Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.122 October 25, 1993 1) A posheter firleyg (Elyet Hersh Gertl) 2) Kielbasa, meshtes, etc. (Bob Rothstein) 3) The holem in Ashkenazic Hebrew (Michael Shimshoni) 4) Introduction (Alice S. Honig) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Oct 22 15:52:35 1993 From: EGERTEL@FULLERTON.EDU Suject: A posheter firleyg Oyb s'iz nisht keyn problem, vil ikh forleygn az di vikhtike yedies vos der guter, khoshever Shames Reb Noyekh git iber fun tsayt tsu tsayt vi lemoshl baym onheyb funem numer 3.121 MENDELE vegn vu arayntsushikn artikln un tsu vemen zikh tsu vendn az me vil a privatn shmues mitn khoshevn Shames durkhfirn, zol men ale mol tsugebn bay itlekhn numer MENDELE. Vos zogt ir, Reb Noyekh un vos iz ayer meynung, Mendelnikes? Elyet Hersh Gertl 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Oct 24 23:23:08 1993 From: ROBERT A ROTHSTEIN Subject: Kielbasa, meshtes, etc. [kielbasa] Polish _kielbasa_ (with the slashed l), Russian _kolbasa_, Slovak _klobasa_, etc. are of uncertain origin, but may be from Turkic. Vasmer cites the Turkish word _kulbasty_ (with two dots over the u), meaning grilled (?) meat. The derivation from Hebrew _kol basar_, originally proposed by the Vienna Slavist and Yiddishist Berneker early in this century, has not received much support. [meshtes] Noyekh's grandmother's term for slippers is in Stutchkoff, and the 1908 Hrynchenko dictionary of Ukrainian lists the word _meshty_, defined as "Tatar shoes, light shoes." [cormorants] Again in response to our Shames: Stutchkoff lists both the Polish _kormorant_ and the Russian _baklan_ in his entry for Yiddish bird names. [a berishe toyve] Eli Katz mentioned this some time ago. The expression is well known in Russian (_medvezh'ia usluga_) and comes from a fable by Ivan Krylov, the Russian LaFontaine. The fable is called "The Hermit and the Bear," and tells about the friendship that develops between the two. One day the bear is watching while his friend naps and tries to keep a fly from disturbing him. Finally, frustrated by the fly, which keeps returning, the bear hits the fly with a rock, splitting his friend's head in the process. Krylov's moral: "A helpful fool is more dangerous than an enemy." Bob Rothstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Oct 25 04:00:08 1993 From: Michael Shimshoni Subject: pronunciation of the holem in Ashkenazic Hebrew On: Wed Oct 20 19:44:43 1993 STEVEN A JACOBSON wrote >I have read that the pronunciation of the "holem" in Ashkenazic >Hebrew was [OY] as in Hebraic words in Yiddish (in other than a >final unstressed syllable). However, in the Jewish sunday school >which I attended (in Calif.) in the 1950s we were taught that the >"holem" was pronounced [O], and this was said to be the Ashkenazic >pronunciation (along with certain other features which were >different from the Sephardic pronunciation). They never said >anything about an [OY] pronunciation in words like "borah" or >"leolam". Why was the supposedly Ashkenazic pronunciation we were >taught different from that which I read about in Weinreich's history >of Yiddish and other books? Is it a dialect difference? If so where >does our "Jewish Sunday school" dialect stem from? This "O" pronunciation versus "OY" is not the only "Ashkenazic" one. If we take the word "Ashkenazic" in its basic meaning, i.e. that in Germany, than at least *there*, the pronunciation was "OU" something like in hOUr or hOUse, or the German "AU". So it seems that there is a wider variety in the way the "holem" is pronounced. Michael Shimshoni 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Oct 25 09:56:56 1993 To: "Mendele: Yiddish Literature and Language" Subject: Introduction I am a recent joiner of Mendele... siz a heartfelt nachas for me to find such an Email group. I have been a Yiddish folksinger for decades and also sing Ladino and Hebrew and Russian songs..particulaly those that tsemish Yiddish words and Russian words. My Yiddish is a tsebrochene...I mix in a lot of English when I cannot find the Yiddish word. However, I particularly need Yiddish words for parts of the body now, as I have begun to sing the song: Shlof, shlof shlof, der tate fet foren in dorf Vet er koifen an eppele 'svet zayn a gezunt oifn keppele to my grandchildren. SO far, I have made up rymes for other parts of the body that I know in Yiddish...but do not know how to say words like elbow or cheek or eyebrow or knees etc. The rhymes I have sung them already are for hezele and nezele nisele and fisele yaichele and baichele faygele and eygele perele and herele If you can suggest other rhytming gifts and parts of the body in Yiddish, I should be most appreciative. Incidentally, I am a professor of Child Develoment at Syracuse University, and when I teach Language develoment in the Spring semester, sometimes I sing a bit of this lullabye....and last spring One young man lit up and said that he remembered his bubba singing that to him! Thanks for the words and rhymes in advance! Alice S. Honig. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.122