Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 197 May 11, 1993 1) Narr (Martin Davis) 2) Naar (Dan Breslauer) 3) Nar 'fool' (Berl Hoberman) 4) Introduction (Rob Frantz) 5) Introduction (Naomi Cohen) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 09:52:40 1993 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu (Martin Davis) Subject: Narr The German word has been around for a while. Heine ends his marvelous poem "Fragen" with the line (as I recall it): Und ein Narr wartet auf Antwort Martin Davis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 10:17:57 1993 From: Dan Breslauer Subject: NAAR On the "naar" "nar" relationship: I had a teacher who was fond of translating the last part of the birkat hamazon as "I was a "nar"--I was a fool--and then I grew older." And he would comment that it was only "narishkeit", only the foolishness of an old fool, that could claim that a Zaddik is never abandoned or his children sent out to seek bread! Dan Breslauer 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 13:02:54 1993 From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Nar 'fool' Yiddish nar 'fool' is spelled phonetically, nun-alef-reysh, not like the Hebrew word for 'youth', nun-ayin-reysh. I betcha in the Yiddish dialects that distinguish long and short vowels 'fool' has a short /a/ and the Hebrew word, if used at all, has a long a /naar/, maybe even two syllables--but this is a guess. So I think it's a safe guess Yiddish nar 'fool' and modern German Narr both come from a common earlier Germanic source. I hope the Germanicists among us will give us the details. I wonder, though, about the pseudo-Hebrew plural of the Yiddish word: naronim. The plural of German Narr is Narren; Hebrew naar has the plural neorim, as in the aliye on Simkhas Toyre known as kol-haneorim 'all the boys' (so pronounced by my grandfather). Maybe all along Yiddish speakers have felt nar to be sort-of Hebrew, and gave it a plural, complete with -im, stress shift, and the additional derivational suffix -on- that in Hebrew often makes agent nouns) for good measure. (By the way, isn't that what a tradional shul is all about anyway--kol haneorim? [Sorry.]) Bob 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 13:33:56 1993 From: "Frantz, Rob" Subject: Naye leyner interesirt in yiddishe radio programmen Kh'bin a naye leyner, redner un shrayber fun yiddish (kimet tsvay yor itst), un kh'ob geredt in dem Forwarts (kh'hob an abonirung) vegn di Yiddish geshprechene programmen oyfn stantsia WEVD-AM in New York City. Faran do in Seattle nit keyn gellegenheyt tsu hern Yiddish oyfn radio. Oyb emetser vus leyn dos brivl vel legn oyfn kasetn (vus ikh vel im oder ir shikn mit postgelt) etlekhe shoen fun yiddishe programmen fun New York City oder andere shtet, kh'vart far dayn entfer bay E-mail. A Shaynem Dank, ROB FRANTZ 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 14:13:33 1993 From: ncohen@sjuphil.sju.edu (Naomi Cohen) Subject: Introduction 1. Ikh hob hanoye gehat fun leynen mendele shoyn a por monatn, vel ikh itst zikh bakenen mit alemen. Kh'hob zikh gelernt yidish in pensilveynier universitet un af der yidish vokh. Kh'hob shtudirt lingvistik un bibliotekeray, un kh'arbet itst in St. Joseph's University bibliotek. 2. Etlekhe idiomatishe oysdrikn zaynen mir bakant fun der heym, ober nor af english vayl tate-mame redn kimat nisht ken yidish. Itst veys ikh far vos der tate hot gezogt, lemoshl, "Let's take this apart and see where the feet grow." An anderer iz geven, "You look like a hot and cold cup of coffee," ven kh'hob zikh aleyn ongeton nit rekht far shul. Emetser veys tsi dos kumt oykh fun yidish? Naomi Cohen ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.197