Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 90 October 22, 1991 1) Soups (Yankel Kessler) 2) Hayratn (Aren Abramson) 3) Yiddish phrase needed (David Sherman) 4) Nunt and other things (Sheldon Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Oct 91 10:39 PDT From: KESSLER Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.89 Yowkh in my family, from Bessarabia, was congealed or jellied soup, such as the jelly of gefilte fish, or even cold chicken soup if jellied, or consomme. fis hyukh, then. Yankele K 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Oct 91 16:47:56 EST From: Aren Abramson Subject: hayratn For the sake of sholem bayis, let me add to the matter of the word for 'marry.' The Yiddish word and its cognates in modern Germanic languages, e.g., die Heirat 'marriage' in Standard German, are reconstructed as coming from two proto-Germanic roots: hiw (the i is long) 'household' and rad (long a) 'rule, advise.' These roots in turn come from proto-Indo-European. This would seem to rule out a Semitic origin. If I may say so, Mikhl Herzog's cautionary statement about hypotheses of genetic relations between languages is well taken. Folk etymologies can be fun, but they commonly rest on no supporting data. Aren 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Oct 91 14:33:20 EDT From: dave@lsuc.on.CA Subject: leaves turning? We were out for a drive in southern Ontario yesterday, and wanted to point out the leaves turning (changing colour) to the kids. What's the right verb? Somehow "dreyen zikh" and "endern zikh" don't seem right, though Simone likes "endern zikh". I came up with "bafarbn zikh", which Simone doesn't like. "Vern royt un gel"? Help! (before they all fall off and it doesn't matter:-) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Oct 91 00:01:01 EDT From: sbenj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.88 Regarding "nunt"------- My Byelorussian Bubbe (who called petsha "petshA" by the way) used to make what sounds like a version of nunt that she called "ingberlakh" because while the nuts were in the boiling honey-molasses mixture, copious quantities of ginger were added to the honey. After cooling the ingberlakh were pressed into flattened sheets, perhaps 1/4 inch thick and cut into rectangles. Ooh...do I miss those ingerlakh! By the way, with Rosh HaShanah just having come and gone, the varieties of Teyglakh experience may still be on our minds--ingberlakh naturally bring teyglakh to mind. My wife and I differ on our teyglakh preferences.... she favors large single teyglakh with dried fruit hidden inside, the whole mess in a soup of honey. I favor smaller teyglakh that are pressed together with nuts and coconut into a mass that can be picked up and consumed without permanently gluing one's beard together. And finally, what about exploring the many varieties of holiday challot? The same Byelorussian grandmother would prepare a kitke with praying hands to eat before the fast, a kitke with a bird's head for tthe break fast and a challah shaped like a ladder for the break fast on some occasions. The bird was to fly our prayers to heaven and the ladder for the angels to ascend (again with our prayers). I'd be interested in hearing the types of challot that were found in other areas of Europe. This whole discussion makes me hungry--it's off to the kitchen for me..... ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.90