Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.004 May 22, 2005 1) Yiddish in China (Hersh Hartman) 2) povetka (Refoyl Finkel) 3) povetka (Larry Gillig) 4) povetka (Abraham Melezin) 5) preglen ayngemakhts (Larry Gillig) 6) preglen ayngemakhts (Lyubiv Dukker) 7) preglen ayngemakhts (Gerry Kane) 8) Vera Rozanka (Charles Segal) 9) Yisroel Shtern (Andrew Firestone) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 19, 2005 Subject: Yiddish in China From the official government Central News Agency, Taiwan: Yiddish Philologist Chooses to do 'What Others Would Rather Not' 2005/05/19 20:03:50 Taipei, May 19 (CNA) For S.H. Chang, a Yiddish philologist at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, "doing what nobody has done" and "doing what others would rather not" are her lifelong mottoes. Chang, known as one of the very few Yiddish philologists in all of the world's Chinese communities, said in an interview with CNA Thursday that being a lonely student of Jewish languages, particularly Yiddish -- "the language of the exiles" -- is no hardship at all so long as "you are keen to learn." "By learning a new language, you are opening up another door for yourself, " said Chang, a Ph.D in language from Germany's Trier University who is currently chairwoman of the German Department at Wenzao Ursuline College. Chang's resume is daunting -- she is an expert in German and Jewish literature, a Jewish historian, and a philologist of German and Yiddish. Chang said she had a difficult time when she first started to learn Yiddish -- a Jewish language containing 85 percent German morphemes, 10 percent Slavic morphemes and 5 percent Hebrew morphemes. But after she managed to "decode" the language, she said she found learning it extremely interesting. Now she is teaching the students at Wenzao Ursuline how to learn German the way she learned Yiddish, and she is one of the most popular professors in the college. She always tells her students: "Wo ein wille ist, ist auch ein weg" (where there's a will, there's a way). (By Deborah Kuo) Hershl Hartman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: povetka Feygl Lynn asks about "povetka". Stutshkoff lists "povetke" and "povyetke" as synonyms for "shtadol", "stodole", "stadele", "shope", and "shayer"; apparently it means "barn". Refoyl Finkel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: povetka povetka is an extension or projection of the roof, an overhang. Larry Gillig 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: povetke/povetka Russian povetka and Yiddish povetke refers to a shack built as an addition to the existing building with lean-to roof, often open on two or even three sides. In the Russian villages and shtetlakh it was used to protect firewood and agricultural implements from vagaries of weather. Abraham Melezin [Posts with similar readings have been received from David Weaver, Yankl Stillman, and Hershl Hartman] 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts Under "preglen" Harkavy's dictionary mentions "cook" as one definition, and specifilcally lists the idiom "preglen ayngemakhts" as "to cook preserves". Larry Gillig 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts Making the Passover "ayngemakhts" , the beet preserve, involves slow simmering for about 1 1/2 hours and toasting of almonds. I don't know, if it qualifies as "preglen", probably not. Lyubov Dukker 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts I suggest that in culinary terms, preglen in Yiddish has two meanings: a) fry and b) thicken. Mayn mame used the words "pregln ayngemakhts when she was thickening the malines to make a jam. She never used the expression when she was cooking the same fruit to make a "maline sok" -- a thin concoction that was used instead of sugar in a glezele tey. Gerry Kane 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Vera Rozanka I was intrigued by an item in Vol. 15.003 which includes an item about "di yidishe shikse." When I was very young--about four or five years old--my mother used to take me to the Monument National Theatre, in Montreal, when my father appeared in a play presented by a traveling troupe--the Holanders, Maurice Schwartz, Jacob P. Adler. I remember vividly my mother pointing to an actress in one play and saying "She's not Jewish but she understands and speaks Yiddish fluently. You would never know she's not Jewish." Could that actress have been Vera Rozanka? I would be very interested in knowing whether she did in fact appear in Montreal, with what troupe she appeared, the play she appeared in and when she performed there. That information would be most welcome. Charles Segal 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 20, 2005 Subject: Re: Yisroel Shtern [Regarding the post in Mendele 15.001:] It would be appreciated if any stakeholder or anyone with information about literary heirs or stakeholders would contact me at afire@tpg.com.au Andrew Firestone ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.004 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these three: Messages for posting on Mendele Personal and other messages to the shamosim Technical problems