Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 104 November 19, 1991 1) Nasalization (Aren Abramson) 2) Nasalization (Ruvn-Mendl Turkel) 3) Schwa endings (Melekh Viswanath) 4) Double negatives/positives (Hershel Bershady) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Nov 91 09:52:04 EST From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.101 On the subject of nasality as represented by the letter 'ayin, I remember that as a student of Uriel Weinreich I read on article by him on the subject, but I can't find the reference without going to more trouble than I have the time for. Ssurely Mikhl knows the paper. I would like to add a phonetic note to the discussion. The nasality in the relevant Yiddish dialects may appear not only as an akveolar or vellar nasal consonant but also as a nasal vowel. Thus a colleague on my campus always pronounces /mayse/ 'story' with a nasalized diphthong. Aren 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Nov 91 19:11:10 EST From: rmt51@cas.bitnet Subject: RE: Maynse (Mendele Vol 1.101) I seem to remember reading somewhere that nasals in those Indo-European languages that have them are derived from Proto-Indo-European gutturals, which would represent a similar process acting on the Hebrew `ayin in Yiddish. I think the nasalization of a Hebrew aleph and he in similar environments is probably a formation by analogy with the `ayin. I have an older acquaintance who was born near Lublin, Poland, who nasalizes at least his alephs in this way. Rick (Ruvn-Mendl) Turkel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1991 16:19 EDT From: VISWANATH@DRACO.BITNET Subject: Schwa endings Ellen Prince writes: for some reason which escapes me (but which i'm sure mikhl herzog knows), a bunch of schwa endings become /i/ in american (not just boston) yiddish--khali, bobi/bubi, zeydi, i think suki (the thing you sit in on sukes), feygi (the girl's name), maki (plague), pulki (especially for the human thigh, for some reason--in my house at least, the drumstick on a fowl was always pulke)...--but not shmate (*shmati), tante (*tanti), tshatshke (*tshatshki) (but maybe tsatski, meaning 'bimbo'?), tate (*tati), moyshe (*moyshi), shikse (*shiksi)... what's the story, mikhl? (or anyone else who knows!) I observe that almost none of the words that undergo the schwa > /i/ transformation have a xxxccv (c=consonant, v=vowel) structure, whereas shikse and tshatshke do. According to this rule, pulke shouldn't become pulki, but don't l and r have quasi-vowel status? Also, shmate should become shmati, by this rule. So maybe a modified rule: If the word is cvcschwa, it becomes cvci. Now that I read my hypothesis, it occurs to me that I may have no degrees of freedom left to test it! (on the other hand, bobe, chmare, late, kale, etc.) In any case, I don't understand why ellen has an asterisk before moyshi and tati: I constantly hear them pronounced thus. melekh 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Nov 91 08:58:31 EST From: "Dr. Harold Bershady" Subject: Double negatives/positives There's an old joke that in Yiddish the double positive -- "Yah, yah" -- is a negative (of course inflection is all). However, as a friend pointed out to me in Yiddish there are "double negatives" that do not mean a "positive," as would be the case in English. E.g."Ich hob nisht kein gelt" (a refrain often heard). Is there a true double negative here? If so, why doesn't the logical rule apply in Yiddish as it does in English? This is a minor conundrum for me, which doesn't interfere with comprehension, yet I'd appreciate a solution. Apropos of inflection, doesn't "Bubbi" also mean something like "dear," or "sweet" -- which one's Bubbeh often is, but is not often called? --Hershel ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.104