Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.066 July 21, 1993 1) Various (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Hershele Ostropolyer (Noyekh Miller) 3) Matza-vasser (Sheldon Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 20 18:18:38 1993 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Various 1. To Perets Mett> Thanks for the @vov/khale@. It`s a new one on me. As for @koyletsh@> Sometimes, it`s simply offered as the local designation for @the Sabbath bread@. Sometimes, it`s specifically modified, as in @Purim/koyletsh@. I suspect it`s always round, but you never know. As for the @Sabbath bread@ in Western Yiddish, you`re quite right> if the word @khale@ was used, it usually referred to the @vaybershe mitsve@ of @nemen khale@. It did not refer to the loaf. In fact, some American Jews of German origin consider @holly (sic!) bread@ to be an English word. The word in Western Yiddish is generally @berkhes@ or @barkhes@ and, in a small western Western Yiddish area, it is @d&ta>tsher@@ with an indeterminate initial consonant, probably favoring the lenis @d@. These words, are of interesting etymology, but that`s @a bazundere mayse@ (or, as you would surely say @a bazindere ma>nse@). 2. To Shleyme Axelrod et al> German words of Hebrew origin, especially words that are derivable from the Hebrew component of Yiddish, need not have entered German directly from Yiddish. The transmission was often mediated by Rotwelsch `thieves` cant` which, in the German language environment, drew heavily on this source for cryptic purposes. (@Welsch@, cf. also @Wales@, @walnut@, etc. is cognate with @Gaul@//also a separate story). It may be quite difficult, in many cases, to sort out just which of the possible channels of transmission a particular word followed. It`s an interesting problem in Jewish sociolinguistics. In this regard, one of the most important pre/20th century studies of Yiddish is by the former police chief of Lubeck (I think), Ave/ Lallement. He devotes one and a half volumes of a four volume work to Yiddish. The 4/volume work is entitled @Das deutsche Gaunertum@ (a non/German word meaning `underworld` and, itself, probably of Jewish origin). If you`re interested in pursuing the question of Rotwelsch, I`d suggest you start with Paul Wexler`s !!! book @Three Heirs to a Judeo/Latin Legacy> Judeo/Ibero/Romance, Yiddish and Rotwelsch@, Harrasowitz, 1988. Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 20 10:11:34 1993 From: NMILLER@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Hershele Ostropolyer I'm ready to leave the literary discussion about Hershele to abler hands. But as to Bob Hoberman's question (was he a real person?) hob ikh shoyn a shtikl khazoke. Yes, he was a real person. My grandmother, who was born in or near Tulchin in or about 1860, told me that he had died before she was born but that she grew up with stories about him, many of which she taught me. Hershele was among other things court-jester to the Baal Shem Tov's grandson, variously known as Rebbe Barukh of Medzibozh and Reb Borukhl Tulchiner. As rebbes go, Reb Borukhl didn't amount to much; that at least was the opinion of his nephew, Nachman Bratslaver who criticised not only his lack of intellectual or spiritual stature but his style of life. In brief, Reb Borukhl felt that a grandson of the Besht would be letting down the side if he failed to live like a nobleman. Though he died some 50 years before my bubbe was born, she used to describe as though she'd seen them with her eyes his magnificent coach drawn by 4 (or 6?) white horses. There are at least 2 collections of Hershele stories. If one of our librarian colleagues doesn't beat me to it, I'll report them ASATBGU (as soon as the books get unpacked). Noyekh 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jul 21 23:38:40 1993 From: sbenj@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Matza-vasser Although I have never heard this term used as an idiom, I can guess that the expression has to do with the rules of baking matzo. That is, that the flour and water must be mixed rapidly and continuously (one must not stop working the dough until it is in the oven) so as not to allow leavening to occur and that any remaining water in the bowl must be poured out on the ground in such a way as to permit immediate absorption. Therefore I would assume that matzo-vasser would refer to something that one cannot hold on to at all, or that slips through one's fingers (like time does for internet devotees!) Sheldon Benjamin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.066