מענדעלע

Re Leah Zazulyer's query (6.062):

Of course it's shmictionary!

| AUTHOR: Hoffman, Paul, 1956| TITLE: Dictionary shmictionary! : | a Yiddish and Yinglish dictionary / |PUBLISHER: New York : Quill, 1983 | FORMAT: 189 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. | NOTES: Bibliography: p. [185]-189. | ISBN: 068802162X (pbk.) :

A ksive vekhsime toyve!

Iosif Vaisman

For better or for worse, our Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies has adopted Hebrew Winword as its standard bilingual wordprocessing package. And a pretty good programme it is too, providing you don't need to work with Yiddish. Can anyone therefore recommend a Yiddish font possessing at least all the letters required to write "YIVO-Yiddish" (and ideally possessing the capability of reproducing non-standard and historic orthographies also) which can be integrated into the Winword programme?

I seem to recall that some time ago there was some talk on mendele of setting up some sort of special forum for Yiddish computing problems. Did anything come of this?

I would be grateful for replies either direct or through mendele, if judged to be of sufficient general interest.

Hugh Denman London

Tzum nayem Yidishn yor vil ikh tzuersht vintshn ale mendeleyners a gut yontev, a gut yor. Es iz itzt shtil in hoyz -- der telefon shveygt in an ovene -- un me ken a bisele trakhtn vegn vikhtike inyonim. Iz mir punkt ongefaln a gedank me zol oysrekhenen a luakh fun Loshn Yidish gufe. Lomir zogn az Yidish iz af der velt ongekumen umgefer C.E. 997, heyst es az, loytn Luakh Mame Loshn iz itzt yor 999 mem lamed. Iz loytn Luakh Ha-MameLoshn iz Sholem Aleykhem geshtorbn 1000-80, oder in yor ML 923. Di ershte Yidishe shure iz gedrugt gevorn in Vormser Makhzer in your 275 ML. Un azey vayter

Di vos kenen mir shoyn a bisl veysn az ikh leyg for ot dem kontzept halb-shpilevdik. Ober es iz fort a veg vi azey tzu shafn a bild fun der antviklung fun Yidish. Ver vil nokh mitshpiln?

Es hobn zikh shoyn ongeheybn mayne klasn baym Baltimore Hebrew University un ikh bin zeyer tzufridn mit di talmidim. Say di vos lernen vayter, say di vos heybn on tzu lernen yidish. Es kumt zey ale a yesher koakh. Di mentshn vos hob lib yidish, ober b'emes kenen nit efenen a yidishn bukh, oder zhurnal un farshteyn dos vos pintlt zey far di oygn, bet ikh aykh. Nemt on dos bisl mi -- zukht oys a klas vu meglikh -- un lernt zikh oys tzu leyenen far zikh aleyn. Dos iz a shlisl tzu a palatz mit toyznter un toyznter tzimern, khedorim. M'meyleh, mitn elekronishn post hobn mir nokh keyn breyreh. Es muz zayn mit roymishe oysyes -farfaln. Ober, az ir volt gevolt leyenen a blat SHolem Aleykhmen far zikh, iz on Yidish kent ir nit. Iberzetzungen zaynen fayn ober a sakh a sakh oytzer geyt farlorn. In roymishe oysies felt kontakt mit hebraishe un aramaishe verter.

Eyb dos volt geven a shverer inyen volt zikh farshtanen. Ober dos is davke nit shver. A greyser kheylik yidish iz geshribn "glat phonetish" un dos iz nokh gringer fun Engish. Kley-zayen (utensils) feln nit leren bikher far onheybers, tashmes vi bay sheva tzukern zaynen grade do. zey feln eykh nit. iz af vos vart ir? fun aza mi, zog ikh aykh tzu, kumt zeklekh mit gold. zogt zhe nokhamol un take nolhamol -- kometz alef o.

kleynikeyt. redn-dik vegn sholem aleykhem, o.h. - ikh volt gevolt visn tsi es forn mendeleyner keyn nyu york dem 29tn september, a zuntik frimorgn, af der tzeremonie fun Sholem Aleykhem Platz. di frage iz spetziel gevidmet yidishistn fun Baltimore/Vashington un umgegnt. efsher ken men in der tzayt organizirn a karavan?

gut yontev ale

Sylvia Schildt

In a piece in the Yiddish Forverts of September 13 (_Ikh ruf rut vays tsu a din-toyre_), Sholem Labkovski comments on Ruth Wisse's mourning over the passing of Yiddish. I don't want to resurrect that topic, but I am puzzled by the following sentence, which contains an expression (or maybe two) quite unfamiliar to me: _Loyt rut vays kumt oys, az mit yidish iz shoyn tzvey feyen; pi pa po--shoyn nishto._ I suppose the portion after the semicolon might be a rhymed equivalent of something like "Abracadabra--all gone." But _tsvey feyen_? Can someone clarify that? A dank.

Ikh vintsh ale mendelyaner (un afile nit-mendelyaner) a gezunt un freylekh 5757.

Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York