Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.365 March 12, 1995 1) Gel and fiftsn (Johan Seynnaeve) 2) Gel and fiftsn (Anno Siegel) 3) Khil, srul, shmil(ik) (Dovid Braun) 4) A Yiddish name (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Khosn-kale (Michael Shimshoni) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 19:04:42 EST From: jocysey@wvnvm.wvnet.edu Subject: Gel and fiftsn In Old High German the adjective _gelo_ is a so-called _wa/wo_ stem (only a handful of adj. belong to this class). The Nom.sg. has the ending -o, the oblique cases have -w+vowel: so, gelo (N.sg.) vs. gelwes (G.sg.). In Middle High German a new paradigm was created based on the oblique cases and the _w_ strengthened to a stop and was reanalyzed as part of the stem, hence Modern German: gelb-er, gelb-es, etc... In many German dialects, however, the Nom. sg. was generalized, the final unstressed vowel was reduced to schwa, and in many cases dropped out. This is presumably also the scenario for Yiddish. In Standard Dutch the word is , the result of lengthening of the stem vowel in open syllable, a change that preceded final vowel deletion. Some Dutch dialects (my own West Flemish dialect included) still have _gelw@_. So once again the different stages in the historical development of an item are reflected in the current geographical landscape of Germanic.(cf. also yellow) ad _fuftsn_:in the history of germanic deletion of an [n] before a fricative is well-known: compare German and English . Notice that Yiddish has a schwa in five: [fin@f] but not in fifteen. The condition for n-drop is that the nasal and the fricative be tautosyllabic. In many cases the vowel preceding the nasal lengthened compensatorily after n-drop: Dutch is a good illustration, both and evince nasal deletion and vowel lengthening. My guess is that in Northeastern Yiddish the i~u alternation is the result of n-retention vs. n-deletion + lengthening, only NEY has lost the short-long distinction in its vowels. Johan Seynnaeve Morgantown, West Virginia [forwarded by Dovid Braun] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Mar 95 13:58:55 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: History of _gel_ 'yellow' and _fuftsn_ Dovid Braun: The final b in German "gelb" is a recent developement which doesn't appear before the 15th century. A number of dialects, as well as Dutch, still have "geel" in various spellings. As for the vowel change from "finef" to "fuftsn" (also "fuftsik"), a number of contemporary German dialects show the same phenomenon. It appears in dialects as diverse as Bavarian and Berlin, and only the composite forms lose the umlaut, never the basic number. Anno Siegel Berlin, Germany 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 00:57:49 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Khil, srul, shmil(ik), etc. Ellen Prince: In those dialects with long vowels, the post-tonic /e/ of names ending in -el drops out, while the stressed vowel lengthens, thus: /khi:l, shmi:l, sru:l/ etc. In those dialects, the diminutive (or further diminutive) is with -ik: /khi:lik/, etc. In litvish Yiddish, there are no long vowels, and different things happen: I don't know for sure about _yekhiel_ (although I think it's /khi'el/ -- bisyllabic), but _shmu'el_ remains bisyllabic and, in some subdialects (e.g. mine), hiatus-breaking y enters: [shmuyel]. (M. Herzog mentioned once a further litvicization: pre-/y/ lowering to yield [shmoyel].) _yisro'el_ is [yisro'(y)el] and, so I've been told, [yisro'l] -- again in a subdialect of litvish. For litvakes, the diminutive suffix is more frequently -ke, and in these cases the above-mentioned /e/ deletes: srolke (vs. srulik), shmulke (vs. shmilik). And wrt _elye_ as litvish only -- that puzzled me too. E. Juni is called Eliko, Eleshi by his grandmothers since these are the further diminutive forms of Elye. (That is, it might be pronounced /elye, eli, eLe/ where the "L" stands for 'light /l/', but they're all forms of the name standardly transcribed _elye_.) Litvish diminutives of _elye_ are /eLtshik, elinke/. Dovid Braun 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Mar 95 15:41:39 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: A Yiddish name Ellen Prince in her discussion of Yiddish names also mentions: >re stress, what about this: my father was yekhiyl.. and i never heard >any real diminutive form. is there one? The brother of our first President Chaim Weizmann and the father of our present President Ezer Weizman was also a "Yekhiyel", who lived in Haifa (as I did then) and was known as *Khilik*. Could that be the diminutive form Ellen asked for? Michael Shimshoni Rehovot 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Mar 95 15:58:36 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: Khosn-kale Shleyme Axelrod discusses the uses of khosn and kale: >Dvorah's impression that _khosn_ and _kale_ are what the couple are >called from the engagement until after the ceremony is corroborated by >Weinreich who translates _khosn_ 'bridegroom(-to-be), fiance' and _kale_ >'bride(-to-be), fiancee'. This is also the usage in Israeli Hebrew (hatan-khatan and kala respectively). I enjoyed making use of the other meaning of these words. When one of my sons got married I told him after the wedding that from then on my relation to that lady will be the same as his were till then. He was slightly concerned, I do not remember if he blushed, till I pointed out that from now on she was my kala=daughter- in-law (shnur?). This double meaning of the terms hatan and kala can be found already in the Tanakh. Michael Shimshoni ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.365 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 subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu