Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 5.278
March 11, 1996

1) Introduction (Nathan Kohn)
2) S.A. Birnbaum's Yiddish grammar (Zachary Baker)
3) Itzik Manger's "ikh bin der veg keyn mayrev" (Refoyl Finkel)
4) Roikh and ruach (David Baron)
5) Roykh (Anno Siegel)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 10:17:38 -0500
From: nathan@wb.cst.titan.com
Subject: Introduction

[Apropos non-YIVO yiddish:] I learned to understand household yiddish as a
child, but did not speak in response.  my father is also a poylisher from
lodz, my mother is russian/jewish from the ukraine and did not know yiddish
until she learned from my father.  she now speaks a beautiful poylishe
yiddish.  a few years ago i decided to try to learn yiddish.  my hazy memories
of vocabulary and childish understanding of grammar and sentence structure
were only further complicated by having only a weak grasp of dialect
differences.  my pronunciation would get corrected as much as my grammar and
vocab.  recent efforts to find materials of dialect difference have
frustrating -  as the ones i've encountered tend to be geared for liguists and
i haven't been make much sense out of them.

fortunately, i have found a couple of other poylishe speakers, one quite
fluent, who are happy to speak with me (not everyone who fluent in yiddish is
interested in speaking with a beginner, such as i am).  for a few months now,
i've been  speaking almost exclusively yiddish with my mother who lives 2000
miles away.  our telephone conversations have been very enjoyable and the
parent child dynamics that frustrate me in english don't seem to exist in
yiddish.  my mother is quite patient with me and speaks much less
frenetically,  perhaps we are tapping into a pre-adolescent aspect of our
relationship.

yesterday, i decided to contact an aunt of mine (my father's widowed
sister-in-law). i had not had any contact with since 1968, when i was 18 and
met her on a trip to israel.  i got her phone number from an israeli cousin i
had not spoken with in 13 years.  with my cousin i spoke english, since i have
very little hebrew, and it was only near the end of the conversation that i
asked for my aunt's telephone.  my cousin gave me the number, but warned me
that my aunt did not speak english. i hesitated and then asked in yiddish if
the aunt spoke yiddish.  my cousin and i spoke for a few moments more in
yiddish (poylishe), after which she assured me that my yiddish was better than
hers and her mother  would not have any trouble understanding me.

being 1:00 pm sunday in boston, and knowing my own tendency to procrastinate,
i decided to call while it was still a reasoable hour in tel aviv.  it took
her a moment to understand my tsemisht tsedreyt tsebrokhane yiddish and figure
out who i was after these many years.  but we had a lovely chat, and i had a
very real sense of reconnecting with mesphucha. not to disparage YIVO
pronunciation in the least, but for talking with my tante, being able to speak
my family's dialect was just wonderful.

nathan kohn

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 96 07:01:40 PST
From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu
Subject: S.A. Birnbaum's Yiddish grammar

While it is not a textbook a la "College Yiddish," Solomon A. Birnbaum's
"Yiddish:  A Survey and a Grammar" (Toronto:  University of Toronto Press,
1979) reflects Central Yiddish pronunciation. His romanization, while
internally consistent, takes some getting used to.  Here is an example
(quoting from the poet Duvyd Ke'inigsbe'rg's [Dovid Kenigsberg's] "Sone'tn" --
n.b. the apostrophe represents an accent mark placed over the preceding
letter):

A klainc'ik xuusydl mit s'iiex jn ze'kalex,
a ljstiks, kjmt araan, a le'ibydiks,
a laxydiks, jn vi der tug a kljgs,
jn graazlt zex di lange le'kalex.
(jn azoi vaater... )  (p. 184)

I'm not sure if Birnbaum's book is still in print.  A slightly dated edition
of "Books in Print" lists it as being available from Books on Demand, at a
price exceeding $100.  It is widely held, however, in larger academic
libraries.

Zachary Baker

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 10:51:02 -0500
From: raphael@cs.engr.uky.edu
Subject: Itzik Manger's "ikh bin der veg keyn mayrev"

ot zaynen di verter fun dem lid, fun der kolektsiye ,,lamtern in vint''.

oykh ken men zey zen in
        http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish.html

---------

ikh bin der veg keyn mayrev
itsik manger

ikh bin der veg keyn mayrev,
der blonder zunfargang,
dos broyne pastukh-fayfl,
der mider ovntklang.

gey mir nisht nokh, mayn khaver ---
mayn geyn iz a fargeyn;
heng nisht dayn yungn gloybn
oyf mayn bloy geveyn.

mayn sheynkeyt iz a meser,
vos shnaydt in harts arayn,
mayn tsar --- tsvey bloye lipn
iber a krigl vayn.

mayn benkshaft --- a tsigayner
in nakhtish-vildn step,
a toyte vayse mame
oyf tunkele ovnt-trep.

gey mir nisht nokh, mayn khaver ---
mayn geyn iz a fargeyn;
heng nisht dayn yungn gloybn
oyf mayn bloy geveyn.

mayn tayve --- a yunge none,
vos shteyt naket baym altar
un shtrekt ire heyse bristn
tsu ir blondn nar.

mayn freyd --- a regnboygn,
vos shimert in zunengold,
un iz tomid greyt tsu shtarbn,
vibald men hot zi hold.

mayn sine --- a vilder rayter
vos halt in hant a shtrik,
nor shtot dem soyne vargt er
gor dos eygene glik.

gey mir nisht nokh, mayn khaver ---
mayn geyn iz a fargeyn;
heng nisht dayn yungn gloybn
oyf mayn bloy geveyn.

Refoyl Finkel

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 09:47:46 +0200
From: davidb@accentsoft.com
Subject: Roikh and ruach

Would it be so surprising that many (if not all) languages evolved from
Hebrew? The Indo-European theory is in fact no more than a device to deny this
fact (along with the "higher criticism of the Bible," no more than an
antisemitic device).

Reyakh is indeed used to describe the smoke rising from the holy korbanot.
Another Yiddish word, shmek, is used for smelling, but this does not negate a
roich-reach-ruach connection.

Some neat examples of etymological coincidence? are: Hawaiian's call one of
their gods "pele" and their priests are "kahuna." I refer you to Mozeson's
book "The Word," though even he misses a few obvious ones like baron, braun
from Hebrew bar-hon (possessing wealth) and the similar bar-on (possessing
strength).

David Baron

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 09:18:29 +0100
From: siegel@zrz.tu-berlin.de
Subject: Roykh

To Arre Komar (5.272)

Yiddish "roykh" and Hebrew "ruakh" are most certainly unrelated. "Roykh" is of
Germanic origin; the word has roots back in the 9th century which is too early
for a Hebrew influence.

Anno Siegel
Berlin

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End of Mendele Vol. 5.278