Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.288 March 16, 1994 1) Words that sound Yiddish (David Sherman) 2) Daytsh = Taytsh?? (David Sherman) 3) Rosenfeld's Prufrock (Shleyme Axelrod) 4) Fir kashes (Hershl Berman) 5) Schmuck and Tolkien (Jay Lee) 6) Shmuchki (Zev bar-Lev) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 11:47:56 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Words that sound Yiddish Jules Levin writes: > There are English words that are felt to be Yiddish, > like "tumult", ... Oh, I think that example is farfetsht. :-) David Sherman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 11:58:52 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Daytsh = Taytsh?? > >I am interested in running down the question of whether Daitch was > >ever widely used and a synonym for Yiddish. > > There is a Yiddish bible commentary called "Ivri Taitsh" which I think > satisfies the query. Uh, am I missing something here? As I understand it, "taytsh" is from "ibertaytshn", meaning the same as "iberztsn", to translate. We use "ibertaytshn" for any form of language translation, though I would also use "vus is der taytsh?" to mean only Hebrew->Yiddish, in the context of learning. (When I help my daughters with their Chumash homework, they've learned to read the Hebrew and translate it into English on the fly. When they're learning with me, I insist they translate it into Yiddish on the fly, which is how it comes up. We use the Bays Yehuda chumash for this purpose, so they can check the Yiddish if they get stuck. But I digress.) Is "taytsh" derived from "daytsh"? David Sherman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 13:30:12 1994 From: Subject: Rosenfeld's Prufrock Neakh Zide asks about Isaac Rosenfeld's parody of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". The following is the version given by Gene Bluestein in an article entitled "Prufrock-Shmufrock" in the journal *Yiddish*, published by Queens University Press, 1987, Vol. 7, No. 1. I have made a few minor changes to conform to the YIVO transcription scheme. Nu-zhe, kum-zhe, ikh un du Ven der ovnt shteyt unter dem himl Vi a leymener goylem af tishebov. Lomir geyn gikh, durkh geselekh vos dreyen zikh Vi di bord bay dem rov. Oyf der vant Fun dem koshern restoran Hengt a shmutsiker betgevant Un vantsn tantsn karahod. Es geyt a geroykh fun gefilte fish un nase zokn. Oy, Bashe, freg nit keyn kashe, a dayge dir! Lomir oyfefenen di tir. In tsimer vu di vayber zenen Redt men fun Karl Marx un Lenin. Ikh ver alt, ikh ver alt Un der pupik vert mir kalt. Zol ikh oyskemen di hor, Meg ikh oyfesn a flom? Ikh vel onton vayse hoyzn Un shpatsirn bay dem yom. Ikh vel hern di yam-meydn zingen Khad Gadyo. Ikh vel zey entfern, Borekh-abo. It's forced in places of course, but the renditions of the "In the room ..." and the "I grow old ..." sentences alone make the piece worth preserving. Shleyme Axelrod 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 16:10:05 1994 From: Subject: Fir kashes Farvos iz di dozike nacht fun pesach andersh fun alle necht fun a gants yor? 1. Alle necht fun a gants yor, essn mir sai chomets sai matza, ober in der doziker nacht fun pesach, essn mir nor matza? 2. Alle necht fun a gants yor, essn mir allerlei grinsn, ober in der doziker nacht fun pesach, essn mir nor moror? 3. Alle necht fun a gants yor, tunken mir nit ayn affile ein mol, ober in der doziker nacht fun pesach, tunken mir ayn tsvey mol? 4. Alle necht fun a gants yor, essn mir sai zitsndik sai ongelent, ober in der doziker nacht fun pesach, essn mir nor ongelent? Hershl Berman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 16:44:28 1994 From: Subject: Schmuck and Tolkien In a previous issue Yude Rozof asked about Schmuck in Polish. I'd like to start round-about with my answer. In J. R. R. Tolkien's _Hobbit_ the dragon is named Smaug, which, according to Tolkien's key in the Silmarilion, should be pronounced /smok/ (long o). He claims it is an Indo-European word for serpent. This brings me to Smo'k, the legendary dragon that guards the Vistula at Warsaw (as represented in the municipal coat of arms). How far is it to assume this root meaning serpent in Indo-European came to be a slang for penis in Yiddish? A bit of a stretch, but not for Freud. Antshuldikt mir, az ikh hob geshribn nit oyf yidish, Jay Lee 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 15 17:28:32 1994 From: zbarlev@zeus.sdsu.edu Subject: Shmuchki i don't know how shmuchkele came up, but when i first heard shmuchki (as a verb) on radio (and thought i remembered it from yiddishisms heard in childhood) i tried to think of a source, and easily came up with Polish s/mia,c/kac/ (using / and , for Polish diacritics), "to soften", like the Russian myagkiy (myahhkiy) "soft" Zev bar-Lev ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.288 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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