מענדעלע

un az moyshe-leyb, der poet, vet dertseyln, az er hot dem toyt oyf di khvalyes gezen, azoy vi men zet zikh aleyn in a shpigl, un dos in der fri gor, azoy arum tsen tsi vet men dos gleybn moyshe-leybn?

From "Memento Mori" Moyshe-Leyb Halpern (1886-1932) New York

Iosif Vaisman Arlington, VA

Most of the stories in Howe and Greenberg's _A Treasury of Yiddish Stories_ are again available in Yiddish. Now we're getting ready for a very important second phase. Toward that end we need to know something about your viewing habits.

Here's the question: do you read the stories on-line, or do you download them to your computer for later viewing and/or printing?

Please write as soon as possible to mailto://nmiller@trincoll.edu. Your cooperation means a lot for the success of Project Onkelos.

a dank,

Noyekh Miller

[Tsugob-protim: Mordkhe Schaechter, (718) 231-7905]

Ale shprakhn fun der velt, spetsyel di kulturshprakhn, vaksn. Fun yor tsu yor kumen tsu hunderter naye verter, naye visnshaftlekhe, tekhnologishe, politishe, administrative, militerishe terminen. Me git aroys naye verterbikhlekh spetsyel far di naye verter. Oykh yidish shteyt nisht af an ort; se kumt keseyder tsu nay shprakhvarg, khotsh nisht aza sakh vi, lemoshl , in english. Fundestvegn dergeyen di yidish-shprakhike nayshafungen a mol nisht tsum breytn oylem. Di naye hamtsoes fun shraybers un afile stam leyeners vern nisht popularizirt vi s'ker tsu zayn, zey geyen nisht arayn in der shprakh-tsirkulatsye.

Betn mir itlekhn yidish-reder: oyb se kumt aykh oys tsu leyenen oder hern a nay vort, shraybt undz vegn dem. Mir zamlen ot dos nayvarg mit der hofenung aroystsugebn an _English-yidish verterbikhl farn 21stn yorhundert_, spetsyel far di neologizmen, di nay-tsugekumene verter fun di fargangene 35 yor, a dergantsung tsu Stushkovs _Oytser fun der yidisher shprakh_ un Uriel vaynraykhs _Modern english-yidish yidish-english verterbukh_.

Shikt undz tsu ayere observatsyes un eygene firleygn afn adres

League for Yiddish 200 W 72 St Suite 40 New York NY 10023

oder afn blitspost adres MSchaecht@aol.com

Sholem Berger

Khaverim,

I am considering starting up a listserve for Yiddish teachers and teachers in Yiddish schools to share material and ideas: curriculum, music, dance, holidays, plays, etc. Are there any of you who may be interested in joining such a list? I would be thrilled to hear from you.

Mit frayndshaft, Lorele Cahan-Simon

Farshraybt zikh di dates far der Yidish-vokh 2002. Drukt es aroys un hit es uf af a diskl un farshraybt es in kalendar. Azoy vet men mikh nisht darfn fregn a tsveyt un drit mol un zikh khideshn far vos ikh entfer nisht.

Donershtik dem 22stn oygust biz mitvokh dem 28stn oygust 2002.

Hots a gut, gezunt yor fil mit yidish-nakhes un -glik!

Ayer Binyumen Schaechter

The first of Jan Katlev's turns of phrase (11.013) may well have Yiddish origins, although not etymological; "Sauregurkenzeit" is "sour pickle time". Possibly as opposed to late summer, when one could rejoice in half-sour rather than sour pickles - preferred in all quarters?

"Hals- und Beinbruch" was, for the first German aviators, the equivalent of "break a leg" for an actor - but rather more gory, "Break your neck and your legs." It's still used today by opera singers for the same purpose.

Martin Cohen McGill University

Re: "Hal- und Beinbruch" (11.013)

The suggested etymology, I believe, is from Yiddish/Hebrew "hatslokhe uvrokhe" (literally, "success and blessing"). Further proof that German is a corrupt dialect of Yiddish. I wonder further if the English "break a leg" derives from the German expression.

Yankev Lewis

Dear Mendelyaners,

In Mendele 11.013, Jan Katlev mentions the Yiddish etymological background of German idioms "Sauregurkenzeit" and "Hals- und Beinbruch". Indeed, both terms go back to Yiddish roots, but indirectly. Over here in Germany, the traditional secret vocabulary ('language' as it often is called) of the criminals, the "Rotwelsch", has a relatively high amount of Yiddish and Hebrew words. This has obviously - led to the wide-spread assumption that most of our criminals are Jews (and, respectively, that most of our Jews are criminals). The reason for this recruitment of words from Yiddish and Hebrew (as well as, e.g., Romani), however, is simply that these words are difficult to understand to out-siders. Rotwelsch was and is used in order to be able to speak publicly about illegal issues. - This is comparable to the signs criminals attach to houses in order to tell their accomplices that the house is empty (i.e. safe) or not, or the languages used on the horse-markets, making it possible to discuss the price offered without the potential buyer understanding what is being said. Possible English equivalents for Rotwelsch words might be "grass" or "pot" (well, at least in times in which ordinary people did not know what was being spoken about).

But back to "Sauregurkenzeit" and "Hals- und Beinbruch". The former goes back to an initial "Saurejurkenzeit", subsequently mistaken as a Berlinism (j for g). Saure > tsores, jurken >yoker, zeit=tseyt. A "Sauregurkenzeit", then, is a time of hard trouble (no opportunity to be a successfull ganev). "Hals- und Beinbruch" goes back to "hazlokhe brokhe", in a way a ganev's mazltow...

The field of pseudo-Yiddishisms in modern German is very interesting. Quite often, you can find familiar Yiddish words with a perverted meaning (one of the most obvious and unhealthy examples would be of "mezuza" being used for a prostitute).

I would like to recommend Sigmund A. Wolf's "Deutsche Gaunersprache. W?rterbuch des Rotwelschen" (Hamburg: Buske, 1985) and (obviously) Salcia Landmann's "Jiddisch. Das Abenteuer einer Sprache" as, probably, the best starting points for excursions into a criminal vocabulary.

(Sorry for not providing a Yiddish version.)

Best, Peter Gutmann Neunkirchen

I'm sure I'm not the only subscriber to mendele who is responsible for proposing Yiddish books for acquisition for a major library. We buy one or more copies of everything in Yiddish, on Yiddish and translated from Yiddish. It is a very welcome practice that authors take the trouble to announce their books in mendele. In fact it would be highly desirable if more authors and publishers would do likewise. However, to save time-consuming correspondence could I enter a plea that when anyone is anounces a new volume, she or he should give full bibliographical information in the following format (to take a recent example):

Weinstein, Miriam, _Yiddish: A Nation of Words_, South Royalton, VT: Steerforth, 2001, 303pp. [ISBN: 1-58642-027-5], $??.??.

Hugh Denman London