Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.342 May 5, 1994 1) Dutch-Yiddish/Low German-High German (Marion Aptroot) 2) Galicia (Jules Levin) 3) Oyve Butl (Alec Wittek) 4) Oyve Butl (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Yiddish Lecture in Boston (Meyer David) 6) Blondheim and Judeo-Romance (Jeremy Stern) 7) Yiddish poetry (Charles Fishman) 8) Kushik (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 18:02:17 1994 From: aptroot@husc.harvard.edu Subject: Dutch - Yiddish / Low German - High German On Mon, 2 May 1994, Rick Gildemeister wrote: > ... in Amsterdam ("Low German" country) you heard Low > German on one side of a certain bridge and on the other side High German. > Then the author explains that what was meant was that Jews spoke Yiddish, > which has few if any connections with Low German, and was perceived as > "Highland" speech as opposed to "Nether-Land" speech; the Jews lived on > one side of the bridge and the Gentiles the other. For di brik sheyne retish, iber di brik "mooie rammenas." On this side of the bridge "sheyne retish" (beautiful radish[es]), over the bridge "mooie rammenas." The peddlers who spoke Yiddish inside the Jewish quarter, had to speak Yiddish on the other side of bridge called Bloubrik/Blauwbrug. (Hartog Beem, _Jerosche_, 1970) When we talk about German, Dutch, High German and Low German, we must bear in mind that until this century the Dutch had no qualms about calling their language Low German, "Nederduits" (as opposed to High German, "Hoogduits"). The High and Low refer to geographical height, not to the social status of the language. There once was a time when Ashkenazic Jews were called "Hoogduitse Joden" (High German Jews) and Yiddish "de Joodse Hoogduitse taal" (the High German Jewish language). The Dutch recognized the close relation between Yiddish and High German. Politics, nationalism, and above all the cruel occupation by the Germans during the Second World War, have led the Dutch to ignore or even deny any close links between the Dutch and German culture and language. Nowadays, the Dutch are often offended when their language is called German (this is aggravated by some Germans who think that the "High" implies superiority). In fact, although the dialects in the border area are close, mutual comprehension between speakers of standard Dutch and German would be rather limited if the Dutch didn't study German in school. Personally, I have never met a German who understood Dutch without having studied it or having lived in the Netherlands. Marion Aptroot 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 18:42:33 1994 From: JFLEVIN%UCRVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu subject: Galicia Moyshe Baker separates the EE Galicia from Spanish Galicia and the Celts. But his argument is unconvincing without _another_ etymon for the EE toponym. The Celts WERE all over Europe, so their presence in EE is in itself surprising. Where does the Slavic placename come from? I can't think of a good Slavic etymon. There is, however, a Baltic toponym root "gal-" which means "end", and presumably, like the Slavic root "kraj-", is used in placenames for border regions of one sort or another. But this should show up in Slavic as "gol-" not "gal-". So absent a better analysis of the EE galicia, I'm not willing to exclude the celts. --Jules Levin 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 18:42:43 1994 From: awittek@mailgate.csmc.edu Subject: Re: Oyve butl My (American born) mother used the expression "ayve butl" in the context "you're making me ayve butl", and meaning that I was driving her crazy. I recall her telling me that "Eva Butl" was the name of an insane character in a Yiddish play or story. For some reason I also associate "Eva Butl" with the similarly unlikely name "Moishe Kapoyreh". Are these defective memories on my part, or does anyone else know of these expressions as character names? -Alec Wittek 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 5 04:59:09 1994 From: MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL Subject: Re: Oyve Butl I am pretty certain that the phrase in question is what is pronounced in (Sefaradi) Hebrew Avar u'Batel (actually u'Vatel) and can be found in the Mishna Avot (Pirke Oves) or Wisdom of the Fathers at the end of chapter 5, as an indication of the state of someone aged 100. It is used more or less as one might use the term "senile" in English. In Yiddish I remember hearing it pronounced as over botel. For those familiar sufficiently with some of the Israelis habit of mixing languages, with English being a favourite, I have recently heard in a jocular way the expression "me'al labaqbuq" for that "state" of mind. Vehamevin yavin. Michael Shimshoni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 21:04:56 1994 From: mhd@world.std.com Subject: Yiddish Lecture in Boston The Boston District Workmen's Circle Presents A Talk in Yiddish by DOVID BRAUN Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics at MIT YIDISH UN DI YUNGE: A PERZENLEKHER BARIKHT Yiddish and the Young: A First-Hand Account Sunday, May 15, 1994, at 2:30 p.m. Workmen's Circle Center 1762 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA For information, call (617) 566-6281. The talk will be in Yiddish. Discussion that follows can be in English or Yiddish. This lecture is one of a series of Yiddish Cultural Programs supported by the Albert E. Marks Charitable Trust. Admission is Free. Meyer David 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 23:37:47 1994 From: jstern@phoenix.Princeton.EDU Subject: Blondheim and Judeo-Romance I am researching David Blondheim, a Romance philologist who taught at Johns Hopkins in the 1940s. His specialty was Judeo-Romance, a field that, in a sense, he invented. Unfortunately, I haven't found a biography of any sort, and no one I have spoken with can recall his name--even professors at Hopkins. So, I was wondering if anyone one MENDELE has heard of Blondheim. Please e-mail me if you have information or can be of bibliographic help. Jeremy Stern 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 5 01:01:31 1994 From: FISHMAN%SNYFARVA.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Yiddish Poetry I am gathering poems for a companion volume to my anthology, _Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust_ (Texas Tech University Press, 1991) and would welcome your assistance. The new anthology (about 200 pages so far), _Flames Ascending: World Poets on the Holocaust_, will include poems on the Holocaust (Khurbn/ Shoah) written by major world poets and also poems that have historical importance. Poets will include Milosz, Greenberg, Sutzkever, Sachs, Celan, Radnoti, Levi, and many others. By "historical importance," I mean, for instance, poems and songs composed in the camps and ghettos. I would be grateful for two kinds of help from members of this list: 1) recommendations for poems/poets I should not fail to include 2) assistance with translating significant poems in Yiddish that are unavailable in English. Yiddish was spoken in my house only glancingly, as a vehicle for talking "over the heads" of the children. I participated in a seminar on Yiddish at UMASS-Amherst in 1986 that was co-sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center. _Blood to Remember_ contains one poem that is in Yiddish and English and other work that has been translated from Yiddish into English. Thank you for any help you can offer. Charles Fishman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 5 05:05:31 1994 From: Subject: "Kushik" - shopping bag ?! In Mendele Vol. 3.341 Meyshe Yankl Sweet writes > What about "kushik", basket in standard Yiddish but often used in my > youth to refer to a large shopping bag. Is this just ideolect, or an > American Yiddish extension of meaning? In Czech and Slovak we use "koshik" as the word for "basket", but it is usually used as well for a larger shopping bag (and even for "trash bin"). Maybe it is influenced by the slavic use of the word? Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.342 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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