Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.304 March 29, 1994 1) S n' z; buby n' zeydi; Index (Mikhl Herzog) 2) American English (Ed Lavitt) 3) Learning Yiddish (Seth Golub) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 27 21:59:42 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: 1. s n' z; 2. buby n' zeydi; 3. Index to Mendele 1. Molly Diesing "Sarg and sargenes" As an exercise, for my own benefit, and at the risk of repeating myself, let me tell you more than you ever wanted to know about the word-initial sibilant in Yiddish. You're quite right, some German dialects have word-initial [s], but in that case, they do NOT have word-initial [z]. In the linguist's parlance, German [s] and [z] do not contrast in word-initial position. German dialects have EITHER word-initial /s/ OR /z/, not both. Eastern Yiddish has both (and Western Yiddish in northeastern Germany has something like both), thanks to its Hebrew and Slavic components, but NOT in its German component where it has ONLY initial [z], except, as I said, in "say" and "saydn". I have no satisfactory explanation for this exception but I'd be reluctant to say that it's the result of "sharing a feature" with Austrian dialects. I'd expect a shared feature to show up in a more pervasive manner than in a single word, or even in two or three. "Sharing a feature", as in the case of unaspirated p, t, k, that you mention, means that in every appropriate environment, p, t, k will be unaspirated. No? In any event, the situation in Yiddish is not uniform throughout. In Western Yiddish, which is generally coterritorial with German, we find the following, a reflection of the varying constraints in the coterritorial languages: First, in the German Southwest with Alsace at its core, all voiced-voiceless pairs in Yiddish, except k/g, have generally merged in favor of the lenis variant: p/b, t/d, s/z, and others are generally realized as "p"-like, "d"-like, and "s"-like, regardless of origin--German or Hebrew: thus "po:nim" 'face' = "bo:nim" 'sons', "talis" 'prayer shawl' = "dalis" 'poverty', "zo:kn" 'old man' and "zayin" 'seventh letter of the alphabet" are realized with initial [s]: "so:kher", "soyen". The merger of s/z alone, realized as [s], extends further eastward than the others, to include Bavaria and Austria. Thus, Yiddish "zuntik" would be realized with initial [s]. In contrast, in eastern and northern Germany, and in Holland, as in Eastern Yiddish, it is realized with initial [z] (Litvish [zh]). >From this, I would assume that, if Yiddish had borrowed German "Sarg" 'coffin', it would have been realized with [s] in the Southwest, Bavaria, and Austria, but with [z] elsewhere; if Yiddish "sargenes" were related to German "Sarg", I'd expect the same variation. In fact, however, Yiddish has not borrowed German "Sarg", and "sargenes", which occurs only in western Western Yiddish, occurs only with [s], even in the North. QED??? We have no record of the word in Austria at all. We're still left with the problem of Yiddish words that are not of German origin, in Western Yiddish mainly Hebrew-origin and some Romance-origin words? In the South, as we've seen, Hebrew words with initial [z] are realized with [s]: [so:kher] 'male', [soyin] '7th letter of the alphabet'; those with initial [s] have no problem: suke, seyder, seykhl, etc. In northern Germany, however, (more precisely, largely in northeastern Germany), quite a different situation prevails: Yiddish retains the historical distinction between Hebrew initial [s] and [z], but reinterprets it in terms of the familiar German contrast between: [z] and [ts] thus, zo:kher and zoyen but tsuke, tseykhl, tseyder (or tsaykhl, tsayder), a phenomenon that extends into the Yiddish of western Poland as well (cf.German "Sahl" with [z] and "Zahl" with [ts]. IF "sargenes", as a word of non-German origin were to occur in the Yiddish of this area, we'd expect instances with initial [ts]. Unfortunately, for our expectations, we have no record of the word at the telling locations. Blaybt a kashe! 2. boby/buby/zeydy My guess is that these forms and, lehavdl, tushy, are no different than daddy and mommy. They're English diminutives of the teeny-weeny variety. One should mention, nevertheless, that there is an area in Northeastern Poland (Poland but Northeastern Yiddish), towns like Szczuczin, Lomze, Grajewo (Yiddish shtshutshIn, lOmzhe, grAyeve) where the last two are, in local parlance, [wOmzi, grAYvi], wherethe final unstressed vowel in words like "khale, kale, bobe, zeyde" is decidedly "i-like. I've always wondered whether that might have been the source of New York's (?) widespread "holly" bread. Many years ago I heard a recording of a khazn from Grayeve singing a Yiddish song about a "kali", rhyming it with "khali", etc. Does anyone out there know what that recording might have been? Henry? 3. Index to Mendele Reb Noyekh: Is it possible to create a subject index to Mendele, if only to be able to draw upon earlier postings in reply to constantly recurring questions? [Aderabe, mitn gresten fargenign. Efsher veyst emitser viazoy me tut es af a rikhtikn shteyger. nm] A gut yontef aykh alemen Mikhl Herzog 2)-------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Mar 26 11:25:45 1994 From: <70721.2001@CompuServe.COM> Subject: American English For your file: "Yiddishization of American English": New York Times, 3/23/94, C7, half-page display ad: Introducing Tushies DIAPERS Exclusively at GRISTEDE'S & SLOAN'S [a local supermarket chain] Ed Lavitt 3)-------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 29 09:19:14 1994 From: Subject: Learning Yiddish A friend and I are interested in learning Yiddish, but have little idea where to begin. Could anyone recommend books, recordings, online-info, strategies? Could you point me to some good resources? I was somewhat fluent in Hebrew about 10 years ago. I'm not sure if that will help or hinder. :-) We each have some experience in learning languages. Yiddish will be my fourth and her fifth. Seth Golub ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.304 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. 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 Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net