מענדעלע

Recently, I have read some negative comments on Leo Rosten, including the enthusiastic remark in 07.156: "Nobody can possibly write a book that's stupider than Leo Rosten's _The Joys of Yiddish_ !!" I have read exactly this book with great delight (I admit, it is more of a beside book than a novel you read in one go) and subsequently even used it as a source for information and, most of all, for quotes in academic papers on Yiddishkeyt. Rosten might not be the most brilliant Yiddishist, but his collection (and, indeed, the appendix) offer a nice insight into Yiddishkeyt and are, at the same time, a good read (is this the reason that he is "stupid"? Are we supposed to prefer the brilliant minds who are able to formulate Yiddish matters without humour and who take delight in abstractions rather than anecdotes and jokes?).

Peter Gutmann

Sometime ago I asked for stories, myths, etc. about a book on bagels that i am putting together. I am particularly interested in making contact with a kinquist who might be interesting in working on the linguistic history of the bagel, and particularly the connection of the East European bagel with, for example, the Uyghur (NW China) gerda, a bagel-like bread. There are interesting similarities of the particular oven used, a variety of tandor, tanur, etc. I have collected quite a bit of material on linguistic origins that I would be happy to send to any one interested.

Cyril D. Robinson Carbondale, IL

I don't remember whether anyone has suggested this before, but I believe that within talmudic law the most frequent punishment that could be meted out by a court (aside from monetary settlements in what we would call civil cases) would have been lashing: malkot/malkoys (malkes if the word's used in Yiddish). They didn't have prisons. So from 'carry out a sentence' to 'beat up' is an easy jump. Schoolboy slang?

Bob Hoberman

Many shtetlekh and towns in Russia have Yiddish names quite different from their official names. Sometimes it's a change from the sound of _H_ to that of _G_ or vice versa. E.g., Homel-Gomel, Haysin-Gaysin, Bohuslav-Boguslav. Similarly, our family name, according to some family members, was sometimes pronounced Fridghendler in Europe. Harmonica is Garmonica and Hammock is Gamak in Russian. Other familiar words in English with _H_ have a _G_ in Russian.

What linguistic principle (if any) does this obey or illustrate? I am especially interested in how it affects the sounds and spelling of Yiddish words (including place names) in the various pronunciation styles of Yiddish.

Louis Fridhandler

In my high school German class, we read a story called (as I recall dimly from 55 years ago) "Peter Schlemiels Wundersame Geschichte" allegedly based on a folk-legend about a man of that name who lost his shadow. I've always supposed that the Yiddish word is related to that tale. Enlightenment would be appreciated.

Martin Davis

Khosheve Mendelyaner un Mendelyanerkes:

Hayoys a Mendelyaner hot oysgedrikt dem bager zikh oystsulernen shraybn yidish in transliteratsye, gib ikh do on- - far di vos viln zikh oyslernen "shraybn Yidish oyf goyish"dem shlisl tsu klal Yidishe klangen un transliteratsye.

A Mendelyaner expressed by E-mail his desire to learn to write Yiddish in standardized transliteration. So, I decided that it may help many Mendelyaner to see the key to Yiddish sounds and transliteration posted here:

A is similar to A in FATHER. E IS VERY SIMILAR TO E in BET. I is between EE in BEET and I in WIN. O is similar to OU in BOUGHT. U is similar to U in PUT. AY is like I in FINE. EY is like EI in WEIGH. OY is like OY in BOY. SH is like S in PLEASURE. ZH is pronounced like S in PLEASURE. TS corresponds to TS in NUTS. DZ sounds like DS in the English HOLDS. TSH corresponds to CH in CHINA. DZH sounds like J in JUNGLE. H is pronounced like H in HAVE. Y is pronounced as Y in YES. KH sound (not used in English) is like CH in the German BACH. L represents the hard dental sound LL as in FULL (e.g. LUFT) and the soft palatal sound L as in LOVE (e.g. BILIG). R represents both the lingual (trilled) R and/or theuvular R B,D,F,G, K, M, N, P, S, T, V, -- simply speaking correspond to the same sounds in English.

Ikh hof az ikh hob vemen s'nit iz geholfn zayn a besere/r Mendelyaner/ke.

Zayt gezunt un hothanoe fun Yakhne Dvoshes Shalakhmones!

Ayer, Feygl Infeld Glezer

In Mendele Vol 07.162, Diane Wolfthal claims that the hare hunt picture which appears in hagodes and minhogim-books is a "secret", citing Marc Michael Epstein. I have not seen Epstein's work, but the hare hunt motif is a "sod far gants Brod". It is a visual pun on the mnemonic yaknehoz: (1) roshey-teyves for the order of benedictions when yontef falls on moytse-shabes; (2) wine and candles for shabes and yontef. The resemblence is not clear from Standard Yiddish "yog dem hoz; more suggestive is /yug n'hu:z/ or the like, found in much of Central Yiddish. The pun is very old and probably reflects a Western Yiddish /yag 'n ho:z/.

A curious reflection of the image is found in Mendele's 'Di klyatshe': In the yubeleum edition, his description of the hero falling into the hands of Ashmeday includes the following passage:

"-- oy, bistu a klugitshker, yisrolik? - maxt mit a beyz gelelhterl der Ashmeday, oyshtrekndik dabay di hant un vil mix dertapn.

"ix bin geven vi an ibergeshrokener hoz fun dem ieger, vos yogt zix im nox."

"an ibergeshrokener hoz fun dem ieger, vos yogt zix im nox" really pushes the limits of Yiddish syntax. I have not found any other instances of this construction in other of Mendele's work. Nor do I quite see how the syntax captures the image. Any suggestions?

Meyer-Leyb Wolf

In Mendele Vol 07.163, Hugh Denman has it that Manaster Ramer is using a linguistic sledgehammer to crack an etymological nut. Perhaps not. Khaver Denman himself suggests a H/A origin for kurve, but fails to inform us of a number of things which would make his suggestion tenable:

(1) is kurva found in all Slavic languages or just in those which had contact with Yiddish? If, for instance, Bulgarian also has kurva, what reason would there be to assume that the form is not ProtoSlavic,other than the lack of a an IndoEuropean etymology.

(2) Is the word pronounced /kurve/ in all of E. Yiddish or does Southern Yiddish have /kirve/, /kerve/ or the like? If the word is pronounced /kurve/ even in most of SY, H/A origin is pretty unlikely.

Meyer-Leyb Wolf

Simkhe Drayer asked about last years of poet and playwright Moyshe Pinchevsky [07.164].

After leaving Argentina in 1920 Moyshe Pinchevsky lived in Germany, Belgium, and Romania, and settled in the USSR in 1926, where he lived in Moscow, Kharkov, and Kiev.

I don't know if he was arrested in the late 40s, but it is quite likely, since he (unlike many others who were arrested anyway) was sharply criticized at the meeting of the Yiddish section of the Soviet Writers Union (quoted from a letter to Zhdanov published in: War, Holocaust and Stalinism / Ed. Shimon Redlich, Luxembourg: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995, p.423):

"The decision of August 14, 1946 by the CC AUCP(B) concerning the magazines _Zvezda_ and _Leningrad_ was discussed at the Moscow meeting of Soviet Jewish writers. It was noted in a resolution approved at the meeting that "Soviet Yiddish literature, though basically sound, has several major shortcomings from which it must free itself in order better and more successfully to serve the nation, the Party, and the Soviet homeland." Among the major shortcomings of Soviet Yiddish literature, the resolution notes, are the prominence of nationalistic feelings and the pessimistic sentiments displayed by certain writers. Several works by D. Hofshteyn (the poem "Penicillin"), M. Pinchevsky (the play "I am waiting") and others were criticized at the meeting for their lack of ideological content and their decadence."

For those versed in understanding Soviet newspeak the paragraph above sounds like an unambigous guilty verdict. However, it is possible that Pinchevsky died in Kiev, since he may have been released by 1955.

Moyshe Pinchevsky's Soviet period publications include:

Fir poemes. Kharkov: Melukhe-farlag fun Ukraine, 1930 Far kinder. Kharkov: Melukhe-farlag fun Ukraine, 1930 Lider fun tog. Kharkov: Melukhisher natsmindfarlag baym prezidyum fun Vutsik, 1932 Git dem forhang: Komedye in ayn akt. Kharkov: Melukhisher farlag far di natsionale minderhaytn in USRR, 1932 Undzere kinder lider. Minsk: Melukhe farlag fun Vaysrusland, 1933 Feygele un Rakele: vi Vevik un Beylke hobn ongehoybn leyenen dem Kinder fraynd. Varshe: Kinder fraynd, 1935 Eldorado: a pyese-maysele far kinder. Kiev: Melukhe-farlag far di natsyonale minderheytn in USRR, 1936

Two of his books were translated and published in Russian:

Aistenok: skazki. Moskva: Gos. Izd-vo Det. Lit.-ry, 1959 Doina: stikhi i poemy. Moskva: Sov. pisatel, 1960

His tale "A little stork" was used for a libretto of a children ballet.

Iosif Vaisman Chapel Hill