fun Shlome Etinger, heyst "Di Malpe". DI MALPE fun Shlome Etinger (1803-1856) "Vayz mir khotsh eyne tsvishn di khayes, Ikh zol nit nokhmakhn ire havayes!" Azoy tut a malpele zikh barimen Far a fuks vos iz tsu ir gekumen. Dos fiksl entfert teykef tsurik: "Zog nor, du parshive marshelik: Vemen vet ober aynfaln a gants yor, Er zol DIR veln nokhmakhn oyf a hor?" *** [Glossary that came with the poem] di malpe -- ape khotsh -- at least ikh zol nit nokhmakn = vos ikh ken nit nokhmakhn nokhmakhn -- to imitate havaye(s) -- grimace (Heb.) dos malpele: dos malpe (dim.) tut zikh barimen = barimen zikh barimen zikh -- to boast der fuks -- fox dos fiksl: der fuks (dim.) teykef -- immediately (Heb.) parshive -- mean, cheap der marshelik -- clown a gantz yor -- ever oyf a hor -- the least bit ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/6 Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 11:31 EDT From: VISWANATH@draco.rutgers.edu Given the existence of Mendele, I think it is necessary to define the role that mail.yiddish is to play. Once it is clear (assuming it is a role that a sufficient no. of people feel comfortable with), there should be more submissions. As it stands, I don't really know mail.yiddish stands for. Meylekh. [mail.yiddish is still a good vehicle for chitchat, poems and other matters that are not suitable for the academic level of MENDELE. Is that agreeable to the subscribers? - DS] ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/7 Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 09:18:08 EST From: Ellen Prince >From: levene@aplpy.jhuapl.edu (Robert A. Levene) >Berl seems to be a variant of Beryl or Berel, which is usually an >Anglicized Boruch, I'd guess. Sort of like all those Isadores and >Charlies and Martys, who are really Yitzchak, Chaim, and Moshe/Mordecai i may be wrong, but i've always assumed berl was the diminutive of ber, meaning 'bear', the yiddish equivalent of 'dov'. i have an 18th century ketubah from amsterdam in which the groom is 'dov, called ber'. also, dov-ber is not uncommon as a double name, like arye-leyb 'lion' and hersh-tsvi and tsvi-hersh 'deer'. they were more into nature than one might think... also, there's an old song 'dray yingelekh', with the following lines: hot eyns geheysn berele, dos tsveyte khayim shmerele, dos drite hot geheysn 'men zol im koyfn shikh'. so it's not just a variant of english 'beryl'. ------------------------ Digest-Message: 50/8 From: Rama Porrat Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 09:00:06 +0200 Hello People, I am surprised to read your interpretatione of "Berl". I am sure this is a "lovable" version of Ber, which means "bear" (like Teddy bear). Just like Yosel for Yossef and Rochl for Rachel. Regards -- Rama. ------------------------ SOF FUN NUMER 50 ------------------------ David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman, Toronto Moderator, mail.yiddish dave@lsuc.on.ca (416) 889-7658