Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 20.007 October 10, 2010 1) ayngeshpart and learning Yiddish (Freda Hodge) 2) ayngeshpart (Mike Hirsch) 3) Shoemakers, Rabbis, and High Foreheads (Norman Buder) 4) "Szal a Kakas Mar" (Perets Mett) 5) "Der groyser verterbukh" Online (Refoyl Finkel) 6) "Cwiszn" (Yale J. Reisner) 7) Yiddish version of "The International" (Gila Brodsky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 12, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart and learning Yiddish A gut yor tsu ale Mendele-mitglider. In response to the comments about the meaning of "ayngeshpart," I remember my parents always using it to mean obstinate, immovable. As children, we were often called ayngeshpart when we refused to cooperate. My father came from Odessa and my mother from Lithuania, so this usage seems to have been widespread. Apropos of teaching and learning the Yiddish language, here in Melbourne, Australia, there appears to be a solid core of interest in the language. This core is not huge in numbers, but a number of groups meet informally just to have the opportunity of talking Yiddish. Monash University runs a Yiddish course, and a number of Jewish schools offer Yiddish as a subject. In 2008, I took part in a summer school Yiddish program at Tel Aviv University, and there were more than a hundred students enrolled in the course. They were of all ages, and from many different countries including Israel itself. Everyone was immensely enthusiastic, and keen to see Yiddish flourish. I found it very encouraging. Freda Hodge 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 20, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart The expression my bubba (from Ukraine) used was akshn meshimit (stubborn ox). Mike Hirsch (Shija Myer) 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 4, 2010 Subject: Shoemakers, Rabbis, and High Foreheads Shoemakers, Rabbis, and High Foreheads In his story "The Little Shoemakers," Isaac Bashevis-Singer begins to describe his main character thus: "Er iz geven, vi ale, a kleyner, a diklekher, mit a breyter geler bord, mit a hoykhn shtern un tife vinklen, vi s'hobn nor rabonim un shusters." "He was, like all [of the men in this family], short, chubby, with a broad yellow beard, with a high forehead and deep [bald] corners, such as only rabbis and shoemakers have." Here are two questions, both suggested by Professor Yitshok Niborski, one for those knowledgeable in Jewish folklore, one for those widely read in Yiddish literature: 1. Does Yiddish folklore note any such alleged similarity between shoemakers and rabbis? 2. Can you cite any other examples from Yiddish literature in which shoemakers and rabbis are thus compared, or in which shoemakers are depicted as having high foreheads or having other characteristics associated with rabbis, thinkers, etc.? I am indebted to Professor Yitshok Niborski for one example of the latter in Sholem-Aleykhem's story "Tsvey Toyte" -- "Two Dead Ones": "Er glet dem hoykhn vaysn shtern (ale shusters hobn hoykhe vayse shterns) un redt fartrakht, mayse filozof." "He strokes his high white forehead (all shoemakers have high white foreheads) and speaks thoughtfully, like a philosopher." Norman Buder 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 September 2010 Subject: "Szal a Kakas Mar" The song "Szal a Kakas Mar" = "der krayendiker han" was composed by the Kalever Rebbe in Hungarian. I don't know whether there is a Yiddish version of it. Perets Mett 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 21, 2010 Subject: "Der groyser verterbukh" Online You can now find a searchable version of the 4 volumes of "der groyser verterbukh fun der yidisher shprakh" at http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/searchGroys.cgi Some notes: 1. The search term must be in Yiddish letters. There are some clickable letters near the top that you can use if you don't have a Yiddish keyboard. 2. If you put diacritics on your Yiddish letters, they will be required in any match, but if you leave them off, the letter will match with or without diacritics. For example, you can use a bare fey to match either a rofe-fey or a pintl-fey = pey, but if you use a rofe-fey, it will not match a bare fey or a pintl-fey. You do need to distinguish final letter forms from medial letter forms. You can use two yuds, two vovs, or a vov followed by a yud instead of the corresponding ligatures tsvey-yudn, tsvey-vovn and vov-yud. Or you can use the ligatures. 3. My software currently limits its output to 10 matches. It shows exact matches (full words) with a yellow background and partial matches with a pink background. It expands some (but by no means all!) abbreviations to fuller text with a green background. It tries to show exactly one dictionary entry per match, but the technique it uses to determine the start and end of a dictionary entry is sometimes wrong. 4. The groyser verterbukh usually spells words with a shtumer alef whereYIVO would use diacritics such as a melupm-vov or a khirik-yud. However, for citations before about 1800, it uses the original spelling, whatever that may have been. My software does not attempt to adjust spelling. 5. The OCR (optical character recognition) program is my own invention (I sound like the white knight in Alice through the Looking Glass!). It is by no means perfect. I hope to keep improving it, and as I do so, I will every so often re-generate the data files behind the search page. It takes about 4 hours of computer time to generate those files. Refoyl Finkel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 6, 2010 Subject: "Cwiszn" It might interest Mendelyaner to know that a new publication has appeared in Poland. It is entitled "Cwiszn" [tsvishn - In-Between] and it is a handsome, glossy, Polish-language quarterly (with short texts in Yiddish) about Yiddish literature and art issued by the Shalom Foundation of Warsaw. Its premier double issue is dedicated to Avrohom Sutzkever and Gilles Rosier, but includes a range of topics. Its website -- also in Polish -- is at www.cwiszn.pl A hartsikn grus alemen fun varshe, Yale J. (Yekhiel) Reisner 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 21, 2010 Subject: Yiddish version of "The International" I am looking for a Yiddish version of "The International" that is not the versions that I find on the internet. It was sung at Camp Naivelt - a New York camp in the 1940's - I just remember the first lines which began - Der arbet iz der tags gezangen Der ruh, der troime fun der nacht.. Please excuse the transliteration - I am doing the best I can to convey the Yiddish... I would appreciate any information. Thank you. Gilda Brodsky ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 20.007 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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