Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.138 March 26, 1999 1) Hoyfn un Khoyfen (Ruben Frankenstein) 2) alkes (Paula Teitelbaum) 3) alkes shney (Ruben Frankenstein) 4) Vegn "alkes" (moyshe kijak) 5) alkes (Irv Young) 6) alkes (Fay Berger) 7) nitl (Marc Sacks) 8) Norman Salsitz's "Against All Odds." (Arn Abramson) 9) Paris and Vienna (Joachim Neugroschel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 13:28:37 -0500 (EST) From: frankens@uni-freiburg.de Subject: Hoyfn un Khoyfen Sholem Berger fregt nokh Hoyfn un Khoyfen. Beyde heissn - a hantful. "Hoyfn" kumt fun daytsh "Haufen", wos iz agentlekh ojf english: a heap, a pile, ober wet banitst azoy vi dos hebreishe "khofen", wos iz akkurat - "a hantful" (a handful). Ruben Frankenstein, Freiburg 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 07:30:03 -0500 (EST) From: PTAW85@aol.com Subject: alkes Al Grand asked about _alkes_: There is a slavic word "galkes" which is probably the origin of this word. It means little spheres, or balls. Paula Teitelbaum 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 13:06:19 -0500 (EST) From: frankens@uni-freiburg.de Subject: alkes shney Al Grand fregt wos iz di etimologie fun "alkes shney". "Alke" oder "Halke" iz ojf bjelorussish un ukrainish a knejdl fun tseribene kartofel farmisht mit mel. Un azoj macht men fun shney ojch a shney-ball. Ruben Frankenstein, Freiburg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:43:39 -0500 (EST) From: "Gustavo Kijak" Subject: Vegn "alkes" tayere fraynt, der khaver Al Grand fregt zikh nokh vegn "shney alkes" vos vert gebrakht inem tekst vi a sinonim funem oysdruk "shneykoyln"("snowballs"). dos vort "alke" (amol geshribn "halke") iz a kneydl fun tseribene kartofl, farmisht mit mel. men ken dos vort gefinen inem groisn verterbukh, band III, zayt 1395. es farshteyt zikh az alke vert genutst oyf a figugativn oyfn, glaykh vi dos vort kneydl, anshtot koyl, granat oder bombe. zayt ale gezunt, ayer fraynt fun argentine, moyshe kijak 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 18:30:07 -0500 (EST) From: YOU2IG@aol.com Subject: alkes If Al Grand had read the term "halke" instead of "alke" its meaning would have been immediately obvious. In soup or elsewhere a "halke" is recognizable as a ball of something- be it meat or matzoh meal or in the case at hand snow. Oh for the tam of some of Bubbe's halkes! Irv Young Isles of Capri, FL 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 21:12:37 -0500 (EST) From: JuniperViv@aol.com Subject: alkes Dear Mendele, This is in response to Al Grand who asks about "alke."My knowledge of "alke" is that it is food. It is similar to a "Knaidel" (matzo ball). My mother A"H made a mixture similar to a "Knaidel" recipe and put it in the "cholent" and called it an "alke." Perhaps the author was alluding to the "alke"-"Knaidel" being as light as snow. Fay Berger 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 10:24:04 -0500 (EST) From: Marc Sacks Subject: nitl Some time back,there was a posting on Yiddish words with no Hebrew equivalents. One of these was "nitl." The posted defined it as "the custom of not studying Torah on Christmas." As I had never heard of this custom, I asked about it on mail.jewish, a halachic and Orthodox mailing list. Every respondent agreed that the word simply meant "Christmas," not the aforementioned custom. The word derives from "natal," birth, ultimately from the Latin "dies natalis," or birthday (referring, of course, to you-know-whose). Christmas Eve is "nitlnacht." Marc Sacks 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 13:32:35 -0500 (EST) From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: Norman Salsitz's "Against All Odds." In Mendele Vol 08.135 Norma Breuer asks, among other things, about Norman Salsitz's "Against All Odds." I don't remember the original posting that stimulated her query, but she seems to be under the impression that it is a new book. Here is the bibliographic information: Salsitz, Norman & Salsits, Amalie Petranker (1990). New York: Holocaust Library. $24.95. Here is the address of the Holocaust Library: 216 West 19th Street New York, NY 10011, U.S.A. Telephone: (212) 463-7988 Arn Abramson Mansfield, Connecticut 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 11:17:58 -0500 (EST) From: ACHIM1 Subject: Paris and Vienna If you wanna read a fabulously entertaining book, get hold of the recent edition of PARIS AND VIENNA, a wild sixteenth-century Yiddish epic probably by our very own Elia Levita, who brought us the BOVE-BUKH. I haven't seen the Israeli edition of PARIS AND VIENNA, but the (overpriced) German edition is wonderful. It contains the entire text (in German romanization) plus a 130-page intro by Erika Timm, who provides rich data and provocative analyses. You must, alas, know Middle High German to fully appreciate the fun and frolic of PARIS AND VIENNA--unless you already know medieval Yiddish. But it's worth the trouble! The scholarship is very thorough and the epic itself is the best teen-age romance since Mary got a visit from the Holy Ghost. Let's give it up for PARIS and his lady-love VIENNA! May all our lives be as adventurous and romantic!!!! Joachim Neugroschel ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.138 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://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html