Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.011 May 29, 1994 1) Hebrew contraints in yiddish (Ellen Prince) 2) Paplyonik (Dovid Braun) 3) Hebrew words in Yiddish: Dictionary (Shleyme Axelrod) 4) Olevasholem (Dovid Braun) 5) Zishe (Sheldon Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 27 12:30:56 1994 From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: hebrew contraints in yiddish hi, mikhl. i'm sure many will think i'm nit-picking, but, for the record, the cases you mention are instances of *lexical* influences from hebrew in yiddish (and would no doubt be handled as borrowings, not active productive constraints), not *grammatical*, where grammatical = syntactic. so far as i know, there are no grammatical/syntactic constraints in yiddish. i'm making this point only because the blurring of these distinctions is what has given rise to certain claims about the 'real nature' of both yiddish and (modern) hebrew that we all know about. off to israel in a few hours--see you next week. ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 27 12:45:45 1994 From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: paplyonik I know of _paplyonik_ from a Yiddish speaker from Suchowola, between Grodno and Bialystok -- a baked good, about which I don't have details at hand. If I'm not mistaken, my informant referred to it in the diminutive only, _paplyonikl_. Note the /l/ is the "light" l, therefore I put a "y" after the "l". Dovid Braun 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 27 12:45:56 1994 From: PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Hebrew words in Yiddish: Dictionary Avrom-Yiyzkhok Blair asks about a source for Hebrew(-Aramaic) words in Yiddish. MENDELEnik Steve Jacobson has just published a nifty "Guide to the more common Hebraic words in Yiddish". It contains most of the words I've tested it with, though Steve of course acknowledges that it's not exhaustive, with 1500 entries. You can enter it either with the traditional spelling or with the phonetic respelling. $10 postpaid from him at PO Box 82849, Fairbanks, Alaska 99708. [Steve's area of professional expertise is Eskimo languages]. Shleyme Axelrod 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 27 12:51:58 1994 From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: olevasholem I concur with Mikhl Herzog that the distinction between the male and female forms is lax, if it all available, for EEur born speakers. My grandmother, well-versed in Hebrew, would sometimes correct herself (especially when I'd raise an eyebrow), but usually made no distinction between der tate olevasholem and di mame olevasholem. When the feminine form _was_ used, it was [ole'yasho'lem]. The form /olevasholem/ was pronounced as written or, just as commonly, [alvisho'lem], so we have some vowel deletion and akanje going on. Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat May 28 19:25:05 1994 From: sbenj@MIT.EDU Subject: Zishe Jeremy Stern asked about the origin of Zishe. This was my great grandfather's name. I had always thought it related to zis but finally found that it probably came from Zeus. In Russian he was actually called Zusya. I haven't caught up on all of last week's Mendele postings yet. Perhaps there are other explanations? Our family used to believe it had something to do with sweetness because of the similarity to zis. I like the Zeus explanation myself. Sheldon Benjamin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.011 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu