מענדעלע

Marvin Friedman's query about "YIVO On-line" (Mendele 5.002; based on an article in the May 5th "Forward") is most likely a reference to a World Wide Web Home Page for YIVO -- which was not actually produced at YIVO, but rather, by ORTnet. YIVO still has limited access to the Internet, so we don't yet have the capability of producing a home page (or accessing the Web). The e-mail address that I have for ORTnet is help.desk@ort.org. Colleagues of mine have sent me printouts of the home page; interestingly enough, the planned Center for Jewish History and its other constituent organizations -- the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute, and the Yeshiva University Museum -have also had home pages placed on the Web by ORTnet.

Zachary Baker

Tom Teicholz's article in Forward mentions "the Virtual Shtetl" among other Jewish resources on World Wide Web. Unfortunately, the article did not include Shtetl's address (http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/shtetl.html) and incorrectly stated that "Shtetl ... set up by the University of North Carolina". Shtetl, a Yiddish Language and Culture Home Page is located on the SunSITE server, which is a Sun Microsystems sponsored program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, neither the University of North Carolina nor Sun Microsystems are responsible for creation, maintenance, and content of the Shtetl.

Although Shtetl is still under construction, visitors are welcome and Shtetl's khakhomem approved hard hats as appropriate headdress at all times (excluding shabes).

Mendele archives, an important part of the Shtetl, are now searchable on-line using WAIS software. Any WAIS client or form-capable browser (Mosaic, Netscape, etc) may be pointed to URL: wais://sunsite.unc.edu/mendele.src to search Mendele.

Mendele archives on SunSITE could be reached using all major network tools:

via WWW: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mewais.html

via gopher: gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele

via ftp: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele

The whole SunSITE (including Mendele files) is being mirrored in Japan, so yiddishists overthere may use gopher://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/11/academic-info/languages/yiddish/mendele

Those who don't have Netscape/Mosaic or gopher access may search Mendele archives by telneting to sunsite.unc.edu, login: swais, no password.

As always, suggestions and contributions of building materials to Shtetl are gladly accepted.

Iosif Vaisman

we used to call the end piece of the loaf "der kontchik," probably from the russian word_konyetz_"the end."

Mathis Chazanov Los Angeles

an akraytshik or a nakraytshik? Either way, one of the Yiddish words for "heel" of the bread. No religious connotations.

Mikhl Herzog

I like Zellig Bach's speculative etymology for "mlupm kind" as "a kind klein vi a pintele" like the diacritical pintele that accompanies mlupm vov.

Now I'd like to offer my own speculative etymology. I begin by attributing the last nun in "melupen" to an adjectival form. That leaves "melup". The Hebrew word "melupaf" has a repetition of its last consonant (i.e., pey or fey), which often in Hebrew points to a root that once did not have that repetition (e.g., savav comes from sav; maror from mar; and so on), so we can surmise that there is a relationship between "melupaf" and "melup", our truncated "melupen". And what does "melupaf" mean? It means "bound, wrapped up, enveloped, embraced". My guess, therefore, is that a "mlupm kind" is an infant who is wrapped up tightly, as was the custom, in a wimple (it's still done in those regions, btw). I think that Harkavy's translation, referring to a child just learning alef-beiz is perhaps reporting a hyperbole, and Weinreich's translation, referring to a babe in the woods (and therefore applicable to anyone of any age) is reporting a metaphoric use.

The weakness in my hypothesis is how "mlupm vov" fits into all this. Having constructed this elaborate edifice of a speculation, I am obliged to squeeze mlupm vov onto one of its girders, so here goes:

Attempt # 1: the diacritical mark hovers near the middle of the vov, hugging close to it, as it were. Like tfiln around the middle finger. Like a wimple, you might even say! ;)

Attempt # 2: Okay, if you didn't like that one, try this one: to make the sound of the mlupm vov, your mouth must bind itself up into a tight round shape, firmly and lovingly surrounding the sound as it emerges from the throat.

If you like either of those explanations, I'm also selling a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.

Paul Pascal Toronto