Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 21 July 1, 1992 1) Yiddish in the NYT (Martin Davis) 2) Western and eastern Yiddish (Meylekh Viswanath) 3) Enquiry (Hinda Feldman) 4) Mise meshune and farbissen (Hershel Bershadsky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 10:28:29 -0400 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: piece in June 26 NY Times with 26 (count them) Yiddish words The piece is about the tzimis started by a lawyer's brief using the word "dreck". A counter-brief used a number of Yiddish words, and the article used a few more; all were given in correct YIVO transliteration and provided with footnotes giving the English translation. The judge was not amused. Martin Davis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 11:48 EDT From: VISWANATH%DRACO.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.20 Herzog writes: To Bob Hoberman: re meshine rather than the expected meshune in the West: It MAY be eastern influence, as you suggest, but it may also be an "indigenous" feature which we encounter in several words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin. WY "sigge" (suke) is one; etc; ______________________________________________________ I'm sure you're waiting for this question; so let me ask it. Why does suke become 'sigge', with the k->g alteration? Meylekh. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 20:14:13 EDT From: Linda FELDMAN <42161_655@uwovax.uwo.CA> Subject: enquiry Can anyone suggest some useful (and, hopefully, readily accessible) titles on Western Yiddish grammar? Suggested titles can be in English, French, German and, of course, Yiddish. Thanks, Hinda Linda Feldman Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7 Internet address: LEFELD@UWOVAX.UWO.CA 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 01 Jul 92 18:18:19 EST From: "Dr. Harold Bershady" Subject: mise meshine & farbissin (e or er) In my imperfect memory, "mise meshine" was used by relatives and their friends to refer to a dangerous woman. Although I didn't know what the word literally meant, the person so referred to was somebody to avoid. Why it was always a woman, I don't know. A distant second in order of nastiness was the epithet "farbissen" ending with gender ending e or er. More frequently this term too r referred to someone who didn't too often look bitten up, but was a biter! The shames suggested to me that my family used "mise meshine" to refer to a witch -- shades of Bashevis Singer! That's certainly possible, considering the variety of ptuis and knocks on wood that seemed to accompany such exclamations. Does any one else have an experience similar to mine? It also seems to me that among the first and following generations of Jews in America who speak Yiddish in some form, the farbissen epithet, or its equivalent, is more commonly invoked than mise meshine. We have fewer witches among us, perhaps, and more people with "ressentiment." Hershel Bershadsky ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.21 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.