Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 223 April 23, 1992 1) Wagging tails (Sigrid Peterson) 2) Yiddish groups (Sam Feldman) 3) Eppes (Yitzhak Kertesz) 4) Yok (Henry Mullish) 5) Gefrishte matse (Martin Davis) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1992 11:04 MST From: Sigrid Peterson Subject: wagging tails The second English line that Dovid Braun has for Adir Hu is from the English nursery rhyme, "Little Bo Peep," where it is also the second line: Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and can't tell where to find them. "Leave them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them." There doesn't seem to be any particular rhyme or reason to its inclusion in Adir Hu, except that it more or less can be fit to the melody. Sigrid Peterson 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1992 14:20:14 EST From: sam@pong.cns.nyu.edu Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.222 > From: nmiller@trincc > Subject: Yiddish as a cause > > I don't have handy any current information about another > organization worth supporting, the Workmens Circle. > > Did I miss some group? Shemt zikh nisht: shraybt vos > gikher. > Workmen's Circle 45 East 33rd Street New York, NY 10016 Tel: 212-889-6800 [A sheynem dank. nm] Sam Feldman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 92 11:41:42 PDT From: Evelyn Ehrlich Subject: Eppes/epes/epis I have to admit that the "eppes/epes/epis" is not as simple as I thought. I may be wrong with *bis, but not ready to admit it yet. Wolf relates it to MHD etewaz without any further thoughts. In the Melokim-buk it is repeatedly etsvash, that is ayin-tsadik-tsvey-vovn-shin. Zev Bar-lev's suggestion (216.3) is hard to accept. Landau (on Gluckel von Hameln's language) quotes examples for pf becoming tf, rarely the other way. Acc. to Webster's 3d International: piece is from Vulgar Latin, Old French pettia. Not OHG bizan, OE bitan. I am sure they all go back to the same Sanskrit root. This is a long way of saying "I don't know anymore". The "Grannan-sentence" (218/5) is unacceptable for purists, but I am sure, it is done. In 20 years somebody will write an article on Anglicisms in Yiddish. To Dovid Braun on "oybershter" (I should have started with this) In't a superlative included here? So, the literal literal translation would be "the One above everything", "the Supreme One", or simply "Elyon"? Yitzhak Kertesz (bm.lbh@rlg.bitnet) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1992 16:26 EST From: MULLISH%NYUACF.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: The Origin of the Word YOK I joined this most interesting e-mail discussion list a short while ago when my colleague, Martin Davis, was getting all that feed back on his topic of the Shickser. At the risk of monopolizing both the topic area and the institutional source of the enquiry, I was wondering about the following related Yiddish word. Where I come from (the East End of London, England, which was a virtual ghetto at the turn of the century) it was customary when using impolite speech for the gentile to be referred to as a Yok. Since arriving in the United States in 1952 I have never heard this word being used and haven't found anyone who is at all familiar with the term. However, I was on a visit to South Africa a few years ago and there I heard the word being used in exactly the same context. Does anyone know of the origin of the word and why in heaven's name it is restricted to the British Isles and South Africa? I wonder whether it is used in Australia. Henry Mullish 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 92 16:30:33 -0400 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: _gefrishte_ matse & 'matzo-brei' 'matzo-brei' as made by my mother (and also by my wife) is made with eggs. Matzoh is broken into pieces, made wet, and then scrambled with eggs and fried. I'm not familiar with _gefrishte_ matse but assume from what I read in MENDELE that it doesn't contain eggs. My mother made a terrific Bobalah. I have no recipe. It was a puffy pancake made with matzoh meal with sugar on top. Takke a m'chaye! Martin Davis ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.223 Submissions: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu Business: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.