מענדעלע

I have noticed what appear to be contractions submitted in Mendele. My teacher, (mayn sheyne lerer), has taught me that the only acceptable yiddish contraction is s'iz. (I hope I have spelled it correctly).

Is this correct?

Also I have spoken with my friend Joachim Neugroschel about submitting in yiddish only. I would like to, but I am struggling with grammar and conjugation. I encourage correction but I ask that my fellow submitters forgive me for any frustrations I may create.

Yosele (Cody Joe) Ford

I read, write and speak yiddish daily. I try to learn something new daily. Does the love of the language and the active participation label me as a yiddishist? Or is there more to it? If I am not one now I hope to be soon.

Yosele (Cody) Ford Galveston

In response to Jeff Neiman's request in Mendele 6.141, the Yiddish word for "penultimate" is "forletzt" as in "a forletzte zilbe fun a vort". Source: "English-Yiddish Encyclopedic Dictionary", The Jewish Press Publishing Co., New York, 1915. Editor: Paul Abelson, Ph D. P.1029.

I might add that this dictionary calls itself: "A Complete Lexicon and Work of Reference in All Departments of Knowledge." And it does seem to live up to its claim in its over 1700 folio size pages.

Morrie Feller Phoenix

Af Jeff Naiman's kashe [6.141]: Ikh meyn az "far letstn" volt men genits ibertsuzetsn "penultimate."

Khane Faygl Turtletaub

An entfer af Khane-Faygl Turtletaub's tsveytn onfreg (6.144,10): vi zogt men "jet-lag" af Yidish?

Kh'leyg for: "fli-midkayt," oder farkirtst _fli-mid_, fun fli'en. Tsum bayshpil: "Ikh bin zeyer fli-mid" [I am very fatigued from the flight].

Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ

Eyne fun di hoypt-sibes, far vos me redt vegn dem slavishn komponent anshtot dem poylishn (oder ukrainishn, vaysrusishn, rusishn un azoy vayter) komponent, iz az s'iz nit tomed meglekh tsu bashtimen, velkhe shprakh iz der direkter moker, tsulib dem noentkayt tsvishn di dozike slavishe shprakhn.

Jota Piasecki shraybt [6.145], az a slavishe shprakh iz an abstraktsye fun a grupe fun shprakhn, derfar iz es nit pasik tsu redn vegn slavishe hashpoes. Ober tsi iz oykh di daytshe shprakh, lemoshl, nit keyn abstraktsye fun a grupe fun dialektn?!

Di slavishe hashpoes af yidish zaynen nit nor in leksikon, ober oykh in fonologye, morfologye un sintaks, vi a sakh forshungen hobn shoyn ufgevizn.

Tsuguya Sasaki

Although it is not related to Yiddish directly, I would like to comment on one of the misstatements made by Jota Piasecki in "A Slavonic component" post [6.145,1]. Piasecki writes : "...Slavic [? must be Slavonic. Slavic people - but Slavonic tongues]." It is not true and Zellig Bach's reference to the Slavic component of Yiddish is correct (formally as well as conceptually).

Slavic and Slavonic are sometimes interchangable, but current common usage is "Slavic languages". Examples include "American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages", numerous textbooks and journals in Slavic languages and linguistics, Departments of Slavic (not Slavonic) Languages in most schools, including Lund University, where Piasecki's e-mail address is located. On the other hand, The School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London is significantly involved in research and teaching of regional social sciences and history.

Iosif Vaisman

Regarding Jota Piasecki's post concerning the Slavic component of Yiddish, even a casual reading of Max Weinreich's History of the Yiddish Language (Geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh) reveals that Slavic languages -- especially Polish, Belorussian and Ukrainian -- had a profound influence on Yiddish syntax as well as vocabulary. Weinreich refers to four "determinants" of Yiddish, which he describes as a "fusion language": Hebrew/Aramaic, Romance, Germanic, Slavic. While Weinreich is by no means the last word in Yiddish linguistics, when all is said and done he remains *something* of an authority...

I leave it to the Slavicists on this list to deal with this question in greater depth, but on an anecdotal plane, when I was being tutored in Russian some years ago, the teacher -- an experienced Yiddish philologist -- chose to teach me through the medium of Yiddish, because of what he viewed as the affinities between the languages, which extend far beyond the realm of loan words and calques.

Zachary M. Baker

In a kinderbukh vos heyst "Shmerl Nar" hob ikh getrofn dos vort "rusalke" un ikh bin nisht zikher vos dos meynt. Funem context volt ikh gatrofn az dos vort meynt "wood sprite." Tsi veyst eyner fun di mendelistn af zikher? A dank.

Ikh halt mit Joachim Neugroescheln [6.145] az ale di verterbikher zaynen vikhtik nor tsum tog teglekhn leyenen. Halevay volt ikh di ale shprakhn gekent leyenen volt ikh zey oykh gehalt greyt tsu der hant.

Khane-Faygl Turtletaub