Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 93 November 8, 1992 1) Viennese table (Yitzhak Kertesz) 2) For Ellen Prince (Lewis Leavitt) 3) Foot and legs (Martin Davis) 4) Feet and legs (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Our productive members (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 05:56:31 PST From: Yitzhak Kertesz Subject: Viennese table Being out of touch with the American people not only made me lose in the elections, but I fell behind with Mendele as well. 2.82#5 I am still not comfortable with Mr. Prager's joke ("Ich bin von hollandischen Adel" "??" "Ich bin von/van drueben") I think, he is interpreting dripen correctly, and the Dutch connection may come from the names of Holland: Netherland, Niederland, Low-land, or, as Mr. Schachter from Chicago pointed out, Pays-bas in French. I would suggest that the joke could be transplanted into English, as "I am an Australian aboriginal" "??" "I am from the land down under" (bottom-land, that is). But to tell the truth, I am still not happy with my explanation. I don't understand, how could this joke laugh at the Galicianers, as Mr Prager suggests, since Gs are the only ones to understand the pun. Of course, I am a heretic, at least with regard to Freud's theory about the use of jokes to express subconscious emotions. 2.85#1 For M. Herzog, regarding initial Western Yiddish "b" showing up as "p", not only in Yiddish but in certain German dialects, examples: Bauer-poyer, butter-puter, etc. (bretzel- pretzel) Probably, has to do more with North-South rivalry, rather than West-East. 2.85#3 For Debra Biasca: Doesn't the Hebrew module of Wordperfect reverse the cursor? I never saw it, just assume so. 2.85#5 The Hebraist in me asks: Why did Hebrew Khurbn become unpronounceable Khurbm in Yiddish? The word refers to the destruction of Jewish communities in general, and not specifically to genocide. 2.86#3 My name Itzik/Itzig not only rhymes with shpitzig, but also with witzig, as in Tendlau's Sprichwoerter: "Der Itzig ist witzig". Incidentally, my last name ends in a samekh. (In Hungarian, unlike in Polish, sz is samekh, s is shin.) Also, for Mr. Prager: Vunder oytser fun Yiddisher shprakh by Yehuda Leb Zlotnick (a.k.a. Elzett/Avida) has a section (I guess, part 2) on Yudishe maykholim and in it a few pages on mashkes. More for Mr. Prager: Thanks for correcting my pseudo-litvak "Deytshen" to Galitzianer "Daytshen". 2.87#3 To end with my sarcasm: I am getting used to the notion that Yiddish is a separate language, independent of German, but I still find it interesting that the Elementary Yiddish brochures were published by a Dept. of Hebrew and Semitic Studies! Yitzhak glad to be back Kertesz bm.lbh@rlg.bitnet 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 16:52 CST From: Lewis Leavitt Subject: For Ellen Prince 1-Ir kent geyn umetum 2-Az du zolst ergetsvu on mir geyn, bin ikh farloren 3-Hot ir im ergetsvu gezeyn 4-Zi hot im do nit gefunen, muz zi im zukhen ergets in dorem. Lewis Leavitt 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 17:13:03 -0500 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: "foot" & "leg" I'm moved to reply to Yankel Lantz because of my confusions as a child. My parents (immigrants from Poland) spoke Yiddish to one another and English to me. I grew up using the English word "foot" to mean everything up to the knee. By the time I was in high school I had learned "leg" but when I began studying German, I learned "Beine" for "legs" and became really confused because of the cognate Yiddish word meaning "bones". I'll bet there's a Yiddish dialect in which the German useage "beine" for legs prevails. Anyone? Martin Davis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 17:52 EST From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Feet and legs Yankel: Yiddish does not make a lexical distinction between "feet" and "legs" (or, for that matter, between "fingers" and "toes"). Hence, guard against translations of Yiddish poems into English which proclaim the beauty of a young woman's "feet" (of which there is no shortage; translations, I mean). Mikhl. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 12:25 EST From: NMILLER@Vax1.Trincoll.Edu Subject: Our productive members In addition to previously noted contributions in the field of Yiddish by Mikhl Herzog, Golda Werman, Leonard Prager, and J. Hoberman, some of our subscribers have been busy in other fields. To wit: Jascha Kessler SIREN SONGS: 50 MODERN FABLES McPherson & Company: PO Box #1126, Kingston, NY 12401. $12.00 275 pages (Greek and Jewish mythologems) Harold Bershady, trans. and ed.: Max Scheler ON FEELING, KNOWING, AND VALUING University of Chicgo Press. 270 pp. Robert Werman _NOTES FROM A SEALED ROOM: An Israeli View of the Gulf War_ Introduction by Gerald M. Phillips Southern Illinois University Press December ISBN 0-8093-1830-X $24.95 224 pages, 6 x 9 inches There are undoubtedly others who should be mentioned. A tzetl to the shames will remedy that in a hurry. Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.93