Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.152
October 26, 1994

1) Rish/Stutchkoff (Bob Werman)
2) Es shaynt di levone (Shleyme Axelrod)
3) Afn/afen (Bob Rothstein)
4) "Mazshge", a vort? (Moishe Feller)
5) "Mazshge", a vort? (Dovid Braun)
6) Petshke (Dovid Braun)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 94 14:03 +0200
From:rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il
Subject: Rish/Stutchkoff

Rish?  A wildcat?  A tiger?

In the very beginning of his commentary on the _Arbe Turim_, by R. Jacob
ben Asher, the Ba"H, Joel Sirkes, writing in 1631 or earlier, then living
in Cracow but, having been born in Lublin, and living in wildly
distributed Polish cities as rabbi had a middle Polish background in
addition to the galitzianer, interprets the text's use of _az k'nameyr_,
daring as a tiger(?) by commenting that despite the prevelant belief the
_nameyr_ was not a female lion but another animal.  This other animal, he
noted, was called rish (resh - yod - shin) b'lashon ashkenaz. Since the
last could be either Yiddish or German, I have tried to find this animal
in dictionaries of both languages (riche and variations in German) and
inquired of people who speak both languages far better than I -- without
remarkable success.

The one other place I found the form resh-yod-shin was in the remarkable
thesaurus, _der oytzer fun der yiddisher shprach_ by NaHum Stutchkoff
(edited by Max Weinreich), 1950.  As a bit of a Hebraist, I can bear
witness that Stuchkoff's Hebrew thesaurus is no less remarkable and
worthwhile.  Stutchkoff's group 247, ba'ale Hayim, in the cat group
(mishpacha ketz) offers a subgroup: vilde katz, vildkatz, valdkatz, rish.
This suggests a meaning of wildcat or forest cat for rish.  Can someone
help me on this?

I understand that Stutchkoff was a Yiddish actor who cultivated Yiddish
and Hebrew philology as a serious hobby.  The results prove the value of
his efforts.  Can someone tell us about the man?  Did he act?  Was he
good?

Bob Werman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:36:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Subject: Es shaynt di levone

Dovid Braun (4.149) is quite right in identifying the lines quoted by
Herb Mirels (4.148) as coming from a well-known poem of Shimen Frug's
(1860-1916).  _Zamd un shtern_ has been anthologizd in several
collections. Here is the poem as it appears in Uriel Weinreich's _College
Yiddish_.  (I have made a shabbily literal translation which I am
embarrassed to publish on Mendele.  Readers who need it as a pony can
write to me; but I would love to see a rendition in English, worthy of
the original, posted here.)


           ZAMD UN SHTERN

Es shaynt di levone, es glantsn di shtern;
Di nakht shvebt oyf barg un oyf tol.
Dos altitshke bikhele ligt far mir ofn,
Ikh leyen es, leyen es toyznter mol.

Ikh leyen di heylike, tayere verter;
Mir hert zikh a shtime:  "Ikh shver,
Mayn folk, du vest zayn vi di shtern in himl,
Vi zamd oyfn breg funem mer!"

Reboyne-shel-oylem!  Es vert nit farfaln
Fun dayne havtokhes keyn eyn eyntsik vort;
Mekuyem muz vern dayn heyliker viln,
Alts kumt in zayn tsayt, oyf zayn ort.

Un eyns iz shoyn take mekuyem gevorn--
Dos fil ikh, dos veys ikh gevis:
Mir zaynen gevorn vi zamd vos is hefker,
Vos yederer tret mit di fis...

Yo, gotenyu, emes, vi zamd un vi shteyner,
Tseshpreyt un tsevorfn oyf shand un oyf shpot...
Nu, ober di shtern di likhtike, klore--
Di shtern, di shtern, vu zaynen zey, got?

Shleyme Axelrod

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 23:31:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: rar@slavic.umass.edu
Subject: Afn/afen

Shleyme Axelrod asked (4.145) about a berry or nut called _af(e)n_ in the
speech of a Yiddish speaker from Czechoslovakia or Romania. Slovakia and
Romania suggest the possibility of Hungarian influence, and in Hungarian
_afonya_ (with an acute accent on the first letter) seems to be a generic
designation for berries of the genus Vaccinium, (to which the blueberry
belongs), e.g.,

	1. fekete [black] afonya = myrtle whortleberry or wineberry
(Vaccinium myrtillus)

	2. vo"ro"s [red] afonya = cowberry or mountain cranberry or red
billberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea).

Bob Rothstein

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 06:04:04 -0700 (MST)
From: feller@pcef.pc.maricopa.edu
Subject: "Mazshge", a vort?

There are two words in Yiddish which are close in pronounciation to this
word.  The first is "mashkeh" which is an alcoholic drink.  In saying
Yiddish words, sometimes the gimmel and the koff sounds are interchanged.
However, this does not fit the meaning ascribed by Daniella.  The other
word which I think fits better is "meshugah", which we all know means
"crazy".  "Meshugahed" seems to me to be very close to "mazshged".

Moishe Feller

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 23:34:16 EDT
From: dovid@MIT.EDU
Subject: Mazhgen

Mazhgen 'to scribble, scrawl'. Synonymous with Yiddish _patshken_.

Dovid Braun

p.s. There are no oysgetrakhte verter.  Words get reanalyzed, reshaped,
recycled, etc.  I've heard tons of "only-my-family-says-this" with
regard to Yiddish words or phrases and it never turns out to be true (at
least in my experience).

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 23:39:57 EDT
From: dovid@MIT.EDU
Subject: Petshke

The previous statement [see above] comes with one qualification (which, I
hope, will turn out not to be an exception after Mendele readers attack
the question):

In my family, an endearing term for the chin (e.g., a child's chin) is
_di petshke_.  Family lore has it that "only WE say this".  Who else's
family only says this?  Speak up, and tell where you(r family) comes
from. A dank in foroys.

Dovid Braun

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