Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 65 September 25, 1991 1) 'Kloks': emendation (Aren Abramson) 2) 'Kloks': further emendation (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Sep 91 09:44:48 EST From: Aren Abramson Subject: RE: Mendele Vol1.62 Apologies to Dave Sherman. My entry /a kloks af kelombes/ seems to have been a mistake. I remembered hearing a childhood friend of mine in my native village in New Jersey say it often. He said he had learned it from his grandmother who never said it in front of me. Last night I looked up /kloks/ in both Harkavy and Weinreich and couldn't find it, nor does there seem to be a cognate in German. I think there was an error in transmission somewhere along the line. It should probably be /a klole af (oyf) kelombes/ 'a curse upon Columbus.' It meant,"Accursed be Columbus for discovering America where I have had so much trouble." Maybe it was unique to the grandmother of my friend Morgan Davis! I assumed it was a widespread expression. Aren (Arthur) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Sep 91 From: nmiller@trincc Subject: A kloks Since the opportunity to correct my learned friend Aren Abramson comes once in a decade, I can't resist this one: 'kloks' is almost certainly a mishearing of 'a klog tsu' and the full quote means 'damn that Columbus!'. But since we're discussing the possible relation between gender and language, it seems to me that _this_ kind of cussing is quite general among men and women. Women are more likely than men to bless and curse. (I speak of course of the Yiddish world.) A story of Mendele's (Khag Haasif: A Yontif fun Zamlen) bears this out in a negative way by presenting us with a loser sh'b'losers, Reb Yankev Pinkhes, who in his rage _does_ curse in every other sentence. I wonder if readers can suggest any other examples from Yiddish literature of such men. Derogatory characterizations are another story. For a man to call another a beheyme or a shoyte Yisroel is common enough. My zeyde came to America in 1926. In Shpikov boys didn't play ball in the street; in our American shtetl they did. So when one of those (thank God) soft rubber balls would hit a window, my zeyde would run out waving his cane and yelling: Banditen! Khaliganes! (and if really mad) Bol-she-vi-kes!! Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.65