Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 107 December 3, 1992 1) Khurbm/hobm (Rick Turkel) 2) Sneezes (Malkah Winters) 3) Khurbn (Elye/t Gertel) 4) Sheygets (Dan Breslauer) 5) Yiddish publications (Debra Halperin Biasca) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 14:17:39 EST From: rmt51%cas.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: khurbm/hobm I'm having a hard time understanding the problem with the pronunciation of these two words. My experience has always been that a final nun after a labial is always pronounced as a mem. I have yet to hear a native Yiddish speaker pronounce the number seven as anything but 'zibm' or the infinitive of 'shtup' or 'khap' other than 'shtupm' and 'khapm', regardless of how they're written. In all cases, the labials are not pronounced plosively; the lips remain closed for the final nasal (I can't remember what this is called), which is assimilated to a mem. Rick Turkel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 15:40:16 CST From: GA3704@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU Subject: sneezes What Shulamith Berger discribed as a variation on reactions to sneezes by her father (gey shoin in drerd, du host a kalt), I learned long ago as the punch line of a joke, to be made as long as you want, by having the mother react to each sneeze with a blessing (recited in a loving tone of voice) until the last one (when the teller runs out of blessings) with that line spoken in exasperation. Malkah Margaret Winters 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Dec 1992 14:12:17 -0800 (PST) From: EGERTEL@FULLERTON.EDU Subject: khes/vov/reysh/beys/langer nun un hey/komets-alef/beys/langer nun Mayn mame kumt fun Brod [Brody], Galitsie un oyb kh'bin zikh nisht toye redt zi aroys khes/vov/reysh/beys/langer nun azoy: KhORB{shva}N mitn 'o' (dos heyst mitn komets-alef tsu gramen mitn englishn "aw." Zi nits dos vort zeyer oft tsu bataytn BALAGAN ("mess/bedlam"). Der tate iz geboyrn gevorn in Kamenets(-Podol-ski) in Podolye, hot zikh ibergetsoygn keyn Tishivits, Poyln baym 8tn yor un dernokh hot gevoynt in Varshe un in der tsayt fun der tsveyter velt-milkhome iz geven in Sovetn-Farband un Poyln. Vi vayt kh'hen zikh es oysmoln zogt er oykh epes enlekh tsu KhORB{shva}N. Far hey/komets-alef/beys/langer nun zogt er OBN (nisht in gantsn a "nun" oder a "mem" nor mer eynlekh tsun a nun) nor eyn zakh iz zikher, er redt keynmol nisht aroys dem hey beshas bay der mamen hert men yo dem hey in hey/komets-alef/beys/langer nun. To sum up Mom AND Dad say something like "Khawrbin" Mom says "huhbin" and Dad, "obin" (sort of like the English "oven" with a "b" sound instead of a "v" Elye/t Gertl (English: Elliot Gertel) 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Dec 1992 13:29:30 -0600 (CST) From: Dan Breslauer Subject: RE: Sheygets A recent inquiry was about words used to described non-Jews. I don't recall the exact rendering given, but it seemed to me to indicate "Sheketz" and "Shiktza." These words comes from the Hebrew terms for male and female "crawling things which make one impure through contact. Dan Breslauer, University of Kansas [This is as good a place as any to suggest that the use of such terms is offensive and (unless there's some over- riding intellectual issue at stake) that Mendele can do without them. Counter-arguments are welcome. nm] 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 16:17:46 MST From: DEBRA HALPERIN BIASCA Subject: Yiddish Publications Vos Geyen Aroys In Joshua Fishman's "The Lively Life of a 'Dead' Language (or, Everyone Knows that Yiddish Died Long Ago) from _Language of Inequality_ (Fishman, ed., Mouton, 1985), it says "(Yiddish) boasts five dailies, half a dozen weeklies and literally scores of monthlies and quarterlies, a total of 35 in the US alone." Can anyone give me the current figures? Thanks. Debra Halperin Biasca ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2. 107