Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 122 December 4, 1991 1) A matone (Victor Bers) 2) Bavarian and Yiddish (David Sherman) 3) Negative concord in Bavarian (Beatrice Santorini) 4) Oy iz dos a rebbetsin (Sholem Ruveyn Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 03 Dec 91 22:59 EDT From: VBERS@YALEVM.BITNET Subject: A capriz ~ | ~ ~ ~ ~ | | | || | | | | ------|-------- _|_ "Alle teg in computers shpielen mir..." 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Dec 91 23:56:40 EST From: dave@lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.112 > From: Ellen Prince > to my knowledge, bavarian german is the only dialect of > german that has negative concord ('nicht kein'). There have been a couple of references recently to Bavarian German being similar to Yiddish. Can someone elaborate more on this? Several years ago we were visiting a provincial park and went for a bit of a hike with our (then) two kids. Some German-speaking tourists were nearby, and I listened to bits of their conversation. At one point, referring to our 3 year old having walked along some path we took, one of the ladies said "Das kleyne meydl hat's gemakht" (I'm transliterating into YIVO phonetics here). I was surprised at how that sounded more like Yiddish than German, and asked her why she said "kleyne" instead of "klayne", and why "meydl" instead of "Maedchen". She answered that they were from Munich and that was just how they spoke. Having studied "official" German for 5 years in high school and university, I'd never been aware of these dialect differences. Is Bavarian German similar to Yiddish because of accidental parallel development, or did the "original" Yiddish of 800 years ago develop in that part of Germany, and begin its life as Bavarian German + Hebrew-religious vocabulary, written down in the one alephbais that the people knew? 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Dec 91 22:04:03 CST From: beatrice@lex.ling.nwu.edu Subject: negative concord i have been following the recent discussion of negative concord in yiddish with great interest. since ellen prince mentioned that bavarian has negative concord as well, i thought it would be interesting to see if there were any differences between bavarian and yiddish. below are some data that a bavarian linguist colleague has kindly supplied. the asterisk stands for an impossible sentence. in bavarian, apparently there is a big difference between negative expressions that are "bare" expressions like "koana" (no-one) and ones that modify a noun. the bare negative expressions can't appear together with "ned" (not), whereas the modified negative expressions can (though they don't have to). this is different from yiddish, right? (1) Wea is'n kumma? who is then come 'so who came?' Answer: 'no-one' a. Koa Mensch ned (no person not) b. Koa Mensch (no person) c. Koa oanziga ned (no single-one not) d. Koa oanziga (no single-one) e. *Koana ned (*no-one not) f. Koana (no-one) (2) Wos host'n kafft? what have-you then bought? 'so what did you buy?' Answer: 'nothing' a. Nix (nothing) b. *Nix ned (*nothing not) c. Nix G'scheids (nothing intelligent (= worthwhile)) d. Nix G'scheids NED (nothing intelligent NOT) for some reaons, (d) is only ok if "ned" is stressed (3) Wann werds in Noaweng finsta? when becomes-it in Norway dark 'when does it get dark in Norway' Answer: 'never' a. Nia (never) b. *Nia ned (*never not) (4) Wia oft bist'n scho z'Italien gween? how often are-you then already to italy been 'so how have you been in italy?' Answer: never a. No nia (still never, i.e. never) b. *No nia ned (*still never not) c. Koa oanzigs Mai (no single time) i don't know about (d); bayer apparently forgot this sentence. i assume it is fine, but have sent him a message asking him. d. Koa oanzigs Mai ned (no single time not) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 04 Dec 91 01:27:20 EST From: sbenj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: RE: Oy iz dos a rebetsn Professor Rothstein has beaten me to the punch. We used to sing this one in our family as well. I have the exact same version by Adolph King. Sholem Ruveyn (Sheldon Benjamin) ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.122