yiddish-shmues

[yiddish-shmues]

Today’s Yiddish Fun Fact: one potential response to the question וואָס מאַכסטו/ vos mahkstu (literally “what do you make?” but idiomatically “how are you?”) is וואָס זאָל איך מאכן / vos zol ikh makhn (“what should I make/how should I be?”), or, to put it another way:

(Source: Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex)

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Well, in light of all the dumb decisions duolingo is making right now, here's a few free/accessible resources for learning Yiddish:

Ultimate Yiddish Resources Masterpost

Yiddish/Ladino Queer Vocab Glossary

And some free PDFs:

Basic Yiddish: A Grammar and Workbook, by Rebecca Margolis

A Manual and Grammar of the Yiddish Language, by J. Mazin

Colloquial Yiddish: The Complete Course for Beginners, by Lily Kahn

Idisch y Latinoamerica, by Eliahu Toker

English-Yiddish Dictionary, by Alexander Harkevy

Cursive Alef Beys Writing Practice, YIVO standard, from YBC

Digital Yiddish Library, over 12k titles for free, from YBC

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The comprehensive Yiddish/English dictionary suggests “dibek” (dibuk) as a modern Yiddish word for a computer virus

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Absolute jackpot available here

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Today’s Yiddish Fun Fact: If an aleph is behaving strangely, the word is probably from Aramaic. If there are fewer vowels than you might otherwise expect, the word is probably from Hebrew. Or maybe also Aramaic. Good luck! 

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I'm currently about halfway through reading the Yiddish translation of The Hobbit, and I thought I'd record a few of my observations thus far:

I really like the overall writing style! This is my first time reading The Hobbit in translation (aside from excerpts from the Latin translation), so idk how well it works in other languages, but I feel like the Yiddish lends itself really well to mimicking Tolkien's style.

Apparently the modern Yiddish word for dwarf is שרעטל, which was a bit weird to get used to as an Old Yiddishist who is used to צװערק/צװערג. I don't know the etymology of the modern word, but according to definitions I've found online, it can also mean elf or gnome. (Basically any diminutive mythical creature, I guess?) Goldstein just uses the word עלף for the Elves.

I can get behind the way he transliterates most of the Dwarves' names, but for reasons I cannot comprehend, he transliterates Balin and Dwalin as בײלין and דוײלין respectively. (Beylin? Dualin?)

He translates "ale" as ענגליש ביר (English beer), presumably to distinguish it from regular beer, but it sort of breaks immersion by implying the existence of England lol.

I do not envy anyone the task of translating Tolkien's verse. I think he mostly does a good job; the rhyme and meter work better in some songs than others.

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I found a copy of this in the translated book cart on campus. I'll read it as soon as I can and then return it to the cart.

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i really want to learn yiddish!!

do y’all have any good resource recommendations of the non duolingo variety?

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so i'm writing a paper for a class on the history of Yiddish, and I just finished the first draft, and I think I added a very good ending to it

the final sentence is: “The language itself has changed; its speakers have changed too; one thing remains certain, however: Yiddish lives.” that is all

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Finally visited one of the reasons I came to Massachusetts in the first place

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מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן......

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Still from the Yiddish theatre production 'Miracle of the Warsaw Ghetto' dramatizing the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The play was performed in 1944, only a year after the uprising itself.

Museum of the City of New York

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It's that time of year again! Applications for OSRJL classes for the 2024-2025 academic year are open from now until September 16.

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Yiddish Public Health Poster, “Air Sun Water”. Berlin, 1926.

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I want to do Daf Yomi but the cycle started 4 years ago 😭

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i would like to introduce the class to yiddish wit dot com

10/10 archive of yiddish quotes with hits like

and something i have no words for: