Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.091 August 19, 1994 1) Introduction (Mary Bucholtz) 2) Yiddish Language tapes (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Are they cognates? (Kenneth Kaminsky) 4) Der Bingl (Ellen Prince) 5) Correction (Andrew Sunshine) 6) Briv-bruder (Zellig Bach) 7) Bernstein's "Sprichwoerter" (Delphine Bechtel) 8) Bay mir bist du sheyn (Harvey Spiro) 9) In/oyf der velt (Ellen Prince) 10) Bei mir bistu shein/Papirossen (Nathan Kravetz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 15:06:22 -0700 From: bucholtz@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Introduction I'm new to the list, so I'm introducing myself. I'm a grad student in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and I'm just beginning the study of Yiddish, so I have very little to contribute to discussions, but I expect to learn a lot just from eavesdropping. My research is on ethnic identity and language use, and I also do research on Old English, so I guess this all fits together somehow in a Germanic kind of way. I do have one request: Where can I find an up-to-date source for Yiddish use in the U.S., esp. at present? (I teach a course on language in the US, and we discuss Yiddish among many others, but much of my material seems out of date.) Thanks Mary Bucholtz 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 94 14:44 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Yiddish Language tapes To Eli Katz: A set of tapes for use with College Yiddish was prepared by Jim Matisoff, Department of Linguistics, UC Berkely--a neighbor of yours. Perhaps Jim has a copy. His telephone number is (area code) Lahu Owl (Jim divides his time between Lahu and Yiddish). If he doesn't own a copy, try YIVO. The tapes were prepared for language lab use at the Columbia-YIVO summer program, and for a while, YIVO was making the tapes available. Write to Jessica Kligman. Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 13:44:10 +0600 From: kaminsky@augsburg.edu Subject: Are they cognates? Can one of the Mendele linguists tell me if Yiddish 'koyf' and English 'shop' are cognates? I admit that at first glance the chance is remote, but the Swedish equivalent of 'koyf' is koep (oe = o with two dots), and is, I think, pretty obviously a cognate with 'koyf.' 'Koep' is pronounced SHOEP (OE is like EE with mouth open in shape of small hole). What I know from a linguist friend is that Yiddish 'koyf' can be traced back to Latin 'caupo' (small shopkeeper), and English 'shop' can be traced back to Middle English 'shoppe' and Old English 'sceoppa.' So is it just coincidence that 'koep' (cognate with koyf) sounds so much like 'shop'? Kenneth Kaminsky 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 15:49:01 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: der bingl noyekh, do you know that bing crosby was called 'der bingl' in germany? i'm asking because the -l diminutive is found only in bavarian, apparently. also, do you or anyone else remember whether jews called him 'bingl' in the u.s.? i listened to the song again and the 'der' could really be the andrews sisters' 'west indian' dialect version of 'their', which would make just as much sense in the context--but 'bingl' sure sounds like 'bingl'! ellen prince 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 94 16:12 EDT From: ANSUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Correction I won't sleep tonight unless I correct a typographical error in my posting yesterday on the on-line electronic _LCAAJ_ Archives. In the seventh paragraph, the sample interview question appeared yesterday as follows: voser hobn yidn geredt? The word LOSHN was inadvertently omitted. The question _should_ read thus: voser loshn hobn yidn geredt? Andrew Sunshine 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 94 19:59:39 EDT From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: Briv-bruder [pen pal] Allan Blair mentioned several times in Mendele the subject of "feder-fraynt" [pen pals]. Max Weinreich, olev-hasholem, the eminent historian of Yiddish, coined in his lifetime many necessary Yiddish terms for various scientific disciplines, such as linguistics, sociology, education, psychology, psychoanalysis, as well as general terms for modern concepts. One of his latest coinages was "briv-bruder." for pen pal, and was used in print for the first time in the journal _Yugntruf_ in December, 1968. It has an alliteration, as pen pal in English, (as does Blair's feder-fraynt). Briv-bruder is analogous to "shifs-bruder" [oceanliner brother], a reference to a man with whom one crossed the ocean at the same time on the way to America. Ocean passages in the old immigration days often took many weeks and were a true ordeal, a traumatic episode of many dimensions: Dislocated from family, home, and traditions, tantamount to having been uprooted from one's very core, immigrants found themselves huddled in steerage, in highly unsanitary conditions. Food was as a rule inedible, but even if they could eat it, they could not hold it down. Sea sickness was all around them. (Jewish immigtrants refused to eat the non-kosher meals, and lived on bread they carried with them on ship, and hot water for tea.) Throughout the voyage gnawing worries and fears would overtake the passengers--fears whether the immigration papers will all be found in order, whether one's health will be found acceptable to the medical inspectors in Ellis Island, or whether, khas vesholem, one would be sent back to the port of embarkation. These fears alternated with unmeasurable hopes about "di goldene m'dine" (the golden land). Such utterly new and unique experiences forged strong bonds among passengers, to recall and retell, and Jewish immigrants started to call each other "shif's bruder," the calque for briv-bruder. One shortcoming of Weinreich's coinage: it is gender-limited. I recommend "briv-shvester" for correspondence with a woman. While it is not alliterative, as briv-bruder, it has the advantage of staying within the familial kinship. Zellig Bach 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 15:34:17 +0002 From: boulanger@mesiob.obspm.fr Subject: Bernstein's "Sprichwoerter" Indeed there is a German reprint of the original Bernstein Shprikhverter called _Juedische Sprichwoerter und Redensarten_, reprint by Fourier Verlag, Wiesbaden, or Weiss Veralg, Dreieich, 1988. I bought a copy in Germany a few years ago, it has yiddish on the left page, with explanations and comments, and a german transcription on the right page, with even more explanations. You can surely find it in the Literaturhandlung, a bookstore in Berlin and Munich specialized in Judaica. Delphine Bechtel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Aug 18 09:22:20 1994 From: Subject: Bay mir bist du sheyn Following up from Martin Davis in Mendele 4.088, here's the second verse: Bay mir bist di git, bay mir host di "it," Bay mir bist di tayere vi gelt. (Note: Apologies to all Litvaks and klal-shprakh advocates; this doesn't rhyme in Standard Yiddish.) If I had the time to retrieve my Barry sisters recording, I could fill in more of the blanks. Harvey Spiro 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 15:49:01 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: in/oyf der velt, in bay mir bistu sheyn noyekh, don't go by MY memory--it ain't worth beans. i can't believe i forgot the verse with 'hostu it', one of my all-time favorites! vos geven iz geven, iz nisht do, as another song puts it... ellen prince 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 11:19:49 +0800 (PST) From: hcedu005@huey.csun.edu Subject: Bei mir bistu shein/Papirossen Bei mir bistu shein was written by J. Jacobs (lyrics) and Sholom Secunda (music). I have no date but it was surely before the Andrews sisters got onto it. I also have all the lyrics if you want them. Papirossen was written by Herman Yablokoff. Lyrics available by request. It is a real tear-jerker! Ich hob zei gefinen in an alter _fake-book_ mit a sach andere yidishe lieder. Nathan Kravetz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.091 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