Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.100 November 10, 1997 1) Tsvey heldn mayne (Noyekh Miller) 2) "di grine Kuzine" (Jacques Kapota) 3) Shlak (Bob Rothstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 15:52:28 -0500 From: Norman Miller Subject: Tsvey heldn mayne I'm happy to announce that Mendele's web page is at last c o m p l e t e ! The last hurdle, which involved numbering hundreds of past issues so that they could be easily read and downloaded, has been overcome by my neighbor and lunch-companion Mark David. Then we have the happy news that The Mendele Review will embark on an experiment whereby Refoyl Finkel's wonderful yidishe shrayb-mashin (recently enriched with new fonts) will be used to convert romanized text into alef-beys. Not only is the prospect dazzling in its own right (ingenious Refoyl!), but there's also this: subscribers who've hitherto insisted on their own spelling systems will finally have to agree to use the standard transcription scheme (crafty Refoyl!) in order for the shrayb-mashin to work. Why heroes? It's one thing when a pensioner with lots of free time and no mouths to feed fools around with a list, but it's something else again when people like Mark David and Refoyl Finkel -- and here I add Iosif Vaisman -- devote hours of their time to this task. One used to take this more for granted than is nowadays possible. The community of Yiddishists is in their debt. Noyekh Miller 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 23:08:42 +0100 From: Jacques KAPOTA Subject: "di grine Kuzine" Freydl Cielak asked for text of the song [07.097] : DI GRINE KUZINE , text by J. Leiserowitz music by A. Schwartz Es iz tsu mir gekumen a kuzine Sheyn vi gold iz zi geven, di grine, Di bekelekh vi royte pomerantsn, Fiselekh vos betn zikh tsum tantsn. Nit gegangen iz zi - nor geshprungen, Nit geredt hot zi, nor gezungen, Freylekh, lustik iz geven ir mine, Ot aza geven iz mayn kuzine. Ikh bin arayn tsu mayn "nekst-dorke" Vos zi hot a "milineri-storke", A "dzhab" gekrogn hob ikh far mayn kuzine, Az lebn zol di goldene medine ! Avek zaynen fun demolt on shoyn yorn, Fun mayn kuzine is a tel gevorn, "Peydes" yorn lang hot zi geklibn, Biz fun ir aleyn iz nisht geblibn. Unter ire bloye sheyne oygn Shvartse pasn hobn zikh fartsoygn, Di bekelekh, di royte pomerantsn, Hobn zikh shoyn oysgegrint in gantsn. Haynt, az ikh bagegn mayn kuzine Un ikh freg zi : - Vos zhe makhstu, grine ? Entfert zi mir mit a krumer mine : - Az brenen zol Kolombuses medine ! Best regards, Jacques KAPOTA [Similar versions were submitted also by Milt Eisner and Peter Gutmann - i.v.] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 22:05:49 -0500 (EST) From: ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN Subject: Shlak May I try to sum up the long discussion of the word _shlak_ and related matters? One preliminary point: can we agree to the standard transliteration _shlak_ for the Yiddish word, saving _s(c)hlock_ for the English slang term? 1. In at least some of its meanings _shlak_ seems clearly related to the verb _shlogn_ 'hit, strike'. The g/k relationship is not surprising, given the fact that in the history of Yiddish (and in some contemporary Yiddish dialects) final voiced consonants become devoiced (e.g., g>k). 2. Answering an inquiry in the December 1961 issue of _Yidishe shprakh_, editor Yudel Mark pointed to the following meanings of _shlak_: a. sudden paralyzing attack of a disease, such as apoplexy or heart attack (_hartsshlak_); b. a misfortune: a tsore, an onshikenish, a beyze bagegenish, a pegere; c. an evil spirit: a nit-guter, a shed; d. a failure, a useless person: a groyser shlimazl, a shtik loy-yutslekh ("a shlak fun zayn libn nomen"); e. dross, slag, tail: opfal baym baarbetn farsheydene materyaln; f. other meanings, as in _toybnshlak_ 'dovecote'. 3. Stutchkoff's _Oytser..._ adds some other meanings a. the roof of a _suke_ or a porch (_fligl_); b. a border or hem (also _shlyak_); c. a tailor's tape measure (also _shlyak_); d. (supplementing Mark's first meaning) _hitsshlak_ 'heatstroke', _zunshlak_ 'sunstroke'. 4. Note also _shlaks(regn)_ 'driving rain'; _shlagboym_/_shlaban_ 'road barrier, as at railroad crossing' (cf. German _Schlagbaum_, Russian _shlagbaum_, Polish _szlaban_); _durkhshlak_ 'colander, strainer' (cf. Russian _durshlag_, Polish _durszlak_, German _Durchschlag_); _shlagvort_ 'slogan'; and that relic of the 1930's Soviet Union, _shlogler_ 'shock worker' (a calque from Russian _udarnik_, also from the root meaning 'strike'). 5. As I pointed out in MENDELE a few years ago (and Michael Steinlauf did more recently), Yiddish _a shlak zol im/zi/zey... trefn_ is presumably modeled on Polish _niech go/ja,/ich... szlag trafi_. 6. I would guess that the English slang term _s(c)hlock_ 'something, such as merchandise or literature, that is inferior or shoddy' (according to the _American Heritage Dictionary_) derives from the fifth meaning that Yudel Mark gave for _shlak_ (_opfal..._), that is, tail ('the refuse or dross remaining from processes such as distilling or milling') or slag ('the vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore'--both definitions from the AHD). Of course German _Schlacke_ (same meaning) could be the source, but Yiddish (via NYC and Hollywood) seems more likely. Bob Rothstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.100 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html