Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 218 April 20, 1992 1) Bisl (Ruvn-Mendl Turkel) 2) Trinken ukd (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Swiss German (Martin Davis) 4) A correction (Kertesz) 5) Yiddish word order (Gus Grannan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 12:07:50 EDT From: rmt51@cas.org (Rick Turkel, Ext. 2214, Room 5304B bs"d) Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.217 In response to Bob Werman's thoughts on Modern Hebrew "bis" for bite: it most assuredly was borrowed from the Yiddish "bisl" meaning "a small amount." Any attempt to involve Arabic smacks of folk etymology - why look for a complicated etymology when a simple one will do quite nicely. Does Arabic really have an analogous word "bis?" I'd be really surprised if it did. However, Yiddish "bis" and English "piece" may, in fact, be cognates; Webster's gives an etymology involving Old French, and I don't have my OED here at work. A freylikhn un koshern pesakh zu alle mendele-folk. Rick (Ruvn-Mendl) Turkel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 13:31 EDT From: ZOGUR%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.217 Noyekh, a freylekhn un koshern peysekh dir oykh. Trinken, trinkt men zikh ober on nor purim un simkhes-toyre. Un zog nor, ba dir hot men take gezogt "latkes" af peysekh? Efsher gor "khremzlekh" oder "bubelekh". Fregst fun vanen ikh shrayb? Kh'bin dokh avekgeforn! Iz, freg-zhe nit! Zay ober gezunt. Mikhl. [Zogt Noyekh: m'hot geshmuest fun _kinder_. Ven me gibt zey tsu trinken eyn koys vayn iz meyle..ober _fir_! Un vos shaykh latkes iz der entfer: latkes. Vegn khremzlekh un bubelekh hob ikh ersht gehert nisht lang tsurik.] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 13:56:00 -0400 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: Swiss German This is just to counter Knud Lambrecht's charming tale of the bobe who got by in Zurich relying on the hypothesis that Schweitzer-Deutsch is a form of Yiddish. My wife and I were at a resort in Corsica a few years ago where there were no English speakers. We were placed at the Swiss table. I did alright with the Hoch Deutsch and my wife managed with French, but when the Swiss lapsed into Swiss German, I was quite lost. After a week, I was just beginning to catch a few words. (My Yiddish is not great, but I have no problems at the Yiddish theatre.) In this connection, I can mention that my mother, who really knew no German, never hesitated to speak it; her "German" was Yiddish with the consonants (especially the "l") pronounced in something like the German manner. Martin Davis 4)---------------------------------------------------- From: Evelyn Ehrlich Subject: correction To: mendele@Vax1.Trincoll.Edu Last week I committed the grave error of not signing my article in Mendele 1,216 (item 2.) Subsequently, it was assigned to Evelyn Ehrlich, and that got some people confused. Fortunately, I was able to prove that I had no intention to harm her reputation, and she accepted my apologies. I also wish to apologize to anybody else, whom I may have confused by this mistake. In order to clarify matters, let me repeat my introductory statement (without the boos) Name: Yitzhak Kertesz Country of origin: Hungary Occupation: Technical services librarian Affiliation: Leo Baeck Institute, N.Y. Current interest: origins of the words "schlemiel" and "shlimmazal". I stand by my note about the origin of the word "eppes". Yitzhak Kertesz (bm.lbh@rlg.bitnet) 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 15:48 EST From: Gus Grannan Subject: yiddish word order I have a short question on the acceptability of a Yiddish sentence. In History of the Yiddish Language, Weinreich gives a sentence: Nokhn bentshen hot der zeyde gekoyft a seyfer Is the following variant acceptable? Nokhn bentshen der zeyde hot gekoyft a seyfer Sorry to ask such an elementary question, but I don't know any any informants in the area to get acceptability judgements from. Thank you, Gus Grannan (grannan@unc.bitnet) ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.218 Submissions: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu Business: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.