מענדעלע

In Vol 6.200 Khane-Faygl Turtletaub fregt vegn a lid fun a mantl. Men ken es gefinen in Kadye Molodovskys lider zamlung Yidishe Kinder, aroysgegebn fun tsentral-komitet fun di yidishe folks-shuln in di fareynikte shtatn un kanade, nyu york 1945. Es heybt zikh on azoy:

Bay a shnayder in komore ful mit kinder, keyn eyn hore, kinder pitselekh, vi mon, shteyt a vigl oybn-on.

Itster heybt zikh on di mayse, nisht fun tsigelekh keyn vayse, nor a mayse fun a mantl fun a tunkeln gevantl.

Hot men oyfgeneyt a mantl fun a tunkeln gevantl farn eltstn bukher Shmul, er zol kenen geyn in shul.

Geyt im Shmulik yorn dray, iz der mantl shpogl nay. Geyt im Shmilik nokh a yor, iz der mantl shener gor.

Eynmol......

Es iz vert tsu gefinen dos lid un ibertsuleyenen bizn sof. Ir vet zikher hanoye hobn.

Perl Teitelbaum Queens, NY

Khane-Faygl Turtletaub hot gefregt vegn a lid vos heyst "a mayse mit a mantl." It's probably Kadia Molodowsky's "A mayse mit a balye: A mantl fun a tunklen gevantl" (Varshe: Yidisher shul organizatsye in Poyln, 1931). This book is reproduced in the YIVO children's literature collection on microfiche (No. 639).

Iosif Vaisman

Emetser (ikh hob di e-mail "farloyrn") hot gefregt vegn a lid, vos darf zayn fun kadia molodovsky oder fun mangern un dertseyln epes vegn a mantl. Oyb dos lid vos ir zukht heybt zikh on mit:

bay a shnayder in komore ful mit kinder, keynakhore, kinder pitselekh, vi mon, shteyt a vigel oybn-on.

iz dos lid emes fun k. molodovsky, heyst poshet "a mantl" un men ken dos gefinen lemoshl inem bikhl "yidishe kinder" fun k.m.

Ikh hob dem gantsn lid (vos iz zeyer lang) un az emetser darf hobn a hilf, ken ikh im shikn.

Evita Wiecki

Re: the ongoing discussions of Yankev and other Yiddish reflexes of the Hebrew gutteral `ayin (most recently in mendele 6.200).

I remember reading something years ago (unfortunately I don't know where, or even where to look for such information) regarding the presence of a guttural in Proto-Indo-European, and the fact that its modern reflex in most Indo-European languages is "n" or a nasalized vowel. Since the loss of this guttural was a very early sound change in Indo-European, the languages surrounding Yiddish had no such sound during the period of development of Yiddish. I think it's fair to say that the Hebrew `ayin likewise lost its guttural quality throughout Ashkenaz pretty early on, and not recently.

It has been noted earlier in Mendele by me and others that, among many Yiddish speakers, a Hebrew alef with a khataf-patakh also has a nasal quality to it (e.g., "ka'a~sher") This is doubtless due to the loss of distinction between alef and `ayin among Ashkenazim.

Zayt gezunt un shtark.

Rick Turkel

Sheva Zucker prepared a comprehensive set of 8 tapes to accompany her Yiddish textbook. Detailed information about the tapes is available from Sheva's homepage (http://members.aol.com/~sczucker, link from Shtetl at http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/sheva.html). The tapes feature all the dialogues, stories, and exercises from the textbook and some additional materials.

Iosif Vaisman