Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.068 July 26, 1995 1) Yiddish words for Christmas (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_ (Zellig Bach) 3) Simcha bunim; gebrokhts (Barry Walfish) 4) Shepn/shlepn nakhes (Neyekh Zide) 5) Rashi vs The Rambam (Neil Jacobs) 6) Lakhn mit yashtsherkes (Zavi Beer) 7) Yiddish and the British (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 16:34 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Yiddish words for Christmas 1. Back in January-February several people were good enogh to reply to a question concerning _blinde nakht_, one of a number of Yiddish words for Christmas. I have a record of replies from Bob Rothstein and Eli Katz, but I've lost track of a reply from a third person who pointed out the similarity in the (Belorusian? Ukrainian?) words _sviat_ 'holy' and _sviet_ 'light'. Will that person be good enough to identify him/herself? 2. In the same context, can someone identify the origin of the word _drishtsOne_? Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 00:37:59 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_ In his erudite essay , Mikhl Herzog wrote: In his erudite essay, "Origins of Yiddish" (5.065), Mikhl Herzog writes that the prospect of publishing a translation of the remaining two volumes of of Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_ "is very slim indeed". I have good news for Mikhl Herzog, the Mendele khavruse, and all lovers of Yiddish: Contrary to Mikhl's pessimistic view, I am happy to state that the necessary funds for this specific purpose have finally been secured. As a matter of fact the preparatory work for this publication will start in New York within the next few weeks, and Dr. Jeffrey Shandler, a very competent researcher, has already been engaged as an initial step in this undertaking. Much spade work is still to be done, however, for instance, renumbering paragraphs and notes to correspond with the original Nos. in the first two volumes. Also some style editing. The English translation of the first two volumes was done by Dr. Shlomo Noble with the assistance of Dr. Joshua A. Fishman. The last two volumes were translated by the late Dr. Noble alone. It is hoped that Dr. Fishman (who now lives in Palo Alto, California) will be able to lend a hand in finalizing the last stages of preparing the second part of Weinreich's magnum opus for publication. It is also hoped that Dr. Bella Haas Weinberg will again do the indexing of the current translation as the excellent and admirable index she did of the translation of the first two volumes. Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 10:29:22 EST From: walfish@vax.library.utoronto.ca Subject: Simcha bunim; gebrokhts In response to Helen Abeles' queries: Bunim sounds like the Yiddish (Ashkenazic) pronunciation of the Hebrew banim (sons). The juxtaposition of Simchah and Bunim may derive from the verse in Psalms (end of first chapter of the Hallel): moshivi akeret ha-bayit em ha-banim semekhah halleluyah. [this is just a guess and may be entirely wrong] Re gebrokhts: is this possibly a form of gebroks, the term used for crumbled matzah, which is forbidden by strictly observant Jews to be put in soup on the first nights of Peysakh for fear that it might ferment? Barry Walfish Toronto 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 14:23:17 -0500 From: n-zide@uchicago.edu Subject: Shepn/shlepn nakhes I think Dovid Braun's strong puristic views [5.055] (that shlepn nakhes can not be correct in any decent (adult) dialect of Yiddish () can be questioned - from the data sent in by Mendelniks (my own - far from authoritative - experience: I have heard - and seen - nothing but shepn). A possible analogous example from English: when I was a child dragonflies were called 'dining needles'. 'Dining' obviously 'doesn't make sense'; the word should be - and I was, years later, instructed that it was 'darning needle'. Both 'dine' and darn' (like shlepn and shepn) occurred in that dialect, 'darn' somewhat semantically leeched. The question is - I don't know the answer - whether 'dining needle' was strictly a child's form, and related to this (and more interesting) what correlation is there, if any, between literacy and an (acceptable) real adult dialect of Yiddish. Are there - or were there - 'illiterate dialects' (not illiterate speakers) of Yiddish,these dialects being (somewhat) isolated from other dialects ? What are the limits on the dimensions (demographic/geographic/sociolinguistic) of an 'acceptable' dialect ? If the 'dining needle' example is flawed (in that 'dining needle was used only by children) I think unflawed examples can be adduced. I can't think of one now. Neyekh Zide 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 16:39:30 -0400 (EDT) From: njacobs@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Rashi vs The Rambam In response to Michael Shimshoni's note [5.063] about the presence of "the" with The Rambam, but its absence in Rashi: I think that names can get canonized in one way or another in certain (sociolinguistic?) circles. I am 3rd/4th generation Los Angeles. All the freeways get a "the": To get to UCLA from parts of Orange County, you take "the 5 to the 10 over to the 405." In Columbus, this same LA-speaker gives local directions: "You take 70 to 270 to 315..." When in Columbus, however, and referring to the LA freeways, I'll still always use the "the". Similarly, the presence/absence in: Smokey _the_ Bear or Billy _the_ Kid vs. Peter Rabbit, Donald Duck, Porky Pig. Note that it doesn't seem to be phonological, i.e., one-syllable versus polysyllabic "Last Name": Porky Pig vs. Winnie The Pooh. There do seem to be "classes" of individuals which require the "the", like Kings: "Peter the Great", "Ivan the Terrible", etc. However, with cartoon characters it can go either way, as seen with Porky Pig, Mickey Mouse vs. Winnie The Pooh, Felix The Cat. My intuition is that when referring to Babe Ruth, people (in the 1920s/1930s) said: "The Babe", whereas while addressing him, the said "Babe..." (cf., lehavdl, Yiddish "di bobe" 'grandmother', a noun, vs. "Bobe"-- the proper name 'Grandma', or reference-form for TV's "The Fonz" vs. direct address: "Fonzie"). Neil Jacobs 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 15:40:21 +0000 From: szbeer@mailbox.syr.edu Subject: Lakhn mit yashtsherkes Could it be that "yashtsherkes" is a play on words? "Tsherekes" are (painful?) boils and the curse "zolst hobn tsherekes ofn tukhes" was not to be taken lightly. To laugh through a plague of boils is to laugh with tears. It makes more sense to me than laughing through lizards. Zavi Beer 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Yiddish and the British Arn Abramson's post [5.067] about the BBC's wartime ban on Yiddish broadcasts prompts this reflection. What if they had permitted them? Can anyone on Mendele imagine a Yiddish newscast in the BBC tone of that period? Unlike today's badgering style which is a mixture of constipation, boredom and bloody-mindedness, the BBC news used to be aired by a team of undead Oxonians. How could a Yiddish broadcaster have sent out the news in 1939-45 vi im geyt es nisht on? Now if the BBC had had the good sense to hire Mr. Nathan Fleisher that would have been another story. Mr. Nathan Fleisher --the Mr. was never omitted-- was the editor of a Philadelphia Yiddish weekly as well as the authoritative source of news and commentary on one of the local Yiddish radio stations. His influence was immense. Once in the late 30's he said: "mayne fraynt, morgen iz Decoration Day [aka Memorial Day]. Hengt oys a fon." That was all it took. The Jewish neighborhoods of Philadelphia for years afterward were awash with flags. Many Jews, like my dear father, refused to take them down. There they flew, defying weather and custom, until they ceased to be flags. But Mr. Fleisher really came into his own during the war. He was to begin with an educated and intelligent man. More important, he had a rich deep baritone, and his broadcasts --they all began with "mayne fraynt"-- were delivered in the tone of a bone-weary man who had torn himself away from the Situation Room in the White House, where he and FDR and Churchill worked and slept, in order to bring meaning to the lives of the Jews of Philadelphia. It was that deep tired voice, I think, more than anything else. Maurice Schwartz had it too. When my bobe would hear the words "mayne fraynt" she would immediately begin to rock and mutter "oyveyzmir". Punkt vi s'iz bay ir gevorn tishebov. Mr. Fleisher would say: mayne frant, di Rusn hobn bafrayt Stalingrad. Oyveyzmir, answered my bobe. And she had it right! She understood that in the Yiddish world even good news is not so ay-ay-ay. So why should Perfidious Albion have bothered with Yiddish broadcasts? Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.068