Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.307 April 22, 1996 1) Matzo brei (Marc Sacks) 2) Old Yiddish -s (Alexis Manaster Ramer) 3) _Mit Eyn Fus in Amerike_ (Leon Greenberg) 4) Mordkhe Schaechter on Ukrainian Yiddish (Ruvn Millman) 5) Bashevises nay bukh af yidish (Tsuguya Sasaki) 6) The Internet as a _gas_ for Yiddish (Morrie Feller) 7) Two more daytshmerisms (Zellig Bach) 8) _Dekarnose_ (Louis Fridhandler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 14:08:59 -0400 (EDT) From: msacks@world.std.com Subject: Matzo brei I wonder if anyone out there knows where the "brei" of "Matzo brei" comes from? I've heard speculation that it's from a root meaning "to scald," or perhaps related to German "braeu" (matzo brew? I don't know anyone who drinks the stuff). My kids have been calling it "matzo fry," which is eminently sensible. If anyone knows the origin of this word or can refer me to an old posting or FAQ on the subject, thanks very much. Marc Sacks 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 09:14:56 -0400 From: amr@cs.wayne.edu Subject: Old Yiddish -s As I recall Old Yiddish wrote shin rather than samekh for /s/. I am wondering if anybody knows of attestations of the plural ending -s being written this way. Please answer directly to amr@cs.wayne.edu rather than to the list. Thanks. Alexis Manaster Ramer 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 16:35:49 -0400 From: lng@math.umd.edu Subject: _Mit Eyn Fus in Amerike_ In the 1940s or 50s Yuri Suhl wrote a novel _mit eyn fus in amerike_ which appeared in serial form in di frayhayt. I have a copy of the English translation _One foot in America_ and its sequel _Cowboy on a wooden horse_. Does anyone know if these books exist in yiddish, and if so, where they might be obtained? a sheynem dank, Leon Greenberg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 23:40:28 -0400 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Mordkhe Schaechter on Ukrainian Yiddish At our next meeting, it is our priviledge to present a lecture by the prominent Yiddish scholar, Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter of Columbia University and League for Yiddish. He will speak (in Yiddish) on "Ukrainian Yiddish From the Time of Reb Nakhman of Broslev to the Present Day." It will take place on Sunday, May 5, 1996 at 1:00pm at the Sholem Aleykhem Cultural Center, 3301 Bainbridge Ave., Bronx NY. Telephone 718-231-1416. Refreshments will be served. Admission: $2.50/members and students: free. Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter Vegn Ukrainer Yidish: Mir farbeytn aykh af a gor interesanter lektsye fun dem bakantn Yidish-pedagog, forsher un redaktor Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter fun Kolombye-Universitet. Der bal-"Laytish-Mame-loshn" vet redn af der teme "Dos Yidish fun Ukraine fun Reb Nakhman Broslover biz Haynt." Dos vet forkumen in Sholem-Aleykhem-Kultur-Tsenter, zuntik, dem 5tn May, 1996. 1:00 bay tog. Kibed bay gedekte tishn. Arayngang: drit halbn dolar. Mitglider un studentn: umzist. Ruvn Millman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 21:53:25 +-900 From: tsuguya@gol.com Subject: Bashevises nay bukh af yidish Tayere libhobers funem yidishn vort, Ikh bin a "griner" do. Veys ikh nit, oyb emetser hot shoyn geshribn vegn Bashevises shpogl-nay bukh af yidish, vos ikh hob bakumen ersht itst. Ot azoy zaynen di protim: Yitskhok Bashevis-Zinger: Mayn tatns bezdin-shtub [hemsheykhim-zamlung], Yerusholaim, Farlag Magnes, 1996. Inhalt: Araynfir fun prof. Khone Shmeruk: Tsvishn oytobyografye un beletristik 1. Varshe 2. Bilgoray 3. Tsurik keyn Varshe Biblyografishe protim Glosar Agev, di biblyografishe protim fun der ershter zamlung zaynen: Yitskhok Bashevis-Zinger: Mayn tatns bezdn-shtub, Tel-Aviv, Farlag Perets, 1979. Tsuguya Sasaki 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 11:44:41 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: The Internet as a _gas_ for Yiddish I recently had a discussion with Abe Luski, who is one of the leaders of the Charlotte Yiddish Institute, about the future of the Yiddish language. He was not too optimistic, and he made the statement: " A loshn muz hobn a gas." After we parted, the thought occurred to me that the Internet might be considered to be a sort of _gas_ where Yiddishists can communicate with each other not only by e-mail, but also by using the "chat" capabilities to carry on a conversation in writing. And although this writing is now done mainly in transliteration, it has been demonstrated that genuine Yiddish print can also be transmitted. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that voice communication over the Internet is also feasible. So I see the possibilty of a real _gas_ developing in the not too distant future. I wonder what my fellow Mendelyaners think about all this. Morrie Feller Phoenix 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 22:26:27 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Two more daytshmerisms: "retn" and "yetst" In my recent post "Der daytshmerism 'als' " (5.301,5) I audaciously pointed out that in Leonard Prager's romanized reprint of Perets's editorial "Hebreyish un Yiddish" the word "heiligkeyt" should have been romanized _heyliket_ (with one /kuf/ and not with a double /kuf/) and that the daytshmerism "als" should have been replaced, in this instance, with the "kosher" Yiddish word "vi." Now, In his "tkhine leyoldes" post (5.301,1 of April 16, 1996) Prager asks for comments and, especially, for corrections of his romanized reprint of the Yiddish text of _thkhine_ _leyoldes_ [women's prayer for a pregnant woman]. Here, too, as in his reprint of Perets's article, LP placed in parentheses his spelling corrections to conform with the YIVO romanization, deleting so to speak, or omitting, the unnecessary /ayens/ and /heys/ from the then prevailing spelling (he did not indicate the year when this tkhine was printed), as well as other necessary corrections, such as hant, shlisl, iret vegn, undzere (instead of hand, shlisul, ihretvegen, unzere), and so on. It is my impression that, while most of his romanizations are appropriate, Prager missed to correct two daytshmerisms: In changing "reten" to read "retn" nothing much was helped since the verb "retn" is a daytshmerism. It is not listed in U. Weinreich's MEYYED. Instead we find there the nouns "retung" [rescue, salvation] and "reter" [savior], but both these words are marked with a heavy dot, indicating that it is doubtful whether they are admissible in standard Yiddish. The people's folksy word for this term is _rAteven_, and the cry for help in an emergency would haturally have been "Gevald Yidn, rAtevet!" All three words, the verb and both nouns, are found in Stutshkov's _Oytser_ (Group 446), but carry no wedge (Y. clin) to suggest their inadmissibility in SY. Is it possible that M. Weinreich, its editor, did not _pasl_ [reject] them as daytshmerisms? The other missed word for proper romanization is "yetst" (four times in the text). Similarly, the correction "yetstike" in place of "yetstige" is not much of a help. "Yetst" is listed in U. Weinreich with a wedge [clin], indicating inadmissibility in SY. "Yetst" is not listed at all in Harkavy who practically included uncritically every spoken word in Yiddish he heard. In Stutshkov's Index the word "yetst" has an arrow to "itst" (group 76). While it carries no wedge, the arrow itself serves as a warning that it is not recomended in SY (List of Abbreviation and Signs, p. LVI). The Yiddish word for the daytshmerism "yetst" is _itst_, the most widespread in use since the beginning of the 19th century. Prager wonders whether the expression in the tkhine "ploynis-_bas-_ ploynis" [Mrs so-and-so _daughter_ of so-and-so] might indicate a matrimonial identification. I do not think such an inference is warranted. The reference to the mother of the soon-to-be mother is but a strengthening of the supplication to the Almighty, a reminder if it were from years back: As in His rakhmones [mercy] He facilitated the delivery of her now pregnant daughter, may His continued rakhmones shine upon the countenance of the yoldes [pregnant woman] and may she deliver the baby _on tsar un on yesurim_ [without grief and without pain]. Zellig Bach 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 13:50:50 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: _Dekarnose_ A puzzlement: What does _dekarnose_ mean? First, a history: Sholem-Aleykhem's damski shnayder (women's tailor), Shimen-Elye Shema-Koleynu (Der Farkishefter Shnayder), is cowed by wife and the world. His struggle to hide his intellectual and other weaknesses is too frantic. Overreaching, he makes of himself a more pathetic fool than he really is. To impress and humiliate his relative, an unschooled tavern-keeper, he quotes for him (and mangles) ersatz Jewish wisdom. One repeated quotation resembles (I believe) mock Aramaic. This is it: askakurde debarbante defarshmakhte dekarnose (Ale Verk fun Sholem-Aleykhem, Folksfond Oysgabe XVI: 19 and 24). While each of the four words contains an element resonating with meaning (cockade, drum, languishing, snub-nosed) I thought it was mainly rhythmic gibberish in Yiddish orthography. This phrase, however, has echoes. Tevye, no fool he, says something quite similar in Hayntike Kinder: askakurde demaskante dekarnose defarsmakhte (Folksfond Oysgabe V: 69-70). The orthography is not modern Yiddish, but seems to imitate the Hebrew-Aramaic style. Tevye uses the phrase again in the 1915 play, Tevye der Milkhiker (Folksfond Oysgabe XXV: 177) but there most of the orthography is closer to modern Yiddish style. By the way, Leyzer-Volf the butcher in Hayntike Kinder employs a karnose yidine (a snub-nosed Jewish woman). I gave up puzzling over this, trying to find connections, until one word in letters larger and bolder than the surrounding letters jumped out at me from page 13 in an old makhzer: _dekarnose_ or _dekornusa_. It is spelled (without nekudes) daled kuf reysh nun vov samekh alef. This is exactly how it is spelled in Hayntike Kinder. Somebody suggested dekornusa might be a secret name for God. Why did Sholem-Aleykhem use it in such contexts? He was a complex man and could be a wily sender of a message to _insiders_. Any thoughts out there on dekarnose or dekornusa? Louis Fridhandler ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.307