Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.297 April 3, 1996 1) Mumps (Meyer-Leyb Wolf) 2) Tkhine nokh kapores shlogn (Leonard Prager) 3) Etymon of _mayne loshn_ (Leonard Prager) 4) Yiddish summer program in Paris (Delphine Bechtel) 5) Good news, bad news (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 02:28:05 -0500 From: wolfim@chelsea.ios.com Subject: Mumps Despite stale seder table jokes, Modern Hebrew khazeret 'mumps' is not as in horseradish -- their pointed spellings are different. The plant name goes back to the mishna; the illness perhaps only to the 18th century. Khazeret 'mumps' is constructed on a popular derivational pattern for illnesses -- its root is taken from khazer... Meyer-Leyb Wolf 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 Apr 96 23:23:14 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Tkhine nokh kapores shlogn Several thoughtful Mendelyaner have commented that "kapores shlogt men erev yonkiper batog," having understood the introductory line I quote (note bene: _quote_) as asserting that this ceremony is performed in the morning. The author of "Tkhine nokh kapores shlogn" saw fit to write an introductory sentence to guide her readers as to when to recite the prayer. The title alone indicates it is said _after_ the ceremony. The question is when does the ceremony of _shlogn kapores_ take place. The sentence in question is ambiguous: "Di tkhine zogt men erev yonkiper in der fri eyder men davent nokh kapore shlogn." This seems to mean 1) 'me shlogt kapores erev yonkiper in der fri', but it can also mean 2) one says the prayer in the morning of the day before yonkiper ( = yonkiper Eve), the day following the ceremony of _kapores shlogn_. There is apparently no universal uniformity as regards the timing of _kapore shlogn_. At my hand I have Simkhe Pyetrushke's _Yidishe folks-entsiklopedye_, where I read under _kapores_: " Mineg ba yidn tsu shlogn kapores. In der nakht far erev yonkiper oder a tog frier." Note that Pyetrushke says _night_. But what is night in some places to some people is perhaps just late afternoon elsewhere. In any evert, _morning_ is wrong, so we may have to just look at the author's syntax, since it is not conceivable she didn't know "ven me shlogt kapores." Leonard Prager 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 Apr 96 23:23:14 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Etymon of _mayne loshn_ Peter Kluehs suggests a German etymon meaning 'bad' (cognate to English _mean-) to explain why one of the transferred senses of Yiddish _mayne loshn_, namely "expletive', is apparently exclusive to Yiddish, the Hebrew cognate _maane lashon_ (as pronounced in Modern Hebrew) sharing all other meanings with Yiddish except this one. This fascinating explanation gives us a Yiddish word which derives from two different etyma with similar sound, by no means impossible. Any more ideas? Leonard Prager 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 03 Apr 1996 00:09:08 +0002 From: francois.boulanger@obspm.fr Subject: Yiddish summer program in Paris People who would like to request an information leaflet about the Yiddish summer program in Paris can now request it by e-mail The address is: niborski@ccr.jussieu.fr The best is to leave your postal address, you will receive all infor mation by mail You can also request the info by writing to: AEDCY (July 1996 seminar) PB 720 75163 Paris Cedex 04 France Delphine Bechtel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 03 Apr 1996 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Good news, bad news The good news, dear friends, is that it's peysekh. On behalf of the Mendelyaner who've sent greetings and from me as well, a freylikh yontef aykh ale. And may you miraculously avoid the annual 15-pound weight gain from all that gefrishte matse.. The bad news is that the Trinity machine is still in bad shape. If anything, it's slower. As a result I have to announce emergency measures. First, be assured that Mendele will _not_ be affected since it's edited offline. However, I won't be able to answer any of your letters. If your post doesn't appear, the reason is likely to be one of these: 1. As you know, Mendele asks that all posts be signed and that they have a _meaningful_ Subject: line (this is to help those who wish to search the Contents file). In the past I've sent boilerplate (recorded) messages to those who momentarily forgot. No longer. I'll continue to hold the post for a day or two. 2. A few posts arrive tacked on to an entire back issue of Mendele. This is a gross waste of resources, space, etc. These messages are deleted unread. 3. The post has nothing to do with Yiddish. 4. The material has already appeared. 5. The post is a personal message to another reader and of no interest to the list. All of this bothers me a lot more than it may bother you and I hope it won't last much longer. One of the main pleasures of doing Mendele, after all, is that of corresponding one-on-one with such rare friends. Mendele resumes on April 7. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.297