_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 02.022 1 August 1998 ___________________________ | | | Eliyohu Lipiner | | | | (1910-1998) | |___________________________| der alef-beys (I) 1) Yiddish Matters: "The alef-beys in the 21st century" (Leonard Prager) 2) _der alefbeyz_ (Alef kats) 1)---------------------------------------- Date: 1 August 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: "The alef-beys in the 21st century" The name Eliyohu Lipiner and the subject "alef-beys" ('alphabet') [often spelled "alef-beyz"] are inextricably interwoven. _The Mendele Review_ has for many months been preparing an issue on the alef-beys centered around the work of this scholar, who died before he could enjoy the cybernetic celebration of his achievement. May this triple issue dedicated to his memory help make his alef-beys research known to new generations of students of Yiddish the world over. Eliyahu Lipiner's magnum opus on the alef-beys is entitled _ideologye fun yidishn alef-beys_. It has been translated into Hebrew under the title _khazon haotiot; torat haideyot shel haalefbet haivri_ (meturgam al-yedey yaakov hokherman. yerushalaim: hotsaat sefarim al-shem y"l magnes, hauniversita haivrit, 1989). Lipiner's Yiddish work on the "Jewish" alphabet -- which is the Hebrew _and_ the Yiddish alphabet -- becomes, in the title of the Hebrew translation, a study of the Hebrew alphabet. Is this merely a semantic matter? In Max Weinreich's charming _di shvartse pintelekh_ (Vilna 1939), the section "undzer yidisher alef-beys" includes the earliest Semitic scripts while a later chapter on Yiddish spelling is called "der yidisher oysleyg haynt un a mol." We know of course that in Yiddish _yidish_ means both 'Jewish' and 'Yiddish'. The use of the term _Hebrew_ (or in certain contexts _Israeli_) rather than _Jewish_ often has ideological implications, the negation of the Diaspora being one of them. For Weinreich and Lipiner the Hebrew and Yiddish alphabets, which share all but a few of the same graphemes, are part of a single indivisible cultural construct. The Yiddish and Hebrew alphabets are both alike and unlike. Yiddish employs the Hebrew alphabet in its Hebrew-Aramaic component and has adapted the Hebrew alphabet in its other components. In practice a knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet does not enable one to read Yiddish, just as the reverse is true. On the other hand, Yiddish written in the Hebrew alphabet alone, without the special signs and letter combinations of Yiddish, is comprehensible to people who know Yiddish -- who supply the necessary vowels and diphthongs as easily as Hebrew readers do in reading unvocalized text. For largely technical reasons, _Mendele_ and _The Mendele Review_ transcribe Yiddish into Latin letters, adhering to the Yivo rules of Standard Yiddish spelling. The romanized texts thus presented are sometimes the only existing texts in modern Yiddish orthography. Scholars can always manage with old-spelling texts, but for widespread use in schools and universities, standardized texts are a necessity. It is very sad indeed that only a fraction of Yiddish classics can be read in modernized orthography. All Yiddish websites -- there are new ones all the time! -- should be encouraged to employ the Standard Yiddish Orthography [SYO] and, if they romanize, to use the Standard Yiddish Romanization [SYR] which is based upon it. Romanized Yiddish does not compete with Yiddish-in-Yiddish-letters. Refoyl Finkl's Yiddish Typewriter, if not always accessible and simple, makes conversion from romanized to Yiddish-letter text possible. Romanized Yiddish is helpful to persons who heard Yiddish in their childhood, have forgotten the alphabet but are now striving to reconnect with their earlier experience of the language. Romanized Yiddish texts are especially appreciated by people for whom the Hebrew letters are a block (in much the same way that for centuries _galkhes_ 'gentile script' was to European Jewry in learning to read coterritorial languages). A scholar can master an alphabet in a day. For a great many people an alphabet other than the one they have grown up with throws up a barrier. I often see advertisements in Israel these days in which Hebrew is written in Cyrillic letters (cf. the reverse phenomenon of German-in-Hebrew letters.) But in the final analysis there is no substitute for the Yiddish _shvartse pintelekh_. Alphabets, like language generally, fire passions. The alef-beys has traditionally figured in emotional rituals such as praying at the grave of a deceased parent/child/sibling on the anniversary of death [yortsayt]. In some communities mourning customs have imcluded studying the Mishna, both mishnayos 4-7 (which begin with the letters that spell _neshomo_ [the same letters that spell _mishna_]) and the mishnayos that begin with the letter of the first name of the deceased. There are kabbalists in Israel today who attach the greatest cosmic -- and political -- significance to various letter combinations. At the opposite pole we find functionalists who (in addition to scorning mystical alphabet symbolism) see no reason for perpetuating an archaic right-to-left alphabet in a largely Latin-letter (western) world. We constantly hear new proposals for emulating Kemal Ataturk's romanization of Turkish and writing Hebrew left to right in Latin letters. Such notions have little chance of making headway. Which leaves Yiddish-lovers facing the paradox that an almost-Yiddish right-to-left alphabet will be thriving while its utility as the alphabet for reading Yiddish texts evaporates. Many if not most Jews in the Diaspora learn to read Hebrew sufficiently to recite prayers -- there are said to be over 600 Jewish day schools in North America, with almost 1/4 million students. But to read Yiddish these students require additional instruction. During the next decade the Yiddish world, limited though its resources are, must mobilize for this basic task of keeping the treasures of Yiddish language and culture available by developing effective channels for teaching, at all levels, the Yiddish alef-beys. Without this key, itself an object of folk adoration in the past, the avenues to a rich heritage will radically narrow. It is unfortunate that so little of the discussion in _Mendele_ centers on problems of teaching Yiddish, an area begging for creative solutions. I do not know how Yiddish is best taught today, but I suspect that the answer does not lie in some of our best known and best loved poems about the alef-beys. The following four chords -- nostalgic, plaintive, chauvinistic and elegiac -- do not seem "right" for the teaching effort that lies before us: mark varshavski, "oyfn pripetshik" oyfn pripetshik brent a fayerl un in shtub iz heys, un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh dem alefbeys. zog zhe kinderlekh, gedenk zhe, tayere, vos ir lernt do. zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol komets-alef o. [See the version of this song in Refoyl Finkl's "Yiddish Poems" website]. *** Arn tseytlin, "alef-beys" Arn tseytlin "alef-beys" (folkish), _gezamelte lider_, driter band. new york: matones, 1957, p. 359. zest? dos iz an alef'l. oybn ot dos pintele iz, mayn kind, a khoylem'l. alef-khoylem -- oy! zog zhe, yankele: oy! zest? dos iz a beyz'ele. nem aroys dos pintele -- vert derfun a veyz'ele. dos-do iz a tseyre'le. veyz mit tseyre'le -- vey! zog zhe, yankele: vey! s'drite iz -- a gimele. gimel tseyre'le -- gey, zog zhe, yankele: nokhamol: gimel tseyre'le -- gey! oy, vey, gey -- me darf nisht mer. oy, vey, gey -- un shoyn! kenst dem yidns alef-beys, yankele mayn kroyn. **** Yisroel ashendorf "oysyes" di gotishe oysyes zaynen shpitsike -- bagnetn, shpitsrutn un mesers, lataynishe oysyes zaynen kaylekhdike -- mit roytn vayn gefilte feser. di yidishe oysyes -- nisht keyn shikere fun yenems blut un nisht fun vaynen, nor kantike, flekldike, hoykerdike, vi dos mazl fun folk fun maynem. *** Arn leyeles, fun "mayn loshn" Di letste tsu shraybn mayn loshn, mayn yidish Zey veln gehern tsum noblstn shtam. Zey veln oyf itlekhn os makhn kidesh. Batamen dos vort mit dos glustikstn tam. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 August 1998 From: Leah krikun Subject: Alef kats, _der alefbeyz_ [Learning the alef-beys -- at age three for boys! -- was traditionally the first step in learning _yidishkayt_ (see Yekhiel Shtern, "an iberzets-kheyder in tishevits," _shriftn far psikholgye un pedagogik_, 2ter band, Vilna: Yivo, 1940, zz' 270-272). Before learning its sound value, the child learned to identify and name the letter; the visual element was here uppermost. A much later mnemonic aid was the abecedary, which tied a letter to a word beginning with that letter, a word which might suggest the shape of the letter (e.g. _khes_ as a _khupe_). Yiddish poets and educators have written numerous abecedaries. We give here that of the poet Alef kats.(1) For the twenty-first century we need new abecedaries and alphabet-teaching strategies.-- ed.] _fun alef biz tof_ fun Alef kats farlag _alef_, nyu-york [on a date] [the poet omits veys, kof, sin and sof but not fey and khof: ed.] alef iz an aker vos akert dos feld. beyz iz broyt vos shpayst di velt. giml iz a glok vos klingt un vekt. daled iz a dakh mit shindlen badekt. hey iz a hant oyf arbet un shpil. vov iz a veg vos firt tsum tsil. zayin iz di zun vos shaynt far ale. khes iz a khupe far khosn kale. tes iz a tiger -- vild un frekh. yud iz a yazhik mit nodl-shtekh. khof iz a khor vos zingt a gezang. lamed iz a lire mit a rirndikn klang. mem iz a mil vos molt keseyder. nun iz a nodl tsum neyen kleyder. samekh iz a sove bay tog is zi blind. ayen iz an eroplan vos flit durkhn vint. pey iz a palme hoykh un shlank. fey iz a fus tsum geyn a gang. tsadek iz di tsvang gemakht mit a tsvang. kuf is a keml mit a shpitsiker pleytse. reysh is a rod vos dreyt zikh un dreyt zikh. shin is a shif mit koymens dray. tof is di toyre alt un nay. sof khof harkh! harkh! zogt der shtarkh. sof mem m e e e! mam! makht der lam. sof nun kuku-rir-an! kreyt der hon. sof fey hav! holf! bilt der volf. sof tsadek miau! miats! veynt di kats. shtarkh. lam. hon. volf. kats. ***** dos gebot far a sod iz aza: pasekh shin - sha! a tsadek a shlekhter, a tsadek in pelts -- dem emes farbrekht er dem lign farshtelt. ikh zog es aykh ale fun groys biz kleyn, az loy mit an alef iz dray mol neyn! a ferdl mit mogere glider zukht a bisl _hey_ in sider. ***** alef iz nisht beyz [the poet covers the Yiddish alef-beys except for sin and veys: ed.] alef iz nisht beyz lamed iz nisht mem kalt iz nisht heys. geb un nisht nem. beyz iz nisht giml mem is nisht nun erd iz nisht himl. levone is nisht zun. daled iz nisht hey samekh is nisht ayen milkh iz nisht tey. mel is nisht kleyen. hey iz nisht vov pey iz nisht fey tsig iz nisht shof. regn iz nisht shney. zayin iz nisht khes tsadek iz nisht kuf es iz nisht fres. neshome is nisht guf. tes iz nisht yud kuf iz nisht reysh shlekht is nisht gut. beyn iz nisht fleysh. yud iz nisht kof reysh iz nisht shin vakh iz nisht shlof. gel iz nisht grin. khof iz nisht lamed shin iz nisht tof zayd iz nisht samet. onheyb iz nisht sof. *** alef iz eyner [here the poet relates to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet: ed.] alef iz eyner -- aleyn un mer keyner 1 beyz iz beyde -- a bobe mit a zeyde 2 gimel iz a geshpan fun dray ferd 3 daled iz dorem -- di ferte zayt erd 4 hey iz a hant -- a land mit finf hofns 5 vov iz di velt -- in zeks teg bashofn 6 zayin iz der zibeter tog un nakht 7 khes iz khanike likhtlekh akht 8 tes iz a top mit nayn mos reyd 9 yud iz a yid tsum minyen greyt 10 kof iz 20 lamed iz 30 mem iz 40 nun iz 50 samekh iz 60 ayen iz 70 pey iz 80 tsadek iz 90 kuf iz 100 reysh iz 200 shin iz 300 tof iz 400 tof kuf 500 tof reysh 600 tof shin 700 tof tof 800 tof tof kuf 900 alef' 1000 beyz' 2000 giml' 3000 daled' 4000 hey' 5000 hey' tof reysh tsadek tes 5699 [= 699 (+1240) = 1939/1940] hey' tof shin 5700 [= 700 (+1240) = 1940/1941](2) *** 1). Alef kats is especially associated with the alef-beys. Reviewing his children's play where the characters are letters [ see _gut morgn alef, purim-shpil un yosele_ (nyu-york, 1950)], Sh. Niger wrote: "di kleyninke yidishe oysyes zaynen far Alef katsn lebedike bashefenishn: alef, beys, giml, lamed un vov, nun un samekh zaynen di heldn un shpiln roles in dem dozikn dramatishn verk. (...) di tragishe drame fun di yidishe oysyes iz bay Alef katsn gevorn a remez oyf der tragedye fun yidishn folk, vos iz dos folk fun os." [cited in _leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur_, b. 4, nyu-york: alveltlekhn yidishn kultur-kongres, 1961 zz' 345-6]. 2) The Israeli Kneset has just passed a law making it manditory for all government institutions to use the Hebrew date in correspondence (in addition to the secular date). Yiddishland cannot legislate; but it can cogitate. ______________________________________________________ End of _The Mendele Review_ 02.022 Leonard Prager, editor Subscribers to _Mendele_ (see below) automatically receive _The Mendele Review_. Send "to subscribe" or change-of-status messages to: listproc@lists.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele mail postpone b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail ack c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele ****Getting back issues**** _The Mendele Review_ archives can be reached at: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele/tmrarc.htm