Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 58 August 31, 1992 1) Grammar questions (Jeff Finger) 2) T > th > s (Yitzhak Kertesz) 3) Lachoudisch (Zachary Baker) 4) Yiddish Folksongs (Mischa van Vlaardingen) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 14:41:59 MDT From: jfinger@mv.us.adobe.COM Subject: Grammar Questions I'm so confused! Why is "Ikh bin moykhl" in the past tense "Ikh hob moyhkl geven" instead of "Ikh bin moykhl geven"? Stated differently, one would think that the past of "moykhl zayn" would be "moykhl + past-tense(zayn)". But not so according to Weinreich, page 322 (see also the incomprehensible footnote). Can someone tell me why? Many thanks, -- Jeff Finger -- 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 08:19:40 PDT From: Yitzhak Kertesz Subject: t > th > s Do you remember from Hebrew School the famous begad kefat letters? Those that sometimes have a dagesh and sometimes don't? And the pronunciation varies accordingly: b-v, g-gh, d-dh, k-kh, p-f, t-th. These all appear in the Masoretic Bible (i.e. the regular Hebrew Bible that is equipped with vowels, cantillation marks, and other goodies) These signs are a proof of the variations in pronunciation: following a vowel the dagesh is dropped. The g-gh, d-dh got forgotten almost everywhere, (Yemenite Jews are supposed to having preserved them). The other three (b,p,k) are kept everywhere, and the t-th is our topic. It was authentic in 9th c. Palestine, while it probably never developed in Babel, or later in Sefarad. Under the influence of Palestinian Jewry, Ashkenazi Jews had it from the earliest times on. And as Ms. Prince correctly points out, the /th\ became /s\. Not only in the fem. plural (sukkes, shayles, teshuves), but also in nakhas, mise (!), and so on. It is easy to prove its existence from 2-300 years ago in Hebrew/Yiddish texts that were transcribed into German script. But I tend to think, that the th > s shift happened much earlier. Gut Shabb_es_, Yitzhak Kertesz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 28, 1992 From: Zachary Baker (BM.YIB@RLG.BITNET) Subject: Lachoudisch Some weeks ago there was discussion on MENDELE regarding Lachoudisch. Since I am a bibliographer and not a linguist, I will confine myself to mention of two books -- one of which has crossed my desk this week and one which I have not seen -- that may shed light on the subject. Moshe Klein, the author of the newly published collection of essays, "Oyfkum un antviklung fun yidish un fun der yidish- literatur bizn mitn 19tn yorhundert; algemeyne shtrikhn" (Tel Aviv: I. L. Peretz, 1991), has a chapter, "Yidish - a 'geheymshprakh'?" (pp. 32-35), in which Lachoudisch is discussed. He also cites the following book (which, alas, we do not have at YIVO): "Lachoudisch: Geheimsprache Schopflochs," by K. Philipp (Dinkelsbuehl: Verlag C. W. Wenng, [year?]). Klein reproduces an excerpt from Philipp's book that is in Lachoudisch, "A klaner Schmues af Lachoudisch," in which Heiner and Fritz discuss the sale of an old cow and a pig. He also includes samples from Philipp's glossary (not directly connected to Heiner's and Fritz's Schmues) in which Yiddish elements in Lachoudisch, e.g., acheln, allemoel, dalles, behejme, are given German definitions. Klein describes Lachoudisch as follows: "Lachoudisch... which was used in Germany in the village of Schopfloch, near the border of Swabia. Cattle-dealers employed that language, which is now dead. The word Lachoudisch purportedly derives from the word "loshn- koydesh." The German linguist Siegmund Wolf, author of the "Juedisches Woerterbuch," believes that Lachoudisch was influenced by Yiddish, which he regards as "a language museum of corrupted Hebrew and various German dialects." Lachoudisch, in other words, is not a secret Jewish language, but rather, Yiddish influenced it. It is highly doubtful whether the cattle-dealers were Jews, because at that time Jews did not deal in pigs and certainly did not slaughter them, as is mentioned in 'A klaner Schmues af Lachoudisch'." Zachary Baker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 05:28:45 -0400 From: santen@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl Subject: yiddish folksongs Recently I bought Volume four of The Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs, a publication from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Magnes Press). Now I'm looking desperately for Volumes 1,2 & 3 which are, so it seems, not available here in Holland. Is there anybody out there who knows how and where I could find them ? Thanks in advance, Shalom, Mischa van Vlaardingen ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.58 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.