Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 39 July 5, 1991 1) Kapoyre, cont. (Yankel Kessler) 2) Geography, cont. (Yankel Kessler) 3) Fowl talk (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 04 Jul 91 13:38 PDT From: KESSLER Subject: RE: Vol 1.37 various I scribbled kapoyre, because I hear my father's radio (NY WNEW) diction, with the oyre, the r in the throat, not trilled. the thing fashlugt is the scapegoat too, not so? the beast killed in lieu of...jk 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 04 Jul 91 13:46 PDT From: KESSLER Subject: RE: Vol 1.38; geography Yes indeedy! I just received zeroxes of the manifest of the SS Oropesa for 1922 , from my new mahktaynetse, a DAR lady who dabbles in geneology. What did she f ind in her Ellis Island search but the arrival of my fa- ther, his mother, and th ree sisters, all from Bucha- rest, where they laid low for a couple of years pend ing emigration, after the Reds had proven themselves as full of slaughter-lust as the Whites, on that East bank of the Dniester. My father was kept from comin g in 1919 by his father, who went over first, sent for by his elder son and eld est daughter, because as the man said, You, Haim,will chase skirts and drink an d never make enough money to get me out. He was right, my father admitted, with a shrug late in life, and a smile to me. In Bucharest he worked nights making cigarettes in an illegal tabac factory, and so learned to smoke, idly in the lo ng nights. History!? So, these xeroxes actually show a full typewritten manifes t of all the souls in steerage and so forth. Most interest- ing to see the ocular proof, as itwere. JK 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Jul 91 19:28 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: Fowl talk Noyekh, You're still dropping your aiches but, of course, you're right about the "chicken-rooster". I never performed the act (though I do remember witness- ing it in my grandmother's house) but I should have known it because the phrase you cite is the subject of one of many splendid puns attributed to Bialik that I cherish: watching khosn-kale under the khupe, Bialik is said to have said (in "proper" sfaradit): "hatarnigol haze holekh lamita". As for "a sheyne reyne kapore" which some "lets" called down upon the head of his bullying, uncomprehending neighbor; challenged to explain what he'd just said, he replied: "I wished you beauty, purity, and sacrifice". "kapoyre" is a new one on me. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.39