Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.130 November 12, 1993 1) Introduction (Heather Edgar) 2) Oyfruf (Pe'rets Mett) 3) The extra n-sound (Eliyahu Ahilea) 4) Change of address (Mottel Lakin) 5) Etemology (Arthur Komar) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Nov 6 19:26:00 1993 From: heather edgar Subject: Introduction I am a second generation american of mostly Austrian heritage. My parents spoke yiddish around the house, but I never really picked it up as a second language. I was just hoping to learn something by just sitting back and listening. So that's my general "hello" to everyone. Heather Edgar 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Nov 10 10:22:37 1993 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk (Percy Mett) Subject: oyfruf Jeremy Stern [Mendele 3.128] writes: >One question I have is why Orthodox people generally call the >pre-marriage calling to the Torah an "ufruf". I would have expected >the more common "oyf" prefix (more common in America). By the way, >Yekkified Jews do say "Aufruf." > The pronunciation =ufruf= is not "Orthodox". It is the litvishe pronunciation. In poylishe yidish 'oyfruf' is pronounced =awfreef= as it is spelt (=aw= being one of the ways of pronouncing khoylem). One would therefore "expect" the pronunciation =oyfruf= [as spelt] by litvaks. Since litvaks pronounce 'oyf' as =af= it is perhaps not surprising that 'oyfruf' undergoes a change in pronunciation. I believe it is a frequent phenomenon for common words to have an irregular pronunciation. (No doubt we shall hear from the linguists on this.) BTW the (a?) litvishe pronounce the word 'aroyf' as =aruf=. This confused me no end when I first came into contact with it, as it is so similar to 'arop' (which I am used to hearing as =arup=. As to =aufruf=, perhaps someone can tell me: is it a Germanised pronunciation of a yidish word or is it a genuine usage in W yidish? pe'rets mett 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Nov 11 09:38:39 1993 From: BRAHA@LIB.HAIFA.AC.IL Subject: the extra n-sound (and pronunciation in general) The letter was written by Dr. Eliyahu Ahilea. As he does not have access to e-mail i send it. I have been following with interest many of the discussion in the mendele correspondence. I would like to offer my guess as to what causes the "creeping -in" of an n-sound (or nasalization) into some words or names, like "manse" or "mainse" instead of "maise", or "Yankev" instead of the original name "Yaakov". ("Maise" comes from Hebrew word "maasiya" - a tale, usually meaning a "tall tale"). In polish language sometimes the n-sound is dictated not by the letter n but by a sign (like the french cedille) under the preceding vowel, like in Walesa (pronounced "valensa", or rather more like "va-wensa"), Czestochowa (pronounced "chenstokhova"), Zajac (pronounced "zayontz").etc. this polish characteristic probably got into Yiddish words, including (as above) words originated in Hebrew. Another possible influence of polish on Yiddish may be the changing of the "o" sound into "u" (or "oo"), like in "vos" becoming "vus". An o with an accent in polish - like Lwow, Piotrkov, Krakow - should be pronounced more like u. As for different pronounciations of sounds in Yiddish depending on, for example, geographic origin, these have no doubt been listed and tabulated in various publications. In the entry "Yiddish" in the Encyclopaedia Hebraica (in Hebrew) ther is even a "map" with a diagram of different pronounciations of one word as an example ("nadan" - dowry). the references of this entry are the well known YIVO-Blaeter and the books by Weinreich (alone) and Herzog & Weinreich. Eliyahu Ahilea 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Nov 11 10:34:47 1993 From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu (Martin Lakin) Subject: change of address Unfortunately, Duke university is diddling around with its computer system and for a complete Komputer kalyiker like me, that is a katastrophie, vie men zogt oif Yiddish. So please take note of my new address for all internet mail und az dos vet zein der ergster vos vet mir bafallen, bit ich gor nit aza umgliklicher mentsch. A geroos alemen und men zol nor bleiben gezundt, Omein v, omein!! Mottel Lakin (mein "fun heintonike address: mlakin@acpub. duke.edu) 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Nov 11 15:34:17 1993 From: "Dr. Arthur Komar" Subject: etemology A klayne frage far a graysen khokhem: Gibt es an untershied tsvishen "leyzen" un "leynen"? "leyzen" iz bashtimt fun daytch. Vuhin kumt dos vort "leynen"? Darf men dos nor banutsen ven men zogt "leynen toyre", un farvos? Un aykhet farvos gibt es azoyfil briefelakh oyf english do, un azoy vintsig oyf yiddish? Gevalt! Arthur Komar ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.130 Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files