Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.136 December 12, 1996 1) Spider webs (Bob Rothstein) 2) Wallach (Bob Rothstein) 3) Wallach / Vayishkukhayhi (Eliyahu Juni) 4) Hermetic isolation (Bob Rothstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 00:18:43 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Spider webs In response to the two inquiries about spider webs: Bernard Gershen's _povitinya_ (6.130) is presumably from Ukrainian _pavutynnia_, a collective noun meaning 'spiderwebs'. (A single web is _pavutyna_). Moishe Kijak's _pantchene_ (6.132) may be a shortening of Polish _pajeczyna_ (with a tail on the _e_), pronounced [payenchina]. Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 00:18:43 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Wallach I'm not sure what Zev Kesselman's Romanian-Jewish friend meant by "Wallach" (6.125)--although I can guess at things like 'vagabond', 'good-for-nothing' etc.--but the term has a long and complicated history. There is a Balkan nationality or ethnic group known as Vlachs (in Albania, former Yugoslavia, etc.) or Aromanians, who speak a Romance language or dialect related to Romanian. They are/were traditionally migrant shepherds in the Carpathian region. The Slavic name _vlach_/_vloch_/_voloch_ etc. probably comes from a Germanic term meaning 'stranger, foreigner', which in turn comes from the name of the most powerful Celtic tribe in Central Europe, which was known in Latin as the Volcae. The term was applied by the ancient Slavs to all their Romance-speaking neighbors, whence also contemporary Polish _Wloch_ [with barred _l_] and Hungarian _olasz_ for 'an Italian'. The Celtic name is also the ultimate source for the name Wallachia (the Romanian province), and apparently for Wales/Welsh and Walloon as well. Among the Slavs the ethnonym gave rise to the terms for a gelding and for the operation (cited by Jota Piasecki, 6.128). In Czech _valach_ is used to refer to a lazy person; the etymologist Vaclav Machek attributes that either to the reputation of shepherds or to the sluggishness of geldings. Bob Rothstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 01:45:07 -0500 From: e.juni@utoronto.ca Subject: Wallach / Vayishkukhayhi [Zet: vol. 6.125, 6.128] Antshuldikt mir vus ikh hayb un mit di teme nukh vos ale hob'n's shoyn fargesn, ober ikh hog'halt'n in sof semester, in ikh bin geveyn zayer farnimen; ober khanike iz fort nokh nisht g'endikt, in m'halt nokh nisht ba mikaytz. Der vallekh, in di girse vus is bay mir bakant, hayst "Voytik." Maan tate maynt az s'iz a "ployni" far poylishe, dus hayst a numen far yeyder go, azoy vi "fonye-ganef" (lav dafke a bavuster rushe). S'iz ayner fun di "schmaltzy" vertlakh vus yeyder hert in besmedresh (khotsh in tayl butei-midrushim), in er maynt az dert vert'l iz khotsh hindert-fiftsik yur alt. (S'du owkh a girse, "velkhe yid shpilt kvitlakh khanike, hiist vinter". S'hot nisht ts'tin mit deym Voytik, ober efsher hobn menshtn mer moyre fin hiisn vi fin haysn Voytik.) Der groyser tsimes veygn kvitlakh-shpiln hot zikh nokh nisht g'endikt: Nokh hant in yeshives (nisht nor bay khsiidishe) vurent min di bukherim far khanike, ze zoln nisht shpiln kvitlakh, az s'iz a geferlekhe zakh. Ober ikh mayn az a sakh bukherim voln nisht g'vist in nisht g'hert fin kvitlakh akhits di strashen--der tsimes iz greser vi der shpilakhts. Nor ayn muel hob ikh gezeyn kvitlakh in yeshive, ober hern hob ikh gehert fin ze guer a sakh. Heyoys ikh bin shpeyt g'kimn ts'Vayayshev, geb ikh aykh iber nokh ayner fin di haymishe "schmaltzy" verter, l'kuved parshas Vayigash: VaYiGaSH iz rushe-tayves "Vuv [d.h. Eyrev Shabes] Yihye Gimel SHvat", in tsirik: "SHeyleg Gudel Yihye V'kor." Eliyahu Juni 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 00:18:43 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Hermetic isolation Michael Steinlauf stated the case against any notion of the "hermetic isolation" of Eastern European Jews very eloquently (6.128). I would add one additional example from folklore. Among the various macaronic songs (_mishshprakhike lider_) found in the Yiddish folksong tradition, there is one in which the Slavic component, which is in most examples Polish or Ukrainian, is Slovak. The song is about the birth and naming of the prophet Samuel, but its text is clearly modeled on a Christmas song about the birth and naming of Jesus. The song is thus both linguistically and culturally macaronic. While one could conceive of an East European Jew "overhearing" a Slavic melody "at a distance" and appropriating it for Jewish use or borrowing Slavic words learned through superficial contacts, this Slovak-Yiddish song suggests a more intimate knowledge of Slavic culture, and religious culture at that! And recall that the Christian model was adapted to Jewish religious purposes, so that the author was presumably not an outsider to the traditional Jewish community. Bob Rothstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.136 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.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 ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. Mendele archives can also be reached as follows: via WWW: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mewais.html via gopher: gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele via ftp: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele