Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 146 January 22, 1993 1) The gender of borrowed words (David Sherman) 2) Shtayern (David Sherman) 3) Mess (Khaim Bochner) 4) On the spelling of Jewish names (Michael Shimshoni) 5) A kashe (Dvosye Bilik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 10:49:29 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: keeping gender of borrowed words My reminiscence about Brazil leads me to a new question. Perhaps ellen or one of the other linguists has an answer. When words are borrowed into Yiddish from another language where the word has a gender, is the gender preserved? Borrowings from Hebrew are, but is that a special case? Or is it axiomatic that if, say, a word like jeito or bagunca is borrowed from Portuguese, it will keep its gender in Yiddish (gib a groisn jeito? makh a miese bagunca?) Does the answer depend on whether the endings indicating gender in the source language have any correspondence to those in Yiddish? And what about borrowings the other way? Do Yiddish words keep their gender when borrowed into, say, French? (I note from Noyekh's summary that Mendele has one subscriber from Brazil. Gostaria de receber resposta dessa pessoa, se souber algo disso.) David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman Toronto 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 11:02:59 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: shtayern Dovid Braun shraybt: > daniel, mayne frukhtn (forsharbet) veln > dikh efsher farinteresirn; hob ober nisht ken faribl, tomer > vel ikh _dayne_ frukhtn nisht leyenen. (shtayern -- fe!) Fe??! Ikh ze, az fun DIR vel ikh nisht krign keyn hilf mit oisgefunen verter, az ikh zol kene redn af yidish mitn mishpokhe. :-) (Surele arbet oikhet af shtayern, khotsh far der regierung.) Nu, zol ikh fregn Mendelen: vi azoy zol ikh zogn intercorporate dividend, registered retirement savings plan, rollover un investment expense? David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 18:43:31 -0500 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: RE: "mess" Bay undz in der heym iz "mess" geven 'moyshev', lemoshl: "D'host nokh a mol ongemakht a moyshev?!" In der emesn redt men dos vort aroys bay undz [moyshef], ober ikh gleyb az s'iz dos zelbike vort vi in 'moyshev zkeynim' "Old age home". Di zelbike semantishe antviklung, dakht zikh mir, vi in 'hegdish'. Tsi nutst men dos vort azoy bay andere? -- Khaim 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 10:49:32 +0200 From: Michael Shimshoni Subject: On the Spelling of Jewish Names David Sherman signs his interesting article: "David (Daniel Moishe) Sherman" This makes me wonder, if, as I know, it is customary for Yiddishist to write Moishe and not the Sefaradi way, Moshe, why Daniel and not Doniel, or even Doniyel? There is a qamatz, sorry qometz, under the dalet. Are there any rules about it? Are names common also in English treated differently? Michael Shimshoni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 11:46 EST From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu Subject: a kashe A kashe far di mit glider b'frat lingvistn un andere vos bamein zikh mit der elterer yidisher literatur. I'm writing about the Tsenerene and attempting to transate a citation from Khone Shmeruk's reference to Yakov Ashkenazi's "melitz yoysher " where the author, referring to the Tsenerene says that "the whole world wants to learn from this book and therefore it was printed many more times than other 'kestlikhe' sforim." kestlikhe is spelled: kuf,eyen,shin or sin,tes,lamed,yud,khof,yud.Is it perhaps "gaystlikhe"? The Shmeruk article is "Di Mizrakh Eyropeyishe nuskhoes fun der Tsenerene 1850-1786 in For Max Weinreich on his 70th Birthday, p.338. Your comments would be welcome. A sheynem dank, Dvosye Bilik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.146