Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 5.043
July 9, 1995

1) Kroyvits (Paul Pascal)
2) Kroyvits (Mikhl Herzog)
3) Yoytser (Mikhl Herzog)
4) The Yiddish-Hebrew border (Mikhl Herzog)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 07 Jul 95 09:42:01 EDT
From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com
Subject: Kroyvets

In response to Eliyohu Juni's remarks [5.040] about piyutim recited
during shmoinesre, at, among other times, Purim, he states that the Purim
version of this, "Kroyvets", is a corruption of "Kroyves" (close ones),
but invites further explanation.  My understanding is that the word
Kroyvets is an acronym from a verse in T'hilim: "Kol Rina Vishua B'ohalei
Tsadikim" (Psalms 118:15), i.e., "the sound (voice) of joy and redemption
in the tents of the righteous", which, according to Artscroll, "expresses
perfectly the joy and celebration of the Purim miracle".  (Mendelyaner
will perhaps indulge this tangent from our avowed raison d'etre, though
Juni makes a strong point that "Kroyvets" hovers in the netherworld
between Ashkenazi Hebrew and Yiddish.  Anyway, since "the largest Yiddish
folk festival ever held anywhere", the *Ashkenaz* event on-going now in
Toronto, is presenting most of its programming on Friday night and
Saturday, consider it even.)

Paul Pascal
Toronto

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95  10:52 EDT
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Kroyvits

I don't have the precise data at hand but, where it occurs, Yiddish
_kroyvits_ appears to designate the holiday prayer book (generally
_makhzer_), rather than a particular _piyet_ (often _payet_, by the way).
Is _kroyvits_ a "Yiddish" word? The more interesting question may be "Is
it a Hebrew word?".

If memory serves, Elijah Levita (Elye Bokher), in his 16th century,
multilingual dictionary, _Tishbi_, offers the word _kroyvits_ as evidence
of the Romance!!! component of Yiddish, in the context of his assertion
of the "well-known fact" that we Ashkenazim stem from "Tsarfat" (=
northern France/northern Italy). I don't recall the details of this
presumed "French Connection" but, I think Max Weinreich discusses it in
one his essays in _Shtaplen_ (1923), on Yiddish in the 16th century. If
anyone out there has the volume at hand, and the patience to look, I'd be
grateful for confirmation.

Mikhl Herzog

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95  10:52 EDT
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Yoytser

1. A brief supplement to Eliyahu Juni's eloquent discussion of
_yoytser_ [5.040].

i) Eastern Yiddish _yoytser_ is generally _yotser_ or _yautser_ in
Western Yiddish.

ii) Weinreich lists both singular and plural _yoytser/yoytsres_ (the
latter in the expression _farbaytn di yoytsres_), Harkavy lists only the
plural, _yoytsres_.

iii) "In the field," so to speak, the plural _yoytsrim_ also occurs,
albeit sporadically, particularly in the Ukraine. (Yiddish is no
respecter of Hebrew grammatical categories; e.g. _shabes/shabosim_).

iv) Both plurals, _yoytsres_ or _yoytsrim_, are phonologically anomalous
in Yiddish: On the model of such Yiddish pairs as _sOYkher/sOkhrim_ (and
_dOr/dOYres_), in which the quality of the stressed vowel varies in terms
of syllable structure (open syllable "OY"/closed "O"), we would expect
either _yOYtser/yOtsres_ or _yOYtser/yOtsrim_. Some instances of
_yOtsres/yOtsrim_ do occur.

v) Responses to the question "Vos heyst yoytser?":

a) Both singular and plural are generally unknown in most of the former
DDR, Bohemia-Moravia, and Austria;

b) Both singular and plural cooccur in Holland and Northwest Poland,

c) Only the singular is recorded in Germany and Alsace, in the rest of
Poland, and in the Carpathian area to the South.

d) The plural, alone, is recorded in southern Belorus and in most of the
Ukraine, where it is often known only in the expression _farbaytn di
yoytsres_.

e) Unfortunately, we lack data for much of Lithuania, Latvia, Belorus,
although indications are that the term was not widespread there. Can
anyone confirm?

Mikhl Herzog

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95  10:52 EDT
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: The Yiddish-Hebrew border

By no means a simple question.

For a long time, the prevailing view in Yiddish linguistic studies seems
to have been that every Hebrew word, at least every word in
_loshn-koydesh_ (i.e., Rabbinical Hebrew-Aramaic), was potentially a
Yiddish word. Yudel Mark asserted ("Undzer Litvish Yiddish", _Lite_,
1951: 465) that "to some extent, the entire _loshn-koydesh_ repertoire
has, so to speak, been swallowed up in the broad sea of Yiddish".
Harshav, in _The Meaning of Yiddish_ is a strong proponent of the concept
of the "openness" of Yiddish.

Listening to any one of the well-known _droshes_ of the late Lubavitsher
Rebbe tempts one to agree; and yet. . . . It's particularly important to
recognize a number of distinctions:

a) Yiddish words of Hebrew origin from Hebrew borrowings in Yiddish. To
use a simple-minded example:

Shabes, in shul hot men im mekhabed geven mit an alIye. Nokhn davenen,
hot men farufn an asIfe fun a kIbets yidn, vu er hot dertseylt vi bay im
afn kibUts iz amol forgekumen an aseyfA vu men hot arumgeredt dem inyen
aliyA.

b) Both of the above from the particular "mixture" of Hebrew and Yiddish
which characterized the so-called "scribal language" (Uriel Weinreich
"_Nusach Hasofrim_, _Leshoneynu_??):

_ad hakhoyv haze batsolt vert_

c) All of the above from the process of citing Hebrew in a Yiddish
context:  Er hot gezogt "Im eyn ani li, mi li".

Whatever the degree of openness which we believe in/or wish for (ideology
is not an irrelevant factor), the facts on the ground suggest the
operation of a number of constraints. See, for example, Uriel Weinreich's
"Ashkenazic Hebrew and the Hebrew Element in Yiddish: Their Geographic
Aspect," (in Hebrew): _Leshonenu_ xxiv (1959-60): 242-252; xxv (1960-61):
57-80, 180- 196.

All the evidence points to an unpredictable diversity in the occurrence,
phonology, grammatical form, meaning, and stylistic function of Hebrew
and Aramaic words in Yiddish. Their geographic variability, IN YIDDISH,
conforms to common distributional patterns, determined by geographic not
etymological factors, and not by "learnedness". Whatever the scope of an
individual's learning, the _loshn-koydesh_ component of his Yiddish is
strongly determined by regional factors.

All of which still leaves an interesting problem to be investigated: the
folk conception of what, in different regions, constitutes a Yiddish,
Hebrew, German, or Slavic word. Any takers?

Mikhl Herzog

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 5.043

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