Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.300 March 24, 1994 1) Migldik (Khayem Bochner) 2) Reflexive periphrastic verbs (Khayem Bochner) 3) Jewish jokes (Dan Leeson) 4) Lithuanian Yiddish translations (Meyshe Alpert) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 23 17:12:31 1994 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Re: migldik Meylekh Viswanath shraybt: > The matter would, however, be comparatively settled if someone could > give cites from, say literature of the last century Meylekh, dos darft ir betn bay ayer shver, dem mayster fun der yidisher kartotek ;-) In _Laytish Mame-loshn_ shraybt Mordkhe Shekhter (Meylekhs shver) az di vayterdike shraybers hobn genitst "migl", "miglen zikh", oder "migldik": Opatoshu, Okrutni, Bimko, Brusilov, Yitskhak Goldkorn, Yanasovitsh, Maytlis, Sadan, Elberg, Podryatshik, Perle, Shumyatsher, Yisroel Shtern, Shtrigler. Er shraybt oykh az Arn Tseytlin hot dermont dos vort in an artikl ("Mekoyekh di raykhkeytn fun yidish", in Tog-Morgn Zhurnal, 1965) vegn dem ashires funem poylishn yidish. Oyb a sakh mendlnikes kenen dos vort nisht, iz dos efsher derfar, vos es shtamt fun poylish-yidish? Oyb ikh'l gedenken, vel ikh fregn bay tate-mame. Khayem 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 23 17:41:32 1994 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Re: Reflexive periphrastic verbs Jeremy Stern writes: > How are reflexive periphrastic verbs conjugated in the present tense. > So, would it be > ikh bin zikh moyde or ikh bin moyde zikh > for the verb zikh moyde zayn? > My ear tells me the former, but I am not sure. My ear agrees, and I happened to come across an example: Sholem Aleykhem wrote a story called "Men iz zikh moykhl". My understanding is that invariable part ("moyde", "moykhl", "lib", "faynt") counts as the "uninflected part of the verb" in Weinreich's word order charts (College Yiddish, page 110 or 330). More precisely, my impression is that the syntactic possbilities for this part of the verb phrase are the same as those for "separable prefixes" ("arayn", "aroys", etc). If there are cases where this isn't true, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Khayem 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 23 18:59:46 1994 From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Jewish Jokes Henri Begleiter says that he is interested in Jewish jokes and asks about some. Since he is French (or born in France), I'll give him a French Yiddish joke. A woman goes into Galleries Lafayette, finds a tablecloth and says to the salesperson, "Alors, combien ca fair pour cette tishtoch?" "Madame," says the saleslady, "cette tishtoch est 40 francs." "40 francs pour cette shmattah?!" says the buyer. The saleslady replies, "Shmattah!! Quel chutzpah." To make certain that everyone knows, this is the end of the joke. I always found it amusing to speak Yiddish when I lived in France. In America, all the words for which there was no Yiddish had the English word substituted. My grandmother, who spoke no English whatseover, used "icebox" as a standard Yiddish word. But in France, whenever there was no Yiddish word, they used the French word. I thought this to be hilarious, though I don't know why. There was also a popular joke at that time that had a Jew go to a particular railroad station to buy "a billet tsu Warshovie." When told that the "billet" (pronounced "Bill it") was "100,000 anciens Francs" he told the ticket clerk, "Bist du mishiggah? C'est trop!" To which the ticket seller said, "Monsieur, c'est pris unic. Je regrette que vous n'aimez pas le pris mais le billet coute 100,000 anciens Francs." The purchaser offers 75,000 francs for the ticket and is refused. At this point the purchaser threatens "Ich gai tsu le Gard de Nord" presumably to buy his ticket there at a cheaper price. I do not remember the punchline of the joke but he wanders from station to station trying to buy his ticket to Warsaw at a cheaper price than the 100,000 old Francs he was told it would cost at the first station. He keeps getting berated in Yiddish by the various ticket sellers he meets. I would laugh myself into a stupor on hearing a line such as: "100,000 anciens Francs? Du bist mishiggah!" The juxtaposition of French and Yiddish in the same sentence was hilarious to one who juxtaposed English and Yiddish in the same sentence. I often wondered if French Jews got as much delight in hearing a Yiddish joke told in English as I did hearing a Yiddish joke told in French. A toute a l'heure zus kind!! Dan Leeson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 23 20:42:58 1994 From: meyshke@aol.com Subject: Lithuanian Yiddish translations To: Andrew Cassel Just a couple of (self-) educated guesses re the Lithuanian Yiddish terms you ask about: 1) 'Gloksne-beymer' are likely willows, > Lithuanian 'gluosnis', 'willow'. Willow is commonly used throughout northern and central Europe for making flutes, particularly in the spring, when the bark can be be slid off trimmed lengths of branch to form a tube. That '-ksne' ending in Lithuanian Yiddish is often a good tip-off of a Lithuanian loan word, e.g. 'shalamuksne', some kind of white berry my father (from eastern Lithuania) was always talking about (how's that for a "Mayn-bobe" linguistic argument?). 2) 'Salte-noses' - I'm on shakier ground here. Fortunately, I'm a Californian. I wonder, however, if 'salte' isn't the Lithuanian Yiddish pronounciation of Lithuanian 'salta(s)' (here minus the "hachek," or small 'v' diacritical mark over the first 's', which I can't insert in email), pronounced 'shalta', meaning 'cold' OR a form of Lithuanian 'salda(s)', 'sweet' (seems more likely semantically and less likely phonetically). Then there's Lithuanian 'nuosis', 'bran', or even 'nosis', 'nose'. Any idea of the shape of the 'salte-noses'? I'm taking my own nose out of here before it gets bitten off. Hope this helps point you in the right direction. -Meyshe Alpert ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.300 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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