a vebsbletl vos ken kumen tsunuts. men shraybt arayn a tekst af yivo-transcriptsye, un men leygt a breyre vi der tekst zol aroyskumen. dervayl zaynen di breyres: Unicode-16, UTF-8, PostScript, un GIF.
nokh a breyre iz iberkukn di oysleyg un gebn a reshime fun nit-gerekht oysgeleygte verter. af der zayt, shikt dos vebsbletl mir an onzog mit di nit-gerekht oysgeleygte verter, ikh zol zen vos zey zaynen geven un ikh zol genen zey tsuleygn in oysleyg-reshime.
Refoyl Finkl
4) Literal meaning of "helfn vi a teytn bankes"
Sent on: 11/21/1996 17:41:35
I have always believed that the expression "es helft vi a teytn bankes" means, literally, that the subject can no more help than cupping can benefit a corpse, therefore, that the subject is doomed to failure. Now, however, I hear of another literal interpretation, one in which the banke is described as _dead_ and therefore ineffective. Can this be?
Walter Golman Silver Spring, Maryland
5) Kalekh
Sent on: 11/21/1996 14:48:12
I don't want to belabor the point because Ithink that we can agree that kalekhic would imply something round or the concept of roundness. But I recall something different. When I was about 12 I used to keep my father's books (m'zol nisht visn derfun).
Er fleg mir zogn--"ikh hob oysgkalekht der zal un dernokh hob ikh gegebn tsvey 'koyts peynt'". Roughly translated it was I applied calcimine before the two coats of paint. Can anyone else come up with support for this definition?
Keyle Goodman
6) Yiddish on shortwave radio
Sent on: 11/21/1996 18:32:00
One Saturday afternoon not long ago, I was "surfing" the bands of my shortwave radio (a habit I have found essential to interesting discoveries) when I came across a program in Yiddish, interspersed with obligatory interludes of klezmer music. Because my Yiddish skills are nonexistent and my Hebrew language abilities are not much better, I cannot say for sure who was broadcasting the program, though I believe it was Voice of Israel. In any case, for Mendele readers who are not sabbath observant and who are interested in listening again for the program, the frequency was 11.605 Mhz and the time 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
My recent experience leads me to both a question and a comment. The question is, does anybody know of other frequencies and times that I might listen to Yiddish programming? If this is not a subject of general interest, please feel free to write to me privately.
My comment (at the considerable risk of stirring more controversy) is this. Languages in essence are meant to be heard as well as read (and I say that with all due respect to the scholars among us who dedicate their lives to reading texts of languages that are no longer ever spoken). If you accept this proposition as true, does not shortwave radio provide a unique and relatively inexpensive method of reaching many current and potential Yiddish listeners who live in areas too remote to ever receive even the limited Yiddish radio programming described in Mendele entries earlier this year? If we are committed to the continued vibrancy of spoken Yiddish among us, this certainly must be one tool to be considered.
Gary Apfel Orford, New Hampshire
7) Yiddish children's rhymes and games
Sent on: 11/22/1996 15:35:34
Mara Vishniac-Kohn (Roman Vishniac's daughter) is preparing for publication a new book of Roman Vishniac's photographs of children of Shtetl. She plans to "illustrate" the book with descriptions and examples of typical children's activities: games, songs, rhymes, etc. and is looking for materials about these subjects. I was able to find several references about Jewish children's games in Eastern Europe in 1920s-1930s:
_Bavegungs-shpiln zaml-bukh_ (Vilne, 1920), Abraham Bulkin _Ruike shpiln_ (Vilne, 1921), A.Pulner _Baveglekhe un sportive masn-shpiln in shtetl_ (Moskve, 1925), and George Eisen _Children and play in the Holocaust: games among the shadows_ (Amherst, MA, 1988)
Are there other good sources?
Mendele archives contain a number (a large number, I must say) of postings about children's rhymes and games (no, not just "pishi-pashi"). I (and everybody else) have access to the archives, but for the copyright purposes, explicit permission of the authors is neccessary to use the materials. On behalf of Mara Vishniac-Kohn I am asking all Mendelyaners who posted (or was going to post :-) something interesting about children's culture and who is willing to make it available for the new book: send me your original messages (or a permission to use them). Or, if you would like to contact Mrs. Vishniac-Kohn directly, I will give her address and phone number (she does not use e-mail).