ERA, Juudi is a collection of Jewish folklore recorded mostly in Yiddish and in Tartu 1926-1938 for Estonian Folklore Archives. It includes 790 pages of manuscripts and 1430 items, which are anecdotes (176), songs (235), beliefs (145), tales (40), riddles (25), sayings (559) and a glamorous collection of kloles (186). Et al.
If dogs are mating, the Prophet Elijah is in town. ERA, Juudi 2, 204 (8).
Besides records of vernacular oral tradition, the collection contains several printed documents. These are: four printed prayers against an evil eye for newborn (עין-הרע): ERA, Juudi 2, 13 (1), 14 (2), 15 (3), 16 (4) and two printed examples of marriage contract (כתבה): ERA, Juudi 2, 17/8 (5) and ERA, Juudi 2, 19/20 (6).
How-to
Now it's all available on the web (check the rules of use). The site with collections of Estonian Folklore Archives is in Estonian only, so you can go there via google translate or follow the next instruction:
Here is the 1st part of the collection (ERA, Juudi 1: 1924-1929) and here is the 2nd (ERA, Juudi 2: 1930-1938; 1947). You can download the pdf of a whole volume (Juudi 1, Juudi 2). Or you can download the separate page you want as jpeg or tiff in higher resolution. To see the list of items click the "+" sign next to the word "Palad". Clicking the word "Vaata" will bring you to the file, where "Tekstitus" contains texts (original text in Yiddish, Standard Yiddish and English translation, and sometimes transliteration by YIVO rules). "Ava fail" shows you JPG, which you can download by clicking "Laadi alla JPG".
"Metaandmed" contain metadata: date, English summary (except for proverbs). "Tegijad" contain collector's and narrator's name. (If any information on collector or narrator is known, it is collected within a special page, which can be found apart in this page by entering the name.)
If you want to download the exact page, you go to the list "Kasutuskoopia JPG Esitus" and click "Ava" by the one you need and then "Laadi alla JPG".
Genres and species
There are inner tags, which allow to find texts by genres and thematic groups (most of these tags belong to the whole base of the Archives, but some are mine samodeyatelnost for needs of Jewish materials):
- rl for songs,
- ll for children songs,
- um for beliefs and rituals (there more detailed: uk kal about calendar festivas, ul pulm about marriage, uk met for weather, uk matus for believes tied with death, dead, funerals),
.מען זאָגט ווען עס בליצט, דאַן צינט אָן גאָט אַ פאַפיראָס
People say when there's a lightning, then God lights a cigarette.
- kloles for guess what,
- anek for anecdotes.
- Motke Chabad for anecdotes about Motke Chabad (214 items),
- hällilaul for lullabies in general (33 items)
- and vayse tsigele for this famous one in particular (24 items).
- liisklugemine is for counting rhymes (and more special as "Yitske-shpitske").
- mj is for mayses.
- unenäoseletus for dreams.
- vs for sayings, proverbs and phraseologisms.
- lh for such a weird thing as onomatopeic words.
- ns for spells (by these are tagged sgules, kloles and minor spells, such as for a throwing away a fallen out milk tooth).
- joon for drawings (there's a picture of Motke Chabad, e.g.).
- Counting rhyme in Hebrew tagged as "Ani holakhti be derekh", earlier it was known in two publications and one field record, now there are 4 more records (ERA, Juudi 2, 70 (13); ERA, Juudi 2, 76 (8); ERA, Juudi 2, 88 (VIII); ERA, Juudi 2, 104 (12)).
- "frightening stories" recorded by Tartu Jewish pupils about what their parents tried to scare kids with (oft contain sever critics of parents' behavior) -- these are tagged as "õud" (20).
- What I tagged as a "barrel" (18 variants), a rhymed game going like this:
!יזקע איז מײַנער -
?וואו האָסט אים גענומען -
.אונטער אַ טון -
?וואָס וועסט געבן עסן -
.חלה מיט הון -
(See ERA, Juudi 2, 68 (7) for original text and translation.) - A rhyme "Por daytshn" (7 records):
אונטערן בריק, אופֿן בריק
שטייען א פאר טייצען
מיט די לאנגע בּייצען
הייכע מענער זיינען זיי
געלט פארמאגען זיי
געלט און די פֿלאשען
קנידער און די וויגען
!שרייען ווי די ציגען
(See ERA, Juudi 1, 88 (60) for standartized text and translation.) - A special group of interest are school-children plagirizings from each other (teachers were gathering self-records from pupils of Tartu Jewish elementary school):
A cat turning deaf, dead and pigeon within one 5th grade of Jewish school. Name No Text Malke Gordon J2, 61 (4) ...un az men git a kāc x̄ālē vert di kāc tejb Kalman Gelbart J2, 66 (4) az men git a kac brojt vert zi zat Rivke Druy J2, 77 (6) ven men git a kac hxaledān vert di kac tojt Golde Soloveičik J2, 95 (5) az men gi fta kac x̄ālē vert zi tejb Rejze Pevzner J2, 99 (5) un men zōgt āz men git ā kāc x̄ălĕ den vert zi tejb Sare Reznik J2, 105 (5) zōgt2 men1 āz men git ā kāc fil x̄ălĕ vert zi tejb Sime Škop J2, 111 (4a) ven men git ā kāc esn xāle vert zi tejb ERA, Juudi 2, 61(4) און ווען מען גיט א קאַץ חאַלֶה ווערט די קאַץ טייב... ERA, Juudi 2, 66(4) אז מען גיט א קאץ ברויט ווערט זי זאט ERA, Juudi 2, 77(6) ווען מען גיט א קאץ -ה- כאלע דאַן ווערט די קאץ טויט ERA, Juudi 2, 95(5) אז מען גי-פ-ט א קאץ חַלֶה ווערט זי טייב ERA, Juudi 2, 99(5) און מען זאָגט אַז מען גיט אַ קאַץ חלה דען ווערט זי טייב ERA, Juudi 2, 105(5) זאָגט2 מען1 אַז מען גיט אַ קאַץ פיל חַלה ווערט זי טויב ERA, Juudi 2, 111(4a) ווען מען גיט אַ קאַץ עסן כאַלע ווערט זי טייב
The origin and the language of the collection
The collection was started by Walter Anderson, who taught folkloristics in Tartu university and popularized there his method of gathering self-records from school-children (see his article וואלטער אנדערסאָן. דאָס ליד פון דער מאָביליזאציע // פילאָלאָגישע שריפטן. 2ער בונד. ווילנע, 1928. ז.401-413). The biggest parts of the whole collection were therefore gathered by schoolteachers Elias Levnberg (of Tartu Jewish elementary school), 801 item and Isidor Levin (of Liepāja Jewish school No. 14), 78 items. Other main contributors were Berta Kaplan (225 items) and Paul Ariste, whose work is unmeasurable, and then many students and activists.
Most part of the collection is in vernacular Yiddish: it is not standartized and, what is important, hebraizms are written phonetically, which gives a very clear comprehension of the speakers pronounciation, mostly Litvak. Some items are written in Estonian and Russian (see "Textitus" parts for translations) and very few in German.
A verse in Litvak Yiddish.
| Original text | Transcrtiption based on rhymes and spelling | |
|---|---|---|
| אונזער גבי | unzer gabe | |
| משה אבה | Meys(h)e Abe | |
| האט א גרייסן בויך | hot a greysn beykh,1 | |
| זיצט ביים טישל | zitst bam tis(h)l,2 | |
| לאקחעט פון שיסל | lekekht fun s(h)is(h)l,2 | |
| .אז עס גייט אריח | az es geyt a reykh.1 | |
| זיין ווייב שרה נחמה | zeyn veyb Sore Nekhome | |
| א כשרה נשמה | a ksore nes(h)ome, | |
| זי איז קליג | zi iz klig,3 | |
| אזיי ווי דעם רבינס ציג | azey vi dem rabins tsig3. | |
| 1. Rhyme of boykh and reyakh shows coincidence of ey and ay in ey, typical for Litvak Yiddish. This is supported by spelling אזיי, ווייב, גרייסן. | ||
| 2. Rhyme of tishl and shisl shows mixing of sh and s, so called Sabesdiker losn. | ||
| 3. Rhyme of klug and tsig shows mixing of u and i, typical for Polish and Ukrainian Yiddish. | ||
Gratitudes: I'm thankful to my prof. Ergo-Hart Västrik, who introduced me to the archives and the collection and taught me to write correct signatures; to the director of Estonian Folklore Archives Risto Järv, who made this project possible; to Olga Ivashkevitch, who patronized my practical work, taught me to work with the archival site and solved all the questions related to technical issues; to Tuuli Otsus, who scanned the manuscripts -- that was the main thing of all. Besides I am obliged for help in reading several difficult places to Asia Fruman, who also transcribed two pages of manuscripts. Last and most I'm deeply thankful to Walter Anderson and Paul Ariste, who learned Yiddish and collected many materials; and to enthuasiastic collectors: Berta Kaplan, Elya Levnberg, Isidor Levin and many others ז״ל.
And עיקר שכחתי to Verterbukh.org, who gives unreal discounts for its online Yiddish dictionary to students, and by this makes me happy and satisfied.
For mistakes and improvements write here in comments, or to e-mail: doar.katan@gmail.com.
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