Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.047 July 5, 1994 1) Introduction (Evalah and Moishe Fein) 2) Introduction (Rita Falbel) 3) Dual forms in Yiddish; Toronto Conference (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Dual forms (Rick Turkel) 5) Lamed-feh-kuf (Michael Shimshoni) 6) Lamed-feh-kuf (Arn Abramson) 7) Lamed-feh-kuf (Rick Turkel) 8) Lamed-feh-kuf (Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner) 9) Lamed-feh-kuf (Andrew Sunshine) 10) Lamed-feh-kuf; Jewess (Arnie Kuzmack) 11) Jewess (Fishl Kutner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 94 02:05:00 UTC From: e.feins@genie.geis.com Subject: Introduction My name is Evelyn (Evalah). I am originally from N.J, now retired and living in Fla., with my husband, Marty. Today we are celebrating our 51st wedding anniversary. I belong to a small Yiddish group in the development where we live, and enjoy, and am very interested in, anything pertaining to the yiddish language, and to what is happening to the Jewish people all over the world. Am looking forward, with pleasure, to joining this group. Thank you for inviting me. A gute nacht. Evalah and Moishe Fein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Jul 1994 05:52:01 -0400 From: rfalbel@cumc.cornell.edu Subject: Introduction I learned most of my Yiddish from singing Yiddish songs. But I also heard Yiddish at home (my father's side of the family) although it was mixed with Viennese German (my mother's side). I was born in Vienna, German was my first language but since I was a baby when we made it out in 1939, my knowledge of it was limited until I went back to Vienna to study in the mid-sixties. My father came from Lvov (he always called it Lemberg). I understand spoken Yiddish and can usually make myself understood in a kind of "vardaytchtes Yiddish." I'm working on a project of transcribing, and eventually translating hundreds of family letters from Vienna, Israel, Italy and Lvov (1914-1947); they're mostly written in German but some are in Yiddish and Polish. I haven't dealt with those yet. I've been enjoying the conversations here, especially the transliterated Yiddish and derivations of Yiddish expressions. Rita Falbel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 94 07:50 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Dual forms in Yiddish; Toronto Conference 1) Features of the dual forms Arre Komar, Yude Rozof, et al Many, many months ago, (perhaps in a message to Eli Katz), I posted a long piece on the "ets, enk" phenomenon, generally characteristic of Yiddidh in Poland, to the West of Warsaw. Although it is, indeed, geographically contiguous with the German speaking area in which these features prevail, one should be very cautious about using this as evidence for the "true birthplace" of Yiddish. The associated, "historically dual" imperative ending "-ts", as in "geyts", "kumts", "veynts nit", reach far eastward into northeastern Polish--Litvish Yiddish territory. The pronouns do not! The "ts"-imperative was apparently recorded in 18th century letters from Vilna, as well. A number of jokes continue to reflect these features: >From "Polish Yiddish": (Translators alert!!) "TsOtsidiki:? MOtsidiki:! Nu, abI: tsOtsi" >From "Litvish" Yiddish: "Forts gezunterheyt. Makhts an Optrit. Losts hern fun zikh." The puns in this last one are worth pursuing. Great for vocabulary building. 2. Dave Sherman: Can you post the dates of the Fall Conference in Toronto again? Thanks! Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 3 Jul 94 22:08:49 EDT From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Re: dual forms In mendele 4.046, Arre Komar discusses the dual. One must bear in mind that Common Slavic, the ancestor of the modern Slavic languages, had a dual, which has been retained only in modern Slovenian. I'm not sure at what point it was lost in the other Slavic languages, but it's quite possible that Yiddish was developing in a linguistic environment where there was an active dual in the surrounding language(s). That, together with the Hebrew dual, may have reinforced these forms in Yiddish. Rick Turkel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 04 Jul 94 11:01:48 +0300 From: MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL Subject: lamed-feh-kuf ellen prince asked: >the tayerer shames must be having conniptions because this ain't about >yiddish either, but...can someone tell me what lamed-fe-kuf means/stands >for? someone told me it was an abbreviation for l'kudat 'by the command >of', but couldn't explain the fe. can anybody help? a dank aykh. There is a nice Jewish story I could have told in this connection but I will restrain myself. (Note: I prefer to use "q" for qof instead of "k" to distinguish it from the kaf.) The first answer is simple: the Fe stands for the Pe (or Fe) in Peq'uda which is "command". In the combination with the lamed ("for", NOT "by") and the smikhut (genitive??) we get lifq'udat "for the order of", written on a cheque or bill before the name of the person who can use that sum of money. There is another use of lf"q which is used for Jewish dates when one does not mention the thousands. Now we are in the year 5754, but one usually just writes 754 (tav shin nun dalet) followed by lamed fe qof which stands for LiFrat Qatan (for the small count). If one uses the year *with* the thousands one can write after it lf"g, the gimel stands for gadol as in heh tav shin nun dalet lf"g. Michael Shimshoni 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 03 Jul 94 21:17:18 EDT From: ABRAMSON@UConnVM.UConn.Edu Subject: lamed-pe-qof To Ellen Prince: The Hebrew abbreviation lamed-pe-qof stands for /lifkudat/ 'to the order of' followed by a noun phrase, probably a name; it is used on checks. Arn (aka Arthur) Abramson 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 3 Jul 94 22:01:51 EDT From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Re: lamed-fe-kuf In mendele 4.046 ellen prince asks about lamed-fe-kuf. If she's referring to an abbreviation, which she never says, then her informant was pretty close. The Hebrew is "lif'kudat" and also means "to the order of" as on a check. Hence the fe. Rick Turkel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 04 Jul 94 07:30:49 CET From: REISNER%PLEARN.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Lamed-fe-he The abbreviation lamed-fe-he can mean a couple of things. The inquirer did not provide a context that I saw. 1) LFK' (with a shtrekhl at the end) could mean liFkudat: at the behest or command of, where the fe represents the initial letter of pekudah, an order or command. However, the more common use for this letter combination would be: 2) LF"K (with two shtrekhelach between the second and third letters). This is often found following years (e.g. on tombstone inscriptions) and means "le-ferek katan," by the condensed cycle, i.e. the Jewish year witthout the thousands (e.g., this year would be taf-shin-nun-dalet or 754, rather than the complete form he-taf-shin-nnun-dalet or 5754); this is a common usage. Yale J. Reisner 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Jul 94 12:32 EDT From: ANSUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Lamed-fey-kuf In reply to Ellen Prince's query about the abbreviation lamed-fey-kuf: perhaps this stands for lifkudat '(pay) to the order of'. Andrew Sunshine 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 01:18:42 -0500 (EDT) From: kuzmack@umbc.edu Subject: Lamed-fe-kuf; Jewess First, the easy one. Lamed-fe-kuf stands for 'lifkudat' in Hebrew, not 'l'kudat', which in fact means 'by the order of'. Hence, the fe. Regarding the term 'Jewess', I think the problem is more than just being out of style. I am quite willing to believe that the English Forward is not even unconsciously anti-Semitic and used in the term in ignorance of its connotations. However, these connotations are negative. In the many languages which normally distinguish between male and female members of national, ethnic, and religious groups, there is no problem in doing so for Jews as well. However, English is not such a language. One does not distinguish between male and female Americans, Russians, Poles, Muslims, etc. Moreover, the ending '-ess' is generally used to denote the female of non-human animals, such as 'lioness', 'tigress', etc. To me at least as a native speaker of English, it carries an implication that Jews are not quite human. The only similar usage I can think of is 'Negress', which carries similar overtones. Arnie Kuzmack 11)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 13:37:53 -0700 From: fishl@well.sf.ca.us Subject: re: Jewess Here are some separate thoughts on a recent topic with strongly divided opinions. Yidine, Yidishke, Yenta, and Jewess all represent a word for a female Jew. In our household YIDINE, and of course YENTA, were common terms which were used on a daily basis. Neither was complimentary. Weinreich's dictionary gives the definition of YIDISHKE as JEWESS. Thanks to Philologus for a lucid and thoughtful response to the reference of JEWESS in the article. JEWESS and PRINCESS are both beautiful words for beautiful people. Thank G-d we can afford to spoil our daughters--they deserve it! Fishl Kutner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.047 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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