Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 192 March 19, 1992 1) Purim (Dovid Braun) 2) The roots of Yiddish (Hinda Feldman) 3) 'Yid'(David Sherman) 4) Lingvistik shel Purim (David Sherman) 5) Dual voabularies (David Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 19:15:58 EST From: David Braun Subject: gut-purim shoyshanes-yankev tsoholo vesomeykhe biroysom yakhad tkheyles mordekhay homen hot gevolt di yidn umbrengen hot er zikh geton aleyn ufhengen iz af di yidn geven a tsore iz er aleyn gevorn di kapore shoyshanes-yankev ... far amolike yesurim hobn mir haynt a yonyev purim un mir fayern mit groys gerash un me farbayst mit a homen-tash! shoyshanes-yankev ... [Version of _shoyshanes-yankev_ as sung in my family. The song is very popular, but most people don't know the second Yiddish verse. To my knowledge, sung in Polish as well ("Hop mojej ricieniki" ) and Ukrainian but not referring specifically to homen-tashn. (Non-Yiddish versions sung only by Jews? Only on Purim?)] a gutn purim!, and remember: mortkhe-atsadik rayt afn ferd, homen-aroshe ligt in dr'erd!! Dovid Braun 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 16:58:57 EST From: linda Subject: fact is stranger than fiction The following ad appeared in the yawningly staid publicity put out in last Sept .-October's edition of the Harrassowitz Book Digest. Paul Wexler The Schizoid Nature of Modern Hebrew: A Slavic Language in Search of a Semitic Past (Mediterranean Language and Culture Monograph Series 4.) (ISBN 3-447-03063-1). DM 64,- Modern Hebrew is not a direct continuation of monolingual Semitic Hebrew, but a dialect of Yiddish. Contrary to popular conception, Yiddish is a Slavic language (derived from Sorbian); thus Modern Hebrew is a Slavic language. (Farvos hob ich nit bamerkt, az ich ken farshtayn a zach rusish? With apologies to YIVO and Yiddish grammar.) Hinda [Zogt der shames l'koved Purim: Darf men oykh bamerkn az ven me zogt 'vu ikh ker zikh un vu IKH VEND zikh' iz faran take a remez un a dervayz az fun donent vaksen di fis.] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 0:48:58 EST From: dave@lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.176 Dovid Braun says: > 1) _jew_ is a dirty word in many languages, indeed. but > the point is: when it is _not_ a dirty word (i.e., for > those to whom it should be OK, and at times and places in > society and history when it _is_ OK) it still is marked, as > (perhaps) evidenced by Jews' discomfort with it even in > contexts where nobody's shouting it in a derogatory manner. Agreed. What I find interesting is that, in telling a story in Yiddish, references to "a yid" are commonplace. They don't always even emphasize the Jewishness of the person referred to; it's just another way of saying what in English would be "a guy". But to tell the same story in English and say "a Jew" comes across as awkward or even offensive. David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 0:40:38 EST From: dave@lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.173 Dovid Braun says: > in English we are more apt to say "(s)he's > Jewish" than "(s)he's a Jew", for example. I've noticed > people (Jews) bristle when someone talks about so and so as > being "a Jew", as opposed to "being Jewish"... I agree with this in general, and with some of the points made in subsequent articles. I think I would take issue with this, however: > One reason, I > think, is the phonological markedness of this one-syllable > word in English (for non-linguists this means: 'the word > sounds funny in comparison with the majority of other sound > combinations in the language'). How many other words do we > have (in English) with consonant+[u]? Only oddities such > as _moo_ (the sound a cow makes), _goo_ (an informal word > for sticky, dense liquid), and maybe some more. To Noyekh and Dovid, I say: Do you two think this flew past the true Mendele crew, without giving to them their due, too? You do rue that claim. Chew on that. Nu? 'Nuff said. David Sherman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 92 0:29:50 EST From: dave@lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.171 Yude-Leyb Proger writes: > This matter leads one to the larger subject of how Jewish > languages {= JLs} name Jewishly-forbidden or proscribed > non-Jewish (not just Christian, religious) concepts and > realia. This leads to a dual vocabulary (e.g. shtarbn vs. > peygern, bes-oylem vs. tsinter, yontef vs. khoge). This is > in addition to a separate pejorative register for much of > the non-Jewish world (e.g. _Shvarts-tume_ 'pollution') for > use among Jews, alongside a neutral register (e.g. > _Byela-tserkov_ {Bila-Tserkva}) when a Gentile is present > or on a formal occasion. In certain instances the neutral > referent and the pejorative are the same word, e.g. > _khazir_ 'pig'). I'd like to get more information about these dual-vocabulary situations. I don't understand many of the distinctions above (i.e., exactly what the difference is between shtarbn and peygern, for, for that matter, niftr zayn). Can someone start a list (based on the above), with English translations and explanations as necessary, that we might collectively expand on? This is a fascinating topic. I can think of a couple of others: shmadn/mgayer zayn (convert from/to Judaism); and bukh/sefer (the latter referring to a religious book; are the terms mutually exclusive, or is sefer a subset of bukh?). David Sherman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.192