Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.072 July 25, 1994 1) National Yiddish Book Center liaison? (Dovid Braun) 2) Etymology of the name Shapiro (Dovid Braun) 3) Got fun Avrom (Yude Rozof) 4) On 'belaaz' (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Shtetl Kautabag (S. Shapiro) 6) Apology (Leybl Botwinik) 7) Mystery:lamed-sof=tzadik (Leybl Botwinik) 8) Introductory Yiddish books (Harvey Spiro) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jul 94 17:39:20 EDT From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: National Yiddish Book Center liaison? Is there anyone who works at the National Yiddish Book Center who is on Mendele (or, more generally, who is on e-mail)? Please write me at dovid@mit.edu Dovid Braun 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jul 94 17:53:19 EDT From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: Etymology of the name Shapiro No one ever refuted my hypothesis that the last name Shapiro and its variants stem from Aramaic _shapir_ + _o_ ('beautiful' + 'the' = 'the beautiful one'). Nu, refute this please! Dovid Braun 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 18:23:04 -0400 (EDT) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Got fun Avrom If I am not mistaken, the prayer Got fun Avrom may be found in the standard prayerbook of the Conservative movement: Siddur Sim Shalom. It is the only yiddish text in the prayerbook. The version that I remember from Sim Shalom, is shorter and considerably less jam-packed with loshn-koydesh phrases than the version which was recently transliterated on Mendele. Yude Rozof 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 94 10:07:57 +0300 From: MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL Subject: On 'belaaz' Bob Werman had mentioned that in Rashi's commentary he uses belaaz before foreign words, with "laaz" being an acronym for bilshon 'am zar. Mikhl Herzog is doubtful and wrote: >Bob, does Rashi actually introduce Yiddish glosses with the designation >"belaaz", or does your reference to such glosses as "laazim" follow from >the assumption that "laaz" is an acronym (for "leshon am zar[a]")? I know >that the acronym explanation is part of our "received wisdom" but, what >if it's not true? I think that Mikhl is correct, and although Bob's view is repeated by many, laaz is not acronym but an actual word. In Tehilim (and it forms also from there a part of Hallel) we have betzet yisrael mimitzrayim, bet ya'aqov me'am LOEZ. This is the root lamed 'ayin zayin as of laaz. As to the other important issues raised by Bob and Mikhl, qatonti, I do not know enough about them. Michael Shimshoni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 08:49:31 +0100 (MET) From: toukie@zui.unizh.ch Subject: Shtetl Kautabag I am seeking the geographical location of a shtetl with a name SOMETHING LIKE Kautabag, Katabag, Katabaug, .... I never saw the name of this place written; I only heard it spoken. I suspect that it MAY have been in the Ukraine, but again I am not certain. My paternal grandfather and his father (who owned an inn) lived there before immigrating to the United States ca. 1901. Can anyone help me to locate Kautabag? S. Shapiro 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 94 21:25:57 IDT From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Apology A deep apology to Mikhl Herzog and anyone who may have misunderstood my use of "undzere khokhomim". I had always been taught that to seek the advice of a wiser person was, in Yiddish: "betn an eytse bay a khokhem" and that our (ancient) wise men were the "khaza'l" (khokhomim zikhroynom levrokho). Of course the khelemer sages are also 'khokhomim', but I had no intention of comparing them. ikh bet antshuldikung fun ale vos hobn nit farshtanen, as mayn banutzn zikh mit dem oysdruk "undzere khokhomim" iz geven a loib, un nit khas ve sholem a baleydikung oder gringshetzung. Leybl Botwinik 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 94 21:25:57 IDT From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Mystery:lamed-sof=tzadik un itzt vegn nokh a misfarshtendenish: I'll try to re-explain what the "lamed-sof=tzadik" mystery is about: When I looked up the abbreviation lamed-feh-kuf in the book "Otzar Rashey Teyvot", I found a strange entry several lines after, for another abbreviation: lamed-sof=tzadik. This has two interesting problems associated with it: 1) in a response to my request of similar abbreviations with a sof-letter ending the abbreviation, I was given an example: aleph-vav-sof=mem (u:m) which is umot meukhadot (United Nations). This is not a member of my newly discovered species. Let's take a better known sample: tana'kh (tof-nun-sof=khof) This is also not a member of my mysterious species. Why? Because in order for the "tanakh" abbreviation to meet the criteria of the "lamed-sof=tzadik" abbreviation-species it would have to be (Please note carefully!): "lamed-sof=mem" ! The abbeviation I discovered takes the LAST letter of the last word: i.e. sof=mem of '(toyre-neviim)-ktuvim' if this were the case. However, the actual abbreviated word was 'leybush peritz', and the sof=tzadik is refering to the last letter in 'peritz'. Permit ne to rephrase my question: Are there other words where the LAST letter (of the last word) becomes part of the abbreviation? 2) Mystery item #2 I have never heard of Yitzhok Leybush Peretz being referred to by the abbreviation "lamed-sof=tzadik". Any thoughts on this one? Was there some other famous 'leybush peritz'? By the way, I'm trying to track down the two Israeli compilers of the book "Otzar Rashey Teyvot" where I found the strange entry. If I can get hold of either, it might help clear up the mystery. [Just found out: Dr. Dov Yarden, one of the authors passed away several years ago. I'll try reaching the other author, Shmuel Ashkenazi, if I can]. Leybl Botwinik 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 26 14:40:59 1994 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: Introductory Yiddish books Howard Gershen asked for opinions on two books: "Mame Loshn" by Geipel, and "Words like arrows" by Kumove. A. There are numerous sources for Yiddish proverbs, ranging from the relatively inaccessible to pure "shund." There are many softcover books with "cutesy" pictures and associated Yiddish proverbs; they're amusing and harmless. See your local Jewish book store or synagogue gift shop. Leo Rosten's books on Yiddish (primarily "The Joys of Yiddish," but also "In Praise of Yinglish" and "Hooray for Yiddish") can also be a source for proverbs. The first book is quite entertaining and a decent (if unscholarly) source for etymologies; the latter two are IMO of lesser quality. Several books are available with titles like "How to curse in Yiddish." While the study of Yiddish slang and curses is useful and fun, as a lover of Yiddish I find such books depressing. Although IMO some appreciation of Yiddish is better than none, I suspect that the bulk of these books are bought by people whose memory of Yiddish is "limited to 25 words, all of them curses, most of them mispronounced," to paraphrase Alexander Portnoy (or is that Philip Roth?). They typify the Jackie Mason school of Yiddish, namely, that Yiddish is a funny little outdated jargon, useful only to curse or to avoid having others understand. [End of polemic.] (For a fascinating but scholarly book on the subject, I recommend a book titled "Maledictions and Benedictions..." - I've forgotten the remainder of the title or the author's name; I believe he's an anthropologist or sociologist at U. California.) Kumove's book of proverbs is IMO a nice collection. I own three books with transliterations and English translations of Yiddish proverbs: one by Ayalti, one by Fred Kogos, and the one you mention by Kumove. Of the three, only Kumove's presents the texts categorized by subject, and in the Yiddish alphabet as well (I believe using YIVO transliteration). (An all-Latin-alphabet book by Galvin, "Yiddish Dictionary Sourcebook," also has numerous sayings and proverbs in transliteration.) Other valuable sources are less accessible to those lacking rudimentary knowledge of Yiddish. Immanuel Olsvanger wrote several rich books of transliterated Yiddish stories/jokes ("Royte Pomerantzen," and "L'Chaim," Shocken Books). He transcribed dialects as he heard them. Many books of proverbs use him as their source. Ignaz Bernstein wrote a superb book of "Yidish Shprikhvorter un ??" that was reprinted in 1980s or so in hardback; it's available either at CYCO or NYBC. Shtutchkoff's "Oytzer fun der Yidishe Shprakh" is literally an oytzer (treasure). Both of the latter are available in Yiddish only. I recall finding other Israeli-printed collections of Yiddish proverbs in a search long ago at the Library of Congress. Dov Noy, distinguished Israeli Yiddish folklorist, has lectured in the US on Yiddish folk sayings; I've never seen any of his work available in English, but I assume that he's published in Hebrew. B. John Geipel's book is IMO a readable, respectable and sympathetic introduction to the history of the Yiddish language by a non-scholar. My memory is that Geipel is essentially a journalist, and not Jewish; he nevertheless has done much research into the history of Yiddish. He lists an impressive bibliography; my guess is that he probably based his book on half a dozen of the texts he mentions (zayt mir moykhel if I underestimate his research). Although certainly not a scholar's text, Geipel's book is more serious reading than another excellent book about Yiddish, Maurice Samuel's "In praise of Yiddish." Samuel's book spends more time than Geipel's does on Yiddish literature rather than just language. Samuel's book is filled with nostalgia for the culture eradicated by the Nazis and Communists, and gives a wonderful (if idealized) feel of the ta'am of the shtetl and Yiddish literature (although some of his Anglo-English translations are a bit dated and harsh on my American ears). Both books are worth reading. Harvey Spiro ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.072 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. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu