Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 133 January 6, 1993 1) Emet/emes (Berl Hoberman) 2) Reflexives (Khaim Bochner) 3) Reflexives (Cecile Kuznitz) 4) Beginnings (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 05 Jan 1993 10:20:14 -0500 (EST) From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Emet/emes Arn Abramson answered Sigrid Peterson's question about emet in Israeli Hebrew clearly and preciselly. I can only add a few sidelights. In Israeli Hebrew the stress in this word is indeed on the last syllable in all contexts that I can imagine. (Well, occasionally someone might say it the Yiddish way, for slightly humorous ["ludic"] effect, with -s in place of -t and stress on the penult: Emes.) If some Israelis put the stress on the penult in the blessing for the haftara, I think it's not precisely due to the rhythmic requirements of the melody but rather that along with the traditional melody they retain some bits of the traditional pronunciation. For instance some Israelis pronounce a tseyre as /ey/ in reciting the liturgy, though it's /e/ (same as segol) in their speech: /seyfer/ in liturgy, /sefer/ in speech, but /melekh/, with two segols, in both. The pre-history of emet explains why it does not behave as a segolate. In segolates, like sefer, melekh, pesakh, or kotel 'wall', the last vowel is, or at least historically was, epenthetic, and in a sense isn't there, as far as stress placement is concerned, so stress goes on what is IN A SENSE the last syllable, really the penultimate. Compare Hebrew kElev 'dog' with Arabic kalb and Aramaic kalba; Hebrew must have once had kalb, then kAleb, then kElev. The historical root of emet was aleph-mem-nun, the same as in amen, and the -t is a suffix, so the word was underlyingly something like *'emen-t. If it had gotten an epenthetic vowel it would have ended up something like *emEnet, with stress on the middle syllable (and rhyming with shamEnet 'cream', a wonderful blend of Hebrew shemen 'oil' and Yiddish shmant or smetene!). However, in very early Hebrew, before the Biblical spelling was fixed, the n-t sequence in *ement assimilated to t-t, then just -t, before it had a chance to get split by an epenthetic vowel as in shamEnet. The upshot of it all is that it SHOULD have been a segolate *emEnet, but it ended up a non-segolate emEt. Berl rhoberman@sbccmail.bitnet rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 10:04:19 -0500 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: RE: "Reflexives" Thanks to Bob Rothstein for telling us about "zikh ibergeyn" as an inherently "reflexive" verb. I had often wondered (while singing "Reyzele") why it was "gey _zikh_ nokh a por mol iber", but 2 lines later "gey ikh _mir_ a freylekher". What I think now is that the system in Gebirtig's (the author's) dialect had "zikh" for accusative reflexives, but it still had "mir" for the 1sg dative reflexive. "zikh ibergeyn" takes an accusative reflexive, like other inherently "reflexive" verbs. So in some dialects it might be "gey _dikh_ iber", but in this dialect we have the more 'slavicized' "zikh". Two lines later we don't have an inherent reflexive, we have the 'ethical dative' type, and this type is indeed dative, in dialects that still distinguish dative and accusative. So the case is different, and that can explain the different usage. And some people say Yiddish doesn't have grammar! -- Khaim 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 12:57:51 PST From: tsirl@leland.stanford.edu Subject: reflexive pronouns I am curious about the conjugation of reflexive pronouns, i.e. ikh shem mikh, du shemst dikh, etc. instead of ikh shem zikh, du shemst zikh, etc. Is this in fact an older usage, as someone suggested? I was once taught that this is a variation used in a particular dialect. Cecile Kuznitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 20:03:24 EST From: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Subject: Beginnings David Neal Miller came up with a wonderful idea last week. He suggested that we exchange favorite beginnings and perhaps discuss them. As is often the case, no one wants to be first. A perfect opportunity for the shames! Everybody will guess the author, but who cares? * * * * * * Bay Noyekhn in der Teyve, a Khumesh-shpil (In Noyekh's teyve. Noyekh ligt toyt-shiker oyf der erd. Kham un Yofes kumen arayn.) Kham Yofesl! Yofes Ha! Kham Zest, dort drimlt der Papa, ungezhlyoket zikh mit vayn vifil s'iz in im arayn, itser puft er vi a ber. Veyst vos kh'vel dir zogn? Her-- lomir opton im a shpitsl, Yofes Mit a shtroyele a kitsl, vet er meynen flign baysn. Kham Nite, nite, God bahit, der tate iz a beyzer Id-- er vet unz mitn kontchik shmaysn. Yofes Vos zhe den zhe? Kham Kh'hob a plan. Yofes Nu? Kham Kh'meyn, farshsteystu mikh...di hoyzn... ot azoy, farshteyst...antbloyzn, ober shtiler, shtilerheyt. Yofes Bist gerekht, s'iz a plan un gornisht shlekht, kum! (Zey geyen tsu oyf di shpitz finger tsu Noyekhn, antbloyzn im, dernokh nemen zey zikh far di hent, tantsn arum im un zingen:) Beh, tateshe, beh men zeyt dem gantsn "feh" zeyt men im in gantsn; kumt tsu loyfn kind un keyt. Zeyt dem nakhes, zeyt di freyd, kumt un lomir tantsn. Shem (kumt arayn mit a khumishl untern arem) Lobuses, avek, ir hert! Kham Krume noz, kh'hob dikh in dr'erd! ...un azoy vayter. Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.133