Yiddish Adjectives/Encounters with Death in Yiddish Folksongs (1965)

This broadcast from February 21, 1965 presents excerpts from two papers  delivered at YIVO’s annual conference, which had taken place the month before:  

1. "Variety of Functions of the Yiddish Adjective," a paper delivered by Professor Uriel Weinreich at a session of the Linguistic Circle, about certain cases of the syntax of Yiddish adjectives. Weinreich pointed out some subtler differences in meaning resulting from syntactical changes. This syntactical flexibility, giving rise to new shades of meaning, is an internal development in the Yiddish language. Remote parallels may be found in Russian, but then the impact of Russian upon Yiddish is of a later date than these peculiarities of the usage of the adjectives.

2. "Traces of Amusements in Yiddish Folksongs" a paper by Eleanor Gordon (Chana) Mlotek that traces the rise of the Yiddish folksong and its relationship to the medieval Yiddish epics and folk dramas. Mlotek submitted two such songs, which have as their burden a dialogue between God and the Torah and an encounter between a maiden and “death,” to this analysis. She pointed up parallels in English, Dutch, French, German and Slavic folksongs, as well as in those genres of art music known as the Dance of Death and Macaber Dance, and concluded that elements of long-forgotten games and amusements songs have become incorporated in the Yiddish folksongs. A musical example is sung by Masha Benya.

From 1963-1976, YIVO had its own program on WEVD, the radio station established by the Socialist Party of America in 1927 (its call letters stand for the initials of American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs), which was purchased by the Jewish Daily Forward in 1932 and became a major venue from Yiddish programming.

YIVO used its spot on WEVD for Yiddish-language interviews and discussions with leading New York Yiddish cultural figures, as well as for reporting on its own scholarly and cultural work.

A new podcast of this program in the order in which it was originally broadcast will be posted here every two weeks.

Presentation of series curated by Matt Temkin, YIVO Sound Archives.

Listen to the program [in Yiddish].