Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.021 July 6, 1998 1) Modern usage of 'shvartser' (Rick Turkel) 2) muzlman, shvartse(r) (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 3) Use of the terms "Shvartzers" and "Galas" (Russ Goldberg) 4) Modern use of "shvartser" (Robert Shapiro) 5) Afrikan(er)-amerikaner (Zachary M. Baker) 6) shvartse(r) (Dovid Braun) 7) muzlman (Lucas Bruyn) 8) fendel and rondel (Bernard Gershen) 9) Yiddish via e-mail (Ronald Florence) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 11:49:57 -0400 (EDT) From: rturkel@cas.org (Rick Turkel, bs"d) Subject: Modern usage of 'shvartser' Mendele 08.019 had several responses to Dan Gilman's original query on this subject. However, no one addressed the issue from the point of view of the language in which the word is being used. My take on it is that in Yiddish the word "shvartze(r)" is neutral, and if it has any pejorative connotations these come from the context. However, the word is pejorative in the extreme when used in English, since a number of other, neutral English terms is available. Personally, I've never heard it used in English in a neutral context; even when used to refer to the cleaning woman, why not say "cleaning woman" instead of "shvartze" if no negative connotation is intended? The reply by Fred Sherman seems to corroborate at least the first part of my comment above. I believe that the view of Gilad J. Gevaryahu that - "The only true African-American people I know I [are?] my Jewish friends from Morocco and South Africa. This term for black people is somewhat misleading, and therefore probably with short shelf life" - smacks of wishful thinking. The word has been around among English speakers almost since Yiddish came to America, and unfortunately there will probably always be bigots among us who will continue to use the term despite all our wishes to the contrary. Zayt mir ale gezunt un shtark. Rick Turkel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 12:56:24 -0400 (EDT) From: yiddish1@juno.com (Feigl I Glaser) Subject: MUZLMAN, SHVARTSE/R Vyzt oys az in Poyln hot men gerufn a Muslem - MUZLMAN. In Lodzer geto hot men gerufn a mentshn " vos iz shoyn geven mit eyn fus in di breter", dos heyst an oysgedartn, oysgekvartn, kranken, vos hot gehaltn baym oysgeyn -- "Muzlman" (ts"b: " er zet shoyn oys vi a muzlman"). Ikh halt az dos iz efsher oykh geven derfar vos mir hobn nor gezen oyf fotografyes oysgetriknte, hungrike un koym zikh haltnsike oyf di fis mentshn fun der Muzlmenisher religye. Shvartse/r iz bifeyresh a baleydikndiker oysdruk. A khoyshekhdike/r iz geven a farshtelter oyfn fun zogn shvartze/r. Neger iz amol geven a batseykhndiker oysdruk far tunkele mentshn un in der yidisher literatur gefint men oft dos vort vi a pozitivn oysdruk , ober tsulib der enlekhkayttsu dem baleydikndikn Englishn vort "niger", prubirn mir oystsumaydn di shilderung. Afro-Amerikaner iz an umgelumpert vort. Vifl Amerikaner yidn voltn gevolt me zol zey batseykhenen vi Azyatn-Amerikaner? Mit beste grusn, Feygl Infeld Glezer 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 14:02:40 -0400 (EDT) From: Russell Goldberg Subject: Use of the terms "Shvartzers" and "Galas" I have read with interest the comments regarding the use of "Shvartze" to denote an Afro-American. Growing up in the southern United States in the 40's and early 50's, I can attest to the fact that the term was not always used in a neutral manner. There was a great deal of latent prejudice in the Jewish community; even while we were the focus of so much prejudice from the gentile community. Afro-Americans were referred to as Negroes when one did not want to be offensive, and "schvartzas" (with a long "ar," as in the word "are," if you want to duplicate the Southern American accent pronounciation). In the late 50's and early 60's, as consciousness rose and many of us worked to improve the conditions for Afro-Americans in the south, the term "shvartze" was used less in polite company (partly because the term WAS understood by Afro-Americans) - so the term "blue" was often substituted in place of "shvartze." Mexican-Americans were held in equal esteem (or lack thereof) in my part of the country, and I remember that the term "gala" (pronounced the same way as a big event, eg., a gala affair) was used for them. I haven't run into this term in other parts of the country, and I wonder if it might have just been a local annomoly. Has anyone heard of the term "gala" being used this way? Keep the discussion coming. It's really enjoyable. Russ Goldberg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 22:21:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Lodzher@aol.com Subject: Modern use of "shvartser" It seems to me that a lot of people who use the term "shvartser" as an English pejorative expression actually mispronounce it as "shva-tse". Is anyone else familiar with a conversational Yiddish tendency among native European Yiddish speakers to differentiate between "goyim" (i.e., white non- Jews) and "shvartses" (i.e., black African-Americans)? Growing up in Vineland, N.J., and Baltimore, MD, I have also heard the following colloquial Yiddish terms applied to American blacks: "grine" (i.e., green, a color); "bloye" (i.e., blue, a color); "khoyshekhdike" (from the Hebrew "darkness", thus equivalent literally to "darkies"; as well as "kushim" (Hebrew for "Ethiopians"). Robert Shapiro 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 12:46:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Zachary Baker Subject: Afrikan(er)-amerikaner My "inner ear" tells me that there's a syllable missing in "Afrikan-amerikaner." While I am definitely not an expert in Yiddish grammar, I have not encountered similar constructions referring to other racial or ethnic groups. Instead I have seen, e.g., "ItalyenER- amerikaner," the stem of the first word being "Italye." Someone of Italian origin is an "italyener" in Yiddish; I don't believe that the prefix "italyen" is grammatically permissible in Yiddish. In using a hyphenated construction for an ethnic group both nouns should be spelled out in full, e.g., Afrikaner-amerikaner. There are other ways of denoting ethnic groups -- the examples of "kanader frantsoyz" (or "kanadisher frantsoyz," both unhyphenated, by the way) and "Amerikaner/Amerikanisher yid" spring to mind -- but these presumably illustrate other grammatical principles. I hereby cede the floor to the trained grammarians in our midst. Zachary M. Baker 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 13:26:29 -0400 (EDT) From: David S Braun Subject: shvartse(r) Marc Caplan's writes: "Because I come to Yiddish by way of English, the word "shvartser" is irrevocably tainted for me by the racist connotations it has acquired in English. I think contemporary Yiddish speakers, especially in America, are kidding themselves if they consider the term, in 1998, neutral or objective." I disagree. Contemporary Yiddish speakers (and by that I mean those who do *not* come to Yiddish by way of English but who come from backgrounds where Yiddish is at least one of the languages of the home/neighborhood) have other words at their disposal to be non-neutral, non-objective when discussing blacks. While _shvartser_ is the colloquially used word for blacks, "code words" (used in Yiddish discourse in the presence of blacks so as not to offend blacks who may be familiar with the word _shvartse(r)_, or to talk about blacks in their presence, be the comment racist or of a personal nature) are _shkhoyrim, khoyshekhs, khoyshekhdike, tunkele_. None of these has any value judgment associated with it, as far as I intuit. They simply denote 'blacks' and connote that the utterance containing the word is being made in the presence of people for whose ears the utterance is not meant. I know of no word in Yiddish which is like the English _nigger_ (to my northeastern American ears, to which it is a "dirty word"). One would be kidding oneself, and one would be ethnocentric, to believe that English usages (even p.c. ones) are by definition objective and neutral and should therefore be imposed onto the speech of speakers of other languages. (And Marc doesn't say this. It's just my own editorial comment.) Dovid Braun Cambridge, Massachusetts 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 14:10:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Marion Troia Subject: muzlman Re: Muzlman: Found in: Dr L.de Jong, Het koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede=20 Wereldoorlog: Sufferers from the 'hunger-disease' had a lowered bodytemperature=20 (normally around 36 degrees C.), they were always feeling cold and=20 always stood together in a group, trying to to get some warmth from=20 each other, while rocking their bodies - because of this rocking they=20 were called the (praying) "Muslm=E4nner" by the others in the camps. Lucas Bruyn. 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 18:36:51 -0400 (EDT) From: gershen1@juno.com Subject: fendel and rondel I forwarded the posting concerning Guggle Muggle to my brother, and he reminded me of two words that our mother and aunts used. They are: fendel (fendle) and rondel (rondle). They were the words for frying pan, and sauce pot respectively. I may have transposed the words with my remembered definitions. My mother came from Bukovena, and my father (his sister) from Bessarabia. Does anyone know if these were words in general use, or only local? Many thanks, Bernard Gershen 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 06:17:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Ronald Florence Subject: Yiddish via e-mail Morris Feller described e-mail in Yiddish. An alternative method of sending Yiddish, which also owes a debt to Refoyl Finkl, is the script Yiddish, available at http://www.connix.com/~mlfarm/utiliities.html#yiddish which relies on tools available on most Unix machines and a very clever set of LaTeX macros and programs written by Refoyl Finkl. You write your message in transliterated Yiddish, your recipient saves the file, does `yiddish filename' and views your message in Yiddish on the screen or optionally can print it. The Yiddish script would certainly work on Linux and other variations of Unix, as well as most Unix workstations. I'm not sure whether it could be adapted for PCs running ms-windows or Macs. Ronald Florence Stonington, CT ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.021 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html