מענדעלע

The replacement of the English sound, "w", with tzvey vovn in Yiddish makes it appear understandable and logical that native Yiddish speakers might not have found it in their articulative skills to pronounce "w" when speaking English, hence, saying "vot" for "what", or "ven" for "when", etc.

Who can explain their reversal of the "w" and "v" in their English pronunciation - vest as west, very as wery, etc.

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan

[see 6.301]

I believe that there are many Sherlock Holmeses in Yiddish, including:

Artur Konan Doyl, Oysgevehlte ertsehlungen (Varsha: J. Goldfart, 1923) Vol.1. Fantazie un wirklichkeit

Artur Konan Doyl, Der grester detektiv, an intersanter shtudyum fun oyserardentlikhe menshlikhe fehigkeyten (Nyu York : Hibru Poblishing Kompani, 1928).

The latter was translated by David Moses Hermalin (1865-1921), quite a prolific writer in many genres and translator of Shakespeare, Swift, Maupassant, Zola, Tolstoy, Boccaccio, Goethe, and others. Does anybody know a source for his (Hermalin's) biography?

Iosif Vaisman

[see 6.301]

ikh hob a zibetsik kompyuter-tekes mit yidishe tekstn; sakh hakl an erekh elf toysnt verter. ot iz a reshime fun di oysyes mit a tsol vi oft zey gefinen zikh in yene tekstn.

Here's a list of Yiddish letter frequencies culled from about 11,000 words in about 70 files.

tof 16 melupn-vov 26 sin 28 veys 35 kof 45 pintl-yud 110 langer-tsadik 111 langer-fey 133 khes 180 sof 299 shlos-mem 323 pey 353 tsadik 361 khof 398 vov-yud 412 langer-khof 465 pasakh-tsvey-yud 535 tsvey-yud 540 fey 782 tsvey-vov 833 kuf 863 zayen 875 samekh 917 shin 946 beys 968 hey 973 gimel 1132 mem 1140 komets-alef 1226 daled 1480 nun 1608 shtumer-alef 1649 pasakh-alef 1650 vov 1651 lamed 1811 tes 2186 langer-nun 2357 resh 2526 yud 3435 ayin 3491

Refoyl Finkel

Estelle Souche asks about texts in Yiddish with missing letters [6.301:8]. Staytsh! It used to be very common in the old literature. Any taytsh-khumesh has hundreds of such lipograms: the word _vos_ for example can be spelled 'tsvey vovn - samekh', _der_ - 'daled - reysh', etc. Of course, there are vowel signs, but they have nothing to do with it, since you can found them even when the word _der_ is spelled 'daled - ayen - reysh'.

Those who write 'fonetish' or 'sovetish' (like I do), can find such lipograms in many modern books as well - we consider all the words of Hebrew origin, written in Hebrew, to be spelled with missing letters.

Andrey Bredstein

siz kiday tsu dermonen az fun hemshekh iz aroysgekumen der ershter shtudir klas fun dem banaytn yidishn lerer seminar in nu york. shpeter zaynen mir gevorn di lerers in di nokh farblibene yidish-veltlekhe shuln un oykh geshafn naye shuln far di eygene kinder. a teyl fun undz hobn zikh oykh derkrokhn tsu di hekhere fentseter fun yidish-kateres in di universitetn. Tsvishn di ershte aktivistn un redaktorn fun "yugntruf" zaynen oykh geven hemshekhistn. L'rov zaynen di kinder, helfers un firers geven fun di mishpokhes fun khurbn lebngeblibene vos tsuzamen hot men geshafn a min inzl fun normalitet far di vos hobn durkhgemakht hitlers sheva midurey gehenim un far di kinder vos hobn zikh gehodevet afn amerikaner bodn nor mit an inerlekher psikhologye fun a geratevetn. Shpeter zaynen oykh tsugekumen kinder fun di yidishe shuln vos di eltern hobn gevolt yidish nit oys yoitse vegn, oder vos zaynen geven ideyish noent dem bund oder vos hobn prost poshet zikh nit gekent derloybn dem skhar limud fun di raykhere kinder kolonyes. b'meyle hobn zikh tsugeklept tsu der khalastrye oykh andere khevre un siz gevorn a yeysh, a pozitsye far yidish in amerike. gelebt hot ser "hemshekh" fun 1959 biz (oyb ikh hob nit keyn toyes) 1978. interestant volt geven tsu visn vifl mendelyaner es hobn gehat epes a shtikl shaykhes mit "hemshekh" Agev shpilt nokh alts di zelbe role der "skif" lager in melburn afstralye.

Elye Palevsky

Louis Fridhandler's note [6.297] regarding the skip of "zog nit keynmol" struck a painful chord. Our son Sholem had to argue with his teachers in the Solomon Schecter School over his assertion that "shir hapartizanim" was written and sung by our kidoyshim in Yiddish. At the otherwise very moving Memorial in Miami Beach, the piped in music of partisan and ghetto songs is in Hebrew translation. Hebrew revisionism and triumphalism has no place in the honest struggle to fashion authentic and creative Jewish identity. It is a khilel ha'am vis-a-vis khurbn.

Elye Palevsky