Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.073 August 9, 1993 1) Introduction (Yasminke Dowling) 2) Yiddish in France (Harold L. Orbach) 3) Meaning of beheyme (Arnold Kuzmack) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Aug 6 05:18:35 1993 From: jdowling@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: Introduction I am presently a DPhil (PhD) student at the University of Oxford entering into my (mirtsashem) final year. I am specializing in 17th/18th century Yiddish chapbooks which feature women as major characters. I also enjoy looking at riddles and folk-medicine, which constitute my major distraction when I am in the library. I have two children who think that "speaking Yiddish" means American English with a bunch of "oy veys", "a sheynem dank" and "zay gezunt" thrown in. Zayt-zshe gezunt, Yasminke Dowling 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Aug 7 01:46:59 1993 From: Harold L. Orbach Subject: French Yiddish Association Bulletin The following is an excerpt from a note I sent recently to Ellen Prince who responded to an earlier comment of mine with information about the Bibl. Medem in Paris. She mentioned she was unaware of the AEDCY's monthly bulletin and thought it might be of interest to readers of Mendele. ****** In Paris there was an exhibition "Kikoine et ses Amis de l'Ecole de Paris" at the Couvent des Cordeliers on rue De L'Ecole de Medicine (which by coincidence is almost next door to the house where Sarah Bernhardt was born) at which I found an advertisement of the AEDCY (Association pour l'Etude et la Diffusion de la Culture Yiddish, B.P. 720 - 75613 Paris Cedex 04, Tel: 42.71.30.07) which offered to assist persons wishing to speak, read, write, understand, recover or discover "Le Yiddish." I assume you and Mendelenicks know about this group which publishes a monthly bulletin and advertised a variety of activities devoted to Yiddish. I had no opportunity to contact them during my short stays in Paris, but wonder if Mendele has listed or had contact with this group? I know from my own professional contacts that very few French academics use email, despite a well-organized system in France. Do you think this is something worth noting or asking about in Mendele? ****** The actual content of their leaflet reads as follows: [Side one -- in large print] VOUS VOULEZ / PARLER, / LIRE... / ECRIRE... / COMPRENDRE.../ RETROUVEZ... / DECOUVRIR / LE YIDDISH / L'A.E.D.C.Y vous y aidera. [Side two] L'Association pour l'Etude et la Diffusion de la Culture Yiddish -- A.E.D.C.Y. -- est un association 'a charact'ere cultural, inde'pendante de toute organisation politique ou confessionale, juive ou non juive. Le domaine yiddish avec son ine'puisable folklore, ses innombrables oeuvres poe'tiques, romanesques, the'atrales, trop me'connues appartient aujourd'hui 'a tous ceux qui, he'ritiers de ce riche patrimonie, veulent le perpe'tuer, le transmettre et continuer 'a puiser dans ses richesses. C'est le but que s'est propose' l'A.E.D.C.Y.. Elle offre 'a ses adhe'erents un certain nombre d'activite's culturelles, se'minaires, spectacles, voyages, et les tient informe's par son bulletin mensuel La Lettre de l'A.E.D.C.Y. de toutes les manifestations relatives au domaine Yiddish 'a Paris ou ailleurs. Harold L. Orbach 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Aug 9 03:40:27 1993 From: lkuzmack@sytex.com Subject: Meaning of beheyme I am posting this message on both MENDELE and HEBLANG since it involves both Yiddish and Hebrew. There has been discussion on BRIDGES, the Jewish Feminist list, about a recent incident at the University of Pennsylvania which involved the Hebrew/Yiddish word "b'hemah/beheyme". I am using this message to ask the experts and will compile the responses and post them to BRIDGES. Please indicate if you do *not* want your response reposted. The incident occurred when a male Jewish student, who I believe had yeshiva training and had lived in Israel, was annoyed at the noise being made late in the evening by some black female students outside his dormitory. He yelled at them "Shut up, you water buffalo." The term "water buffalo" was taken by them as a racial epithet. Apparently, someone (I'm not sure who) suggested that the term was a translation of "beheyme". The case gained some national prominence especially after the then president of the university was nominated by President Clinton (and later confirmed) to head the National Endowment for the Humanities. My comment on the meaning of "beheyme" was as follows: In Hebrew, it means, as has been pointed out, a large bovine animal. As far as I know, it is not generally applied to people and carries no particular emotional freight. In Yiddish, on the other hand, in addition to the Hebrew meaning, it *is* applied to people as a pejorative. Weinreich's dictionary gives the meanings "fool, moron." It seems to me from my childhood, however, that it also tended to be applied pejoratively to fat women. This may be influenced by the English use of "cow" in a similar fashion. I don't know of any racial connotation. I would like to propose the following questions for the linguists: 1. Is it true that the word is generally not applied to people in Hebrew? If it is applied to people, is this a recent development, possibly influenced by Yiddish, or does it occur earlier? 2. In Yiddish, is the word applied to fat women? If so, is this an American usage or was it also used this way in Europe? Is there any evidence on how it originated? Arnold Kuzmack ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.073