Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 10 June 9, 1992 1) Mazeltov and shlimmazel (Dave Sherman) 2) Kibitzer (Martin Davis) 3) A suggestion (Moshe Taube) 4) Etymological butterflies (Hinda Feldman) 5) Farsheydns (Dovid Braun) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1992 12:53:05 -0400 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.06 Yitzhak Kertesz writes: > ((Regarding the ironic use of mazl tov when something > breaks: since we scream mazl tov at a wedding when the > glass is broken, one might argue that this reaction to the > sound of breaking glass in other situations may be a Jewish > Pavlovian reflex.)) I've always understood it to be exactly that, although a conscious one. > As for the conventional wisdom which explains the shlemiel > spilling soup on the shlimmazal, I have problems with it. > First of all, as far as I can see, and I am eager to hear > if somebody has proof to refute me, this definition does > not appear in ANY European source. I've always assumed it was invented by Leo Rosten for THE JOYS OF YIDDISH, which of course isn't really about Yiddish. David Sherman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Jun 92 17:20:59 -0400 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: kibitzer In my family the word "kibitzer" always meant joker, and a kibitz was a joke or a tease. My parents were from Lodz. Comments would be appreciated. -Martin Davis 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 08:30 IST From: Moshe Taube Subject: RE: suggestion Sorry that my first contribution is a suggestion: Anyone who's come accross a recent publication on Yiddish, a book or a paper in a scientific journal, please share it with the rest of us, giving the exact reference. Moshe Taube Dept of Linguistics Hebrew U of Jerusalem 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 6 Jun 92 00:00:46 EDT From: Linda FELDMAN <42161_655@uwovax.uwo.CA> Subject: etymological butterflies Since everyone else seems to be in an etymological frame of mind, I thought I would consult my lowly Wahrig Woerterbuch in a mad pursuit of the derivations of the schlimiehls, schlimazels and kibitzers of this world. According to Wahrig: Schlemihl is derived from the Hebrew (and I use their German transcription since I know no Hebrew) from "she-lo-mo-il", which they render as "one who is unfit for anything." Shlimazel is not noted, but I must admit I like the folks etymological explanation of schlimm mazel, since the concept of fortuna could be positive or neutre in connotation. Could this ambivalence have been extended to Yiddish? The modern German verb of kiebitzen, as our pinochle player noted, derives from card-playing, and means "to look at [someone] while playing cards." It derives from the thieves' jargon, where the form was kiebitschen. But since the jargon, Rotwelsch, has a lot of Hebrew derivatives in it, who knows where the term originated . . . The feathered friend, the Kiebitz, seems to be a northern German species at home in the Watland. The derivation of this word goes back to the MHG gibiz,giwiz, which was an imitation of its warning cry. (Now everyone, flap your wings and you'll see what I mean.) Somehow, this potential explanation ruffles MY feathers. . . Gleefully hoping I have contributed to the every denser etymological bog, I wish my fellow mendelites a git yontof. Hinda Ever reachable at feldman@ucc.uwindsor.ca or at the e-mail address which follows. Linda Feldman Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7 Internet address: LEFELD@UWOVAX.UWO.CA 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 Jun 92 16:40:25 -0400 From: David Braun Subject: farsheydns Catching up on some recent "Mendelekh": Noyekh, I know of _beben_ ('to babble') and _bleketsn_ but not _bebetsn_. We'll look it up in the sources. Litvakes pronounce /yidish/ as [idish] and /yingl/ as [ingl] and /yinger/ as [inger], etc., etc. Hence the common spelling of all these with alef-yud instead yud-khirek yud. The latter form is "new", i.e., was introduced and adopted mostly by non-religious Yiddish institutions since the twenties. Would like to know who was the first and when. Maybe in the teens, gor?... Before that, the non-Litvakes (i.e. speakers of Southern Yiddish) spelled the words yud-vov-daled, yud-vov-nun-etc. for _yingl_, etc. assumably because of a) the etymology [cf. German Jude, Junge - sorry, I don't know the older German forms] and b) the yud for them is [i] anyhow! E.g., orthographic _kumen_ is [kimen]. As far as I know and have been taught, there is no actual "division of labor" between the _shlemiel_ and the _shlimazl_ (who spills the soup and upon whom it is spilt). What there is is a division of Yiddishes: Eastern Yiddish, i.e. the dialects of Eastern Europe, have the word _shlimazl- and _shlimeza'lnik_ (Noyekh apparently speaks "tote-mome-lushn" [1], so he is right in having heard [shlimezo'lnik]); _shlemiel_ is the word used by the speakers of Western Yiddish, i.e., the dialect and subdialects in which Yiddish was spoken coterritorially with German (e.g., Germany, Switzerland, etc.). As the Western and the Eastern Jews met up in the New Country, Ameritshke, both forms met up as well. ([shli'mazl], with the accent on the first syllable, is 'bad luck' in Southern Yiddish. Information thanks to Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter. There's a subchapter on this whole issue in his _Yiddish Two: An Intermediate YIddish Textbook_, Phila., 1986.) Brantwin (circumflex over the i) ['burnt wine', cf. Eng. brandywine --> Eng. brandy], in one of the older forms of German, is the source of modern Yiddish _branfn_ or _bronfn_. Notice the [a~o] variation, which is the same as that in tsvantsik~tsvontsik. We'll probably find out in Max Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_. (I have reading for tonight!) Marganit Weinberger-Rotman, is your leyenkrayz at the University of Illinois? Is Yiddish taught there? zayts mir ale gezunt un shtark! Dovid Braun [1] "Tote-mome-lushn" - dialect of Podolia, Bessarabia and environs where Standard Yiddish [a] is pronounced [o], for instance; tate [tote], mame [mome], mazl [mozl], shabes [shobes]. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.10 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.