Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 86
October 10, 1991
 
1) Folk etymologies (Mikhl Herzog)
2) Birnbaum on the etymologies of _daven_ (Noyekh Miller

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 91  21:37 EDT
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.84

Bob Goldberg: Don't believe everything the tell you!
"Etymologizing" is a favorite sport but mustn't be taken
too seriously. German "heirat" has nothing too do with
Hebrew "harey at"; no more so than "British" is derived
from "brit" and "ish" (making the British some of the lost
tribes). Nor is "davnen" derived from "daF"nen (because you
turn the pages (daf) while you davn.

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thur, 10 Oct 91
From: nmiller@trincc
Subject: Daven

The origins of _daven_ and _pareve_ are once again hot
items.  As they will be again next year and the year after.
For those who aren't already familiar with it, I thought I
might summarize very briefly a paper by the revered Solomon
A. Birnbaum, one of the vatikim of Yiddish studies, and
written at the age of 94.  It's from _Origins of the
Yiddish Language: Winter Studies in Yiddish Volume 1_, ed.
Dovid Katz, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1987.  The article is
entitled "Two Methods", the second part of which deals with
the etymology of _daven_.

There are, according to Birnbaum, no fewer than 9
candidates.  

1. _Dafnen_ (from turning pages (Heb. _daf_)).  

2. Lithuanian _davana_ (gift) somehow linked with Heb.
_minha_ which originally meant offering, gift.  

3. English _dawn_.  

4. Latin _devorere_.

5. Latin _divinus_

6. Arabic _diwan_ (collection of poems).

7. Hebrew _d-ovinu (of our father).

Of these seven, says Birnbaum, the etymologies "are so
bizarre, absurd and phonologically impossible that it
is superfluous to refute them".

8. Arabic _dawa_ which may have come into Yiddish via
Turkish Jews.  

9. MHG _doenen_ (sing, play, sound).

These last two Birnbaum treats seriously and the dis-
cussion is interesting.  In the end, however, Birnbaum
gives a zifts: "The problem of _davenen_ is still wait-
ing to be solved".

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End of Mendele Vol 1.86