Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 162 February 4, 1992 1) Grayzn (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Ludic Yiddish (Yude-Leyb Proger) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 22:41 EST From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: Grayzn To Fishbane: Let's separate the two issues: i) the putative origin of grayz; ii) the origin of the expression "noyekh mit zibn grayzn". As for the latter, it had NOTHING to do with the possible origin of grayzn. The contention is merely that once grayz had come to mean 'mistake' (and, perhaps after the method of writing with krayzn had fallen into disuse) speakers interpreted "zibn krayzn" as "zibn grayzn". Not terribly unreasonable. As for the former "grayzn CANNOT come from . . ., etc." Doesn't, perhaps, but cannot? Why not? When I say things like that, I have to do penance. Try the following: a) Get hold of a copy of the Yehoyosh-Spivak "Yidish verterbukh" of Hebrew and Aramaic words in Yiddish (indispensible to the study of the language); b) Read through all the entries for a couple of letters; c) Classify the words in terms of the changes to which Yiddish subjects them, i.e., to the manner in which Yiddish neutralizes the grammatical constraints that prevail in the original languages; d) Change your mind about what can or cannot happen. You'll find that grammatical categories of gender and number are neutralized, words are shifted to different parts of speech, morpheme boundaries are imposed, shifted, and eliminated. Semantic nuances shift. A few examples from my own repertoire: (tsvey) eydes '(two) witnesses' from 'eyduth (sg)' zeyere oves-oveseynu !!! zayn okhi!!! makhn a vayivrakh di bobe oleVasholem !!! shem--sheymes--a sheyme kos--koyses--makhn a koyse arbe-kanfes--a kanfe mefunek--mefunitse Still, my Hebrew/Aramaic is not good enough to insist that "grayz" IS derived from gri'es. Sadan's was. As an aside, keep in mind that long [i] in medieval German is realized as [ay] in Yiddish (vayn, tsayt, mayn, etc.). The correspondence between [ay] in grayz and [i] in gri'es fits that development. Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 11:11:53 IST From: RHLE302@HAIFAUVM.BITNET Subject: Re _Mendele_ Vol. 1, No. 152 (Ellen's request for the raw material of the jokes in "Ludic Yiddish (Note One)." Dear Ellen: I regret that I can't find the jokes in the form in which I originally received them. Please understand that I do not use the term "Ludic Yiddish" to cover all instances of English (or any other language) with Yiddish interference. I don't like the name "Yinglish" and prefer "Jewish English" (on the model of Black English, Mormon English, etc.). "Ludic Yiddish" is a cover term for the exaggerated association of Yiddish with comedy and includes the overworking of individual words which are supposed to be intrinsically funny. When "broken English" is employed comically, it becomes "ludic." Several years ago I began to take notes on Jewish English and to compile a checklist of references. The list includes a few items on phonology. Only the Green item below is listed in Joan G. Bratkowsky, :HP1.Yiddish Linguistics; A Multilingual Bibliography:EHP1. (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1988). As you know, Bratkowsky has a section on "Interaction of Yiddish with other Languages," which includes "Influences of Other Languages on English." Yet she gives relatively few items for "English Influence" (p. 164). Bratkowsky's work is very useful despite inevitable limitations. It needs to be supplemented with the help of "References and Bibliography of Yiddish Linguistics 1979-1988," in Paul Wexler, ed. _Studies in Yiddish Linguistics_ (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1990), pp. 187-216. I don't necessarily recommend all of the dozen items -- a selection -- following. It would be good to have reviews of them in _Mendele_. Neither Davis nor his thesis advisor knew Yiddish! Gold 1985 is a good general review of the subject. There are items in Wexler which are relevant, but which I do not include here. A Selective Checklist on Jewish English Lawrence M. Davis, _The Phonology of Yiddish-American Speech_, University of Chicago Ph. D. Dissertation, 1967, 91 pp. Lawrence M. Davis, "The Stressed Vowels of Yiddish-American English," _Publications of the American Dialect Society_ 48, pp. 51-59. Lawrence M. Davis, "Literary Dialect in Milt Gross' _Nize Baby_," in Lawrence M. Davis, genl. ed., _Studies in Linguistics in Honor of Raven I. McDavid, Jr._, University of Alabama Press, 1972, pp. 41-47. David S. Disenhouse, _Phonological Manifestations of Ethnic Identification: The Jewish Community of New York City_. New York University Ph. D. dissertation, 1974. David L. Gold, "Jewish English," _Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages_. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985, pp. 280-298. David L. Gold, "An Introduction to Jewish English," :HP1.Jewish Language Review:EHP1. 6 (1986), 94-120. David L. Gold, "On 'Jewish English in the United States'" {= review of Sol Steinmetz 1981}, _Jewish Language Review_ 6 (1986), 121-136. Eugene Green, _Yiddish and English in Detroit: A Survey and Analysis of Reciprocal Influences in Bilinguals' Pronunciation, Grammar, and Vocabulary_. University of Michigan Ph. D. dissertation, 1972. George Jochnowitz, "Bilingualism and Dialect Mixture Among Lubavitcher Hasidic Children _American Speech_ 43 (1968), 182-200. Rachmiel Peltz, "Spoken Yiddish in America: variation in dialect and grammar," in Paul Wexler, ed., _Studies in Yiddish Linguistics_ (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1990), pp. 55-73. Sol Steinmetz, "Jewish English in the United States," _American Speech_ 56:3-16. Sol Steinmetz, _Yiddish and English_, University, ALA: University of Alabama Press, 1986. Yude-Leyb Proger ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.162