Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 2 no.83
October 22, 1992
 
1) Peshe/Pesye (Aren Abramson)
2) Negation (Beatrice Santorini)
3) Di Zukunft (Dan Breslauer)
4) Driben (Yitzhak Kertesz)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 14:39:23 EST
From: "Arthur S. Abramson" <ABRAMSON%UCONNVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Subject: RE: Peshe/Pesye

For Mikhl Herzog: I have found Peshe/ Pesye and other
variants, but not Pesl, in Gorr, Shmuel. (1992). Jewish
Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive
Forms. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc. Gorr gives the Biblical
Hebrew name Batyah as the source (pp. 54-55). He does have
some dminutives with -l: Basel, Besel, Beserel, Bashala,
Bashale, Basharel.

     The book is full of information on names, but it
suffers from being a posthumous publication and from poor
editing.     All names are also given in Hebrew or Yiddish
spelling.

Arthur Aren Abramson

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 20:10:28 CDT
From: beatrice@lex.ling.nwu.edu
Subject: a question about negation

I have a question about the way that negation is expressed
in Yiddish.  In Yiddish, one can say

(1) a.	Ikh hob nit gezen keyn moyz.
    b.  Ikh hob keyn moyz nit gezen.
    c.  Keyn moyz hob ikh nit gezen.

Despite the two negatives elements "nit" and "keyn", all
three of these sentences convey (possibly with different
nuances) a content in which there is only a single
negation: "I did not see any mouse".

What I'm curious about is the following word order:

(2)	Ikh hob nit keyn moyz gezen.

Is (2) possible?  And if so, can it mean---like the
sentences in (1)---"I did not see any mouse" or can it only
be interpreted as "I did not see no mouse" (i.e. "I saw at
least one mouse").

Thanks.

Beatrice Santorini

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 22 Oct 1992 07:10:14 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dan Breslauer <BRESDAN%UKANVAX.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Subject: Di Zukunft

Our librarian here has asked me whether we should subscribe
to *Zukunft*.  I do not know the journal, so I would like a
response from other members of MENDELE.

Note as well that our library does *not* have *any* Hebrew
Journal although I have been agitating for HaDoar and
Bitzaron for the past fourteen years!!!!

Dan Breslauer, University of Kansas

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 08:45:42 PDT
From: Yitzhak Kertesz <BM.LBH%RLG.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Subject: driben

To Leonard Prager's note: (2.82 #4-5)

a correction: people with short jackets, buttons from left
to right, trimmed or no beard, are called "Deytschen" and
not Germans. Worst among them are the "ungarishe
deytschen".

Mr. Prager's etymology sounds plausible, but - I think - he
did not explain what does the new meaning have to do with
Dutch nobility? Is that maybe drueben (over there), as in
Pays-bas (the French name of Holland)? Where would Yiddish
speaking Galitzianers know that from? Sorry, I don't get
it.

Yitzhak Kertesz
bm.lbh@rlg.bitnet

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol 2.83

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