Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.173 December 18, 1993 1) Tante/Mime//Onkl/Feter (Marnen Laibow-Koser) 2) Daytchmerizmen (Khaim Bochner) 3) Gevezn vs. geven (Arre Komar) 4) Century-old Yiddish (Arre Komar) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Dec 17 17:06:09 1993 From: laibow@brick.purchase.edu Subject: Tante/Mime//Onkl/Feter Well, as long as the pot is boiling, I might as well stir it. ;> I don't know how many Mendelnikes know this, but "Tante", "Muhme", "Onkel", and "Vetter" (German spellings) are *all* German kinship terms. There would be nothing particularly unusual about this, except that in German "Vetter" and "Muhme" mean "cousin"! (I think "Vetter" is usually, but not exclusively, male; I'm not sure about "Muhme".) Anybody know how this shift in meaning came about? Marnen Laibow-Koser 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Dec 17 17:43:33 1993 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Re: Daytshmerizmen Moyshe Waldoks shraybt: > antshuldig mir oyf mayn tsebrokhene yidish Aderabe veaderabe! Ikh veys nisht vos andere veln meynen, ober ikh bin zeyer tsufridn vos ir hot geshribn oyf yidish. Mayn greste tayne iz az es volt geven klorer tsu shraybn "ts" anshtot "z": "gantsn" anshtot "ganzn", "tsionizm" anshtot "zionizm", "shtitsn" anshtot "shtizn", un azoy vayter. > tsu dervayteren zich fun hebraish nutzt men daytshmerizm. Es ken zayn a shtikl emes derin, in dem yorhundert. Azoy vi ikh farshtey, ober, iz daytshmerish elter fun sekularizm, un elter oykh fun tsionizm. A sakh fun di maskilim zenen dafke geven groyse lib-hobers fun hebreish, un zey hobn say vi gevolt dernentern yidish tsu daytsh. Efsher derfar vayl zey hobn gemeynt az "gemishte shprakhn" vi yidish (un english) zenen nisht sheyn, un zey hobn nisht gezen keyn meglikhkeyt az dos folk vet ibergeyn oyf hebreish? S'iz zeyer an interesante tkufe in undzer geshikhte. Efsher zenen do tsvishn undz historikers vos kenen undz mer zogn vegn dem? Khaim 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Dec 17 17:43:46 1993 From: "Dr. Arthur Komar" Subject: gevezn vs. geven Alice Honig gives a lovely criterion for judging authenticity of usage, the folk song. As she points out, Bay ihre Rebbe iz gevezn a ganayve. Ober layder Amol iz geven a mayse un dos mayse iz gor nisht fraylakh. Got zay dank es hebt sikh on mit a Yiddishen meylakh, un ot azoy kennen mir zen az es muz take zayer alt zayn. Arre Komar 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Dec 17 17:32:16 1993 From: "Dr. Arthur Komar" Subject: century old yiddish I think that we are all in general agreement that Yiddish by definition is the language spoken by native speakers, particularly those from the shtels whose dialects were not overly contaminated by the ambiant goyish culture. The difficulty of course is how to determine what the vocabulary of those people was. In fact there can't be too great agreement on that point since the people themselves didn't agree. There was clearly a continuous spectrum from yekish Judeo-German (whose demise one should not gloat over) to the heavily Slavic and Hebrew influenced dialects. As a guide to what the newly arriving Yiddish immigrant community felt comfortable with I turned to a century old English-Yiddish dictionary that I inherited from my father and looked up several of the words that have been subject to dispute and caviling. The dictionary is: Complete English-Yiddish Dictionary by Alexander Harkavy New York: Hebrew Publishing Company 11th edition 1910 (first edition copywrited 1892) That this book was intended for native Yiddish speakers trying to learn English becomes very evident when one sees that all the English words are translitterated into Yiddish to enable the immigrant to pronounce them (sort of the reverse of what we have been doing here in Mendele). Selected entries (unfortunately translitterated by me, but in the order as listed): Wedding: hokhtsayt, khasene Bridegroom: broytigam, khusn Bride: broyt, kale Uncle: onkl, feter Aunt: mume, tante; shdkhnte (the latter is a new one for me) Read: lezn (note: leyenen is not even listed as an alternative!) Pray: betn, betn got, davnen Speak: redn, shprekhn; sogn One can complain, scream nefarious conspiracy, etc., but in the end, whether one likes it or not, a language is determined by what the native speakers feel most comfortable with. And I believe that this dictionary accurately reflects the feelings and practice of its intended audiance. On a personal note, both my parents were devout believers from shtetln in the Russian Pale. My mother never went to school a day in her life. She was taught how to read by my father, who was an ordained Rabbi. The language spoken at home to me was Yiddish. The speach they employed is very accurately described by the above list. In their dialect men lezt bikhr, djurnalen, etc. ober men laynt toyre. It is a distinction which I always found beautiful and profound and I feel agrieved to find it condemned and denigrated by ideologues with tin ears unable to hear the music of the distinction. Arre Komar ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.173 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files