Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 199 May 12, 1993 1) Nar (Pierre Lewis) 2) Saturday Night Live (Gerald M. Phillips) 3) Nar-narOnim/Yiddish spelling (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Opatoshu (Dan Breslauer) 5) Opatoshu (Margaret Mikulska) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 12 08:58:42 1993 From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" Subject: Re: nar According to Wahrig dictionary, "Narr" comes from old high German "narro", so I guess it predates Yiddish. Origin beyond that is unclear they say. Pierre Lewis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 12 11:01:05 1993 From: Subject: Saturday Night Live Have any of you caught the Linda Richman "Coffee Talk" skits on Saturday Night Live. Two questions. 1) Is the Yiddish double talk, particularly "konnektekezoink" and "verklemt?" 2) Do you think this is anti-semitic or just good fun? Gerald M. Phillips 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 12 11:09:30 1993 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: I) nar-narOnim ii) Yiddish spelling Meylekh: : I will reply to your query about Yiddish spelling conventions soon. In the meantime, Bob, Ellen et al: re "hebrewoid" noun plurals: 1) The plural of "nar" (fool) can be understood in the context of a number of "hebrewoid" plurals in STANDARD Yiddish: a) nar--narOnim; shAbes--shabOsim (shabes + im DO NOT cooccur in Hebrew) These examples form the plural through "shift of stress + suffix im" b) pOYer--pOYerim (by suffix "im" alone) c) dOkter--doktOYrim "shift of stress + vowel change + im" I'm not sure I can account for the differences among the three groups. Let's now examine several nouns with Hebrew-origin singular and plural forms in STANDARD Yiddish: kAtsev--katsOvim 'butcher(s)', gAnef--ganOvim 'thieve(s)', yOntef--yontOYvim I stress STANDARD Yiddish because the key to the problem is to be found in the VERY widespread regional difference. Thus: kAtsev/f--katsO/Uvn [vm] (i.e. with labiodental nasal release). Similarly, gAnef--ganO/Uvn [vm] and yOntef--yontOY/EYvn [vm]. Similarly, the regional variants of the "hebrewoid" nouns: very widespread "pOYer--pOYern" (with velar nasal release "ng" after "r"], and "nar--nArn" as well. As it happens, the "historical" German-origin plurals of these two take "n", and the the Yiddish "im" forms are thus simply analogical reinterpretations on the model of "ganovim-ganovn". I haven't looked at the data for plural variants of "dOkter" or "shAbes" but,I would expect to find some occurrences of both "dOktern" (cf. German "DOktor--DoktO:ren") and "shAbesn". I would suggest the following historical sequence: i)Yiddish "shabes" from Hebrew singular, with indigenous Yiddish plural "shabesn"; ii) Yiddish plural "shabOsim" on the analogy of the above described model. Any taker? Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 12 10:02:56 1993 From: Dan Breslauer Subject: Opatoshu I cannot answer the question asked, but I want to refute the imputation that not answering it means ignorance of Opatoshu, or at least, not having read him. His Polish stories are moving and represent a modernist view of tradition. I have had occasion to write on Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk as reflected in modern thinkers such as Buber, Heschel and Wiesel and naturally included Opatoshu in my research. So, while I am not an expert and cannot answer the specific question raised, that silence should not be taken as reflecting against either the importance or interest people have in Opatushu. Dan Breslauer 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 12 13:57:22 1993 From: Margaret Mikulska Subject: Opatoshu Rosa Lehmann asked about works by Joseph Opatoshu. The library of the University of California shows a few books, including the following: --------------- Author: Opatoshu, Joseph, 1886-1954. Title: A day in Regensburg; short stories. Translated from the Yiddish by Jacob Sloan. [1st ed.] Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968. Description: xiv, 238 p. 22 cm. Notes: Contents: Continuity; a memory of my father.--A day in Regensburg.--Ciechanow melody.--A Bratzlaver Chasid. --A rabbi.--Rationalists.--Simchat Torah.--Meyer Balaban. --Four hundred years.--Miracles.--The mute Hungarian.--Pedigree.--The Chumash lad.--The eternal wedding dress.--In the Jewish district of Vienna. --A Sabbath afternoon.--Almost there.--Ben Sira's grandson.--Father, father.--In a slaughterhouse.--Midnight vigil.--Lampshade king. --------------- My wild guess is that the story she asked about _might_ be "Ciechanow melody"; Ciechanow is a small town not far from Warsaw and used to have a large Jewish community. Margaret Mikulska [The shames packed up the rest of his books just two days ago. Otherwise, Margaret's inspired guess could have been tested afn ort.] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.199