Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 83 October 9, 1991 1) Greens (Ellen Prince) 2) Galla (Harry Katz) 3) Galician Yiddish (Bob Goldberg) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 11:01:55 -0400 From: Ellen Prince Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.82 to mikhl herzog: >To Ellen Prince: A propos of "singulars:a shtikl lete (as >opposed to 'lettuce'... lettuce? it's kosher? go know. the only green thing we ate was pickles. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 11:17:30 -0400 From: harry@nonvax.alf.dec.COM Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.82 : Kholodets etc. Bob Rothstein writes: Polish _galarEta- (from MHG _galhart_; contemporary German _Gallerte_) can refer to jellied meat, fish or fruit. This reminds me that my mother, who is from Poland, used to make a dish called "gallah," (rhymes with khallah) which is calf's foot jelly. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 15:57:59 PDT From: xidak!poseidon!bob@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Vowel differences for Galitsianer pronunciation It took me a while to reconcile Yiddish spelling with bobe's and zeyde's pronunciation in galitsianer yiddish, as well as the so-called "sepharidishe" Hebrew davening. Here are the differences I have observed, all in vowels: YIVO Vowel Standard (litvish) Galitsianer ---- ----- ------------------ -------------------- a patakh-aleph English short a same o kometz-aleph "aw" as in law "oo" as in pool (and kometz is pronounced "koometz") y/i yud between short i and long E same e ayin "e" as in led same ey yud-yud English long A varies: long A or I ay yud-yud-patakh English long I varies: long A or I u vov "oo" as in pool i or ee oy vov-yud "oy" as in oy vey same Thus, in Galitsianer, "nokh a mol" is pronounced "nukh a mul" (using YIVO transliteration). Similarly, "du bist do" (you are here) is pronouced "di bist du". I have heard the Galitsianer pronunciation in Hebrew refered to as "davenen sephardish". An example is "burikh atu" instead of "borukh ato", and "v'imeri umayn" instead of "v'imeru omeyn". If you want to hear a native speaker do this, listen to the rabbi in the final scene of the movie, "A Fiddler On The Roof", in which he is chanting the kaddish, and you'll hear "v'imeri umayn". Perhaps due to the effects of Litvish assimilation on my grandparents' pronunciations, I find no consistency in differences between yud-yud and yud-yud-patakh variations. If I consistently pronouce a patakh-less yud-yud as either ey or ay, it does not match the way they spoke, and the standard spelling seems to match most of the time. The New York Yiddish dailies never used a yud-yud-patakh, which I conjecture is due to the many differences in pronunciation of those vowels by readers. Thus, you can hear (using the YIVO vowels) at least three of the following: fleysh mit beyner fleysh mit bayner flaysh mit beyner flaysh mit bayner Another difference in pronunciation that I have noticed is an interchange of "oy" and the Hebrew long O "oh", as in the following: Standard Yiddish My Grandparents ---------------- --------------- moyl (mouth) mohel (rhymes with "coal") mohel (circumcisor) moyl boykh (belly) bohekh ("oh" is long O, and two syllables) Again, I have heard this combined with the other Galitsianer changes in Hebrew prayer, as "ho-ohlam" coming out as "hu-oylem". These are personal observations, and I'd appreciate a pointer to a reference that codifies these differences. ... Bob ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.83