Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.346
March 1, 1995

1) Gikh; Vaysoze (Dovid Braun)
2) Malka Heifetz Tussman (Jay Brodbar)
3) Mazel (Berel Leiser)
4) Kabtzen (Berel Leiser)
5) A yold iz mir mekane (Linda Cantor)
6) Der fodem vegn "mentshn" (Peter Kluehs)
7) Slavic po- (Zev bar-Lev)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 1995 22:16:02 EST
From: dovid@mit.edu
Subject: Gikh; Vayzose

As Y. Rozof mentions, _af der gikh_ is a fossil, indicating that _gikh_
is no newcomer to Yiddish.  Another fossil using _gikh_ is _in gikhn_,
with pre-modern Yiddish case-marking to boot.  Perhaps this is further
evidence of it's having been brought from the West, where such case
marking was the norm. (Another example:  _in kurtsn_.)

_Vvayzose_ is used to mean 'fool' (and 'penis' as well).  It is said of
Vayzose (Midrashic sources?  other?) that he stood there and watched his
father and nine brothers being hanged and didn't make a run for it while
he could -- during all that time when the rest of the family was being
taken care off.  Thence his stupidity and thence _vayzoses seykhl_.

Dovid Braun

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 1995 17:50:58 -0500 (EST)
From: brodbar@epas.utoronto.ca
Subject: Malka Heifetz Tussman

There is at least one of her poems (I believe translated by Marcia Falk)
in the new Reconstructionist Siddur "Kol Haneshama."

Jay Brodbar

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 16:18:24 EST
From: leiser@pacevm.dac.pace.edu
Subject: Mazel

Of a mazeldike sho hot Leonard Prager gefregt a shayle, Vos heyst mazel?

The word comes, of course, from the Hebrew "mazzal," which strictly
speaking refers to the constellations in general and more specifically,
to the constellations that make up the Zodiac.  Yes, my friends, in our
tradition too we have such narishe superstitions:  The idea was that it
was important for important events to occur (or at least for one to wish
that it would have occurre d) under a "mazel tov," a good conjunction of
the stars.

Ancient and especially medieval literature is full of this.  A glance at
the machzor for Shavuos, for example, will reveal that there is a
lengthy series of p iyyutim (poems) composed during the Middle Ages that
are based on the mazel theory; and in fact, in many such machzorim, each
piyyut is accompanied by a diagram representing the appropriate mazel,
or constellation.

Not all of the chachomim were pleased by such narishkayt, of course.
After all, idol worshippers were regularly called "Akum," not only in
Talmudic sources, but I believe later in Yiddish books as well.  Akum =
Ovdey kochovim umazolos, worshippers of stars and constellations.  And
Rambam (Maimonides) railed vehemently against such superstitions.  A lot
of good it did him!  To this day we not only use the expression (well,
it's probably harmless), but many people actual ly believe that the stars
exercise a significant influence on earthly events.

Burton (Berel) Leiser

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 16:18:24 EST
From: leiser@pacevm.dac.pace.edu
Subject: Kabtzen

Michael Shimshoni (4.334) suggests that kabtzan may be a recent coinage,
and that it may have entered modern Hebrew from Yiddish.  At first I
thought it was i mpossible, since it was my impression (as I indicated in
a recent posting) that it was an old Hebrew form, like lamdan (lamden),
the final nun indicating constant or regular activity of the sort
described by the verb.  But now, consulting my sources, I'm not so sure
it's as old as I had at first thought. So I thank Reb Michael for raising
the question, and hope someone out there will enlighten both of us.

Burton (Berel) Leiser

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 19:14:10 -0500 (est)
From: lincan@amanda.dorsai.org
Subject: "A yold iz mir mekane"

I grew up listening to my grandfather sing to me in Yiddish.  One of his
favorite songs included the line "a yold iz mir mekane, mit dos eyn
shtikele broyt." I do not know if this is the title or simply one line of
the song.

I hope that one of you out there on Mendele might remember this song as I
would love to know the rest of the words.  Thanks.

Linda Cantor
Valley Stream, NY

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 28 Feb 1995 20:21:00 +0200
From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de
Subject: Der fodem vegn "mentshn"

shtelt zikh efsher di frage, tsi goyim konen zayn oykh mentshn un nisht
bloyz bashefenishen. der rov inem maysele vos ikh breng aykh haynt, se
dukht zikh, iz nisht gants sikher. ;B^)

     A yid iz gekumen tsum row, im opgedult gantse dray sho,
     geredt nisht tsu der zakh un dernokh gefregt an eytse.
     Makht der row: "Ikh meyn, az koydem kol darfstu zikh shmadn."
     "Far vos epes, rebe!" baleydikt zikh der yid.
     "Vayl demolt vestu dreyen dem kop dem galekh un nisht mir."

un oyb ir hot hanoe tsu zen dos maysele in yidish gufe, shraybt mir an
e-briv un ikh vel aykh tsushikn dem GIF-file.

agev, kent emetser a file server inem internet vu me kon aroplodn yidishe
textn, say transliterirt, say in ivrit?

peter kluehs
wehrheim, germany

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 09:28:18 -0800
From: zbarlev@mail.sdsu.edu
Subject: slavic po-

slavic "po-" (as apparently in pa-meylekh) has a range of difficult to
translate meanings that might be explained as "according to, following".
it occurs in most slavic languages in language adverbs, e.g. po-russki
"in Russian" (where russki itself is an adverbial form), as well as in
adverbial prep.-phrases like po russkomu "in the Russian (way)".

Zev bar-Lev

______________________________________________________
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