Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 84 October 9, 1991 1) Hebrew, Yiddish and German (Bob Goldberg) 2) Yiddish diminutives (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Singulars, diminutives, ironies and food (Hershel Bershady) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 16:22:03 PDT From: xidak!poseidon!bob@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Hebrew => Yiddish => Modern German My wife's 2nd cousin, who was born in Berlin and now lives in Israel, told me about some Hebrew words that became modern German, by way of Yiddish. This fascinates me and I'd like to know of more examples. Here are the two he gave me: Modern German Hebrew ---------------------- ------------------------------ 1. heiraten (to marry) haray-at (first 2 words of marriage vows) (pronounced "hayrat" in Yiddish, YIVO ay) 2. lashe (tongue of shoe) loshen (tongue, as in mame-loshen) To those Jews who consider Yiddish a "bastardized" German, I say: "ha"! ... Bob 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Oct 91 00:20 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.81 There forms of the Yiddish -l- and -lex diminutives are obviously of Germanic origin. Their productivization is probably due to Slavic influence. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 09 Oct 91 09:25:41 EST From: "Dr. Harold Bershady" Subject: SINGULARS, DIMINUTIVES, IRONIES, FOOD I've heard one woman refer to another's new fur coat as "a shtikl mink!." I doubt this meant "a piece of mink," more likely, "SOME mink," or "a hell of a mink." The diminutive here is, I think, used ironically. On food, a topic we could likely write on forever, my mother used to make something she called "foileh pumpershkes." It was a very condensed, small muffin, baked with raisins and sour cream (the foileh part), the sour cream, as it were forming a glaze on top. To my adult eyes and memory it looked like an Easter bun, and its' design may have emulated the goyische pastry. Does anyone know what this is? Better yet, does anyone have the recipe? (They are, of course, delicious, but more than one will keep you anchored for a bit). Has anyone mentioned "tzimmes"? -- another word with wonderful metaphorical properties. "Gogle-mogle"? Eva Hoffman, in "Lost in Translation," has a description. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.84