Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.169 November 7, 1994 1) Introduction (Binyomin Weiner) 2) Bruklin Yiddish (Abe Bloom) 3) Whence shulamis? (Louis Fridhandler) 4) Whence shulamis? (Rick Turkel) 5) (h)am, (h)amenyu, amtshi (Dovid Braun) 6) (h)am, (h)amenyu, amtshi (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Hobn and zayn (Mikhl Herzog) 8) Hobn and zayn (Rick Gildemeister) 9) Romanization (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Nov 1994 19:07:17 -0500 (EST) From: bmw6@columbia.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Benjamin Micah Weiner (Binyomin.) I'm a senior at Columbia, studying Yiddish with Miriam Hoffman. As of now, my major Yiddish passion is with the poets, but in class, we are reading (very slowly) some of Chaim Grade's prose which I also like very much. So how's that for a brief introdcution? Looking forward to having more to say, Binyomin Weiner 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 5 Nov 1994 18:14:02 -0500 From: abebloom@aol.com Subject: Bruklin yiddish? Martin Davis hut geshriben az de vurt far "scrotum" is 'mekel'. Es dacht zich mir oz er meint 'shmekel' for /penis un er muz visen oz 'scrotum. or testicles', in yiddish is 'baytzim'. At least that was the way I learned it from my early days in the Bronx, until 1934, and my relocation to Brooklyn at that time. Since I retired about 7 years ago and moved to the Gan Eden of South Carolina 4 years ago, I am grateful for being able to keep in touch with the shprach and yiddishe things. 'swonderful!! Abe Bloom 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 06 Nov 94 16:53:43 EST From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: Whence shulamis? Dovid Braun asks where shulamis comes from. I would say it refers to the Shulamite in Song of Solomon in ashkenazic pronunciation. Song of Solomon 6:13 Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies. Incidentally, Sholem Aleichem wrote his children's lullaby, "Shlof Mayn Kind," in 1892 using Shulamis as his pseudonym. I don't know whether he wrote it before or after Goldfaden's musical drama, "Shulamis." Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Nov 94 00:24:08 EST From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Shulamis In mendele 4.166 Dovid Braun asked: >Does anyone know where the name _shulamis_ comes from (i.e. any Judaic >source familiar to you)? Sure. It appears in the Tanakh, in Shir HaShirim 7.1, twice. The root appears to be that of shalom. For what it's worth, according to Mandelkern's _Concordance_ the word is translated 'Shunamit' (woman from Shunem) in the Septuagint and Vulgate. However, he says, it may mean 'woman from Shalem (i.e., Yerushalayim),' or possibly have something to do with paying (leshalem). Rick Turkel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 06 Nov 1994 17:21:38 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: (h)am, (h)amenyu, amtshi _(h)am_ is Yiddish kid's language (or probably caretaker language - they've gotta learn the word from somewhere) for 'food' or 'eating'. Mother (or whoever) brings spoon towards baby's mouth and says "ham-ham-ham-ham..." until baby opens mouth and food disappears. From there, the noun; and from the noun, further diminutives (I only knew of _hamenyu_, and in Rovne, apparently, _amtshi_). Reminiscent, by the way, of English kids' language _yum, yummy_, which means not just 'food', but 'the food is good' (as we all probably know). Dovid Braun 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Nov 94 18:09 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: (h)am, (h)am (H)eynekh: (h)am, (h)am (and, I presume, its derivative "amtshi") is explicitly part of Yiddish baby talk, the forerunner of "es,es, mayn kind". Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Nov 94 18:09 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Hobn and zayn Schmuel: Sh. Kupershmid, "hobn un zayn", in M. Viner and A. Zaretski, eds. _Fragn fun der yidisher shprakh_. Moscow, 1938, pp. 223-232. M. Herzog _The Yiddish Language in Northern Poland: Its Geography and History. Mouton and Co. and Indiana University, The Hague and Bloomington, 1965, Maps 4:76, 4:77, 4:78. See, also: Joan Bratkowsky, Bibliography of Yiddish Linguistics (Title?). Garland. Index to the journal "Yidishe shprakh". YIVO. Extensive relevant material in the archives of the Langage and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, Columbia University, NY. Mikhl Herzog 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 07 Nov 94 09:03:33 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Subject: "Hobn" auxiliary "Hobn" used exclusively for the present perfect is interesting. Now, Isaac Bashevis Singer's pluperfect is "Er iz gehat gelofn".In the Northeast somewher they say Er iz gevest gelofn. My German relatives have confirmed for me that these also occur in German. Geweest is standard Dutch for geven. Rick Gildemeister 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Nov 1994 17:51:18 -0500 (EST) From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Romanization Mendele takes great pleasure in calling your attention to Vol 4.170 which consists of the long-awaited "faq" on romanization/transcription. Numerous hands have been involved, including Ellen Prince and Mikhl Herzog. Zellig Bach, on whose earlier post this document is built, deserves special thanks. The really heavy lifting was done by Arn Abramson and Shleyme Axelrod. A hartsikn yasher koyekh ale. The document will also be placed in the archives under the name transcription.faq. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.169 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu