Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.208 December 1, 1994 1) Tsipoyrek (Yude Rozof) 2) Tsugetschepet (Mottel Lakin) 3) A better press for Yiddish (Brian Zumhagen) 4) Mishteyns gezogt (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Western Yiddish folk music (Rick Gildemeister) 6) Western Yiddish folk music (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Mendele's biographical note (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 16:40:02 -0500 (EST) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Tsipoyrek [re: Judith Binder's questions] Here are my takes: you really should give context to resolve these questions. 1. Tzipyorek Tsipoyre is a name from Hebrew, I believe, meaning roughly Birdy -a female name. -Ek is I believe a Polish name ending. 2. A roite Mogn-Doved fun a lamter - Could anyone tell me what a lantern like this was ? or what it was used for? A magn dovid fun a lamtern: a lamp (maybe hanging) in the shape of a star of david, holding several candles? 3. Elef Hashishi - Where does this term come from? Elef ha-shishi sounds like Hebrew for the sixth millenium. 4. Lange Einfar-Hoise Lange einfar-hoise sounds like daytshmerish: see whether there exists a Grerman word: Einfahrhause. Good chance I'm completely wrong. Yude Rozof 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:20:02 -0500 (EST) From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu Subject: Tsugetschepet Tsugetschepet, ongetschepet, tschepest zich tzu, and other variations on the theme. In mein mishpoche hot men a sach geredt vegen tschepen zich, and the theme was negative, in the sense of bothering, hanging on, not leaving alone, plaguing, etc. I find a possible Russian source in tzepeetsa, to cling or to hang on. On the other hand, I find no such word in Weinreich. Surely my family was not alone in this usage. Are there experiences with such expressions among other Mendelniks? It could also be used to express distaste for heterosexual (and unwanted) attentions or even for picking at one's facial pimples or scabs or for tastelessly decorated interiors or exteriors. A dank far die velche entferen und a gliklichen yomtov alemen! Mottel Lakin 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 20:56:44 -0500 From: branstone@aol.com Subject: A better press for Yiddish Louis Fridhandler (known on the streets as 74064.1661@compuserve.com), writes: "Mendele is newsworthy in my opinion, and Yiddish needs better press and public relations. IMHO that ought to be an overt goal of a Mendele convention, or at least a subtext of a Mendele convention." I am a freelance reporter for National Public Radio as well as a big Yiddish enthusiast. I agree that mame loshn deserves more intelligent media coverage.... I planned to make it to the Toronto conference, both as a reporter and as a private Mendelnik, but, alas, 'twas no go. But I am going to Boston in February and plan to pitch a story to NPR about the various Yiddish Radio programs. I was also thinking of doing something on Mendele itself, if that hasn't already been done and if the listening audience can stand yet another "oh-those-nutty-folks-on-the-internet" story. Anyway, if anyone would like to participate in any of these stories, or if anyone has any Menele of general Yiddish news items, they should feel free to zap me in my furnished, charming, private AOL mailbox, or they can always post-it, too. Brian Zumhagen 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 22:41 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Mishteyns gezogt "(im/mi/m)shtejns" even "nishtejns gezogt A propos of Zellig Bach's reference to this expression: "(im/mi/m)shtejns" even "nishtejns" gezogt, (with Central Yiddish [ay] and Western Yiddish [a:]), is one of several Yiddish expressions that can drive husband and wife in a dialectally mixed marriage up the wall. It has two distinct meanings, (their distribution soon to be plotted). Wherever the two meanings co-occur, they're probably best distinguished by intonation. Test your native speaking informants with the following (and, if you like, report their responses and place of birth). 1. It functions as an expression of pity, "er iz krank, mishteyns gezogt" much like "nitO(p)gedakht" or "nisht af mir/dir gezogt". This is surely its historical function, a warding-off expression; i.e., "may it not be said of/happen to me/you, may it be said of/happen to the stone". 2. It functions as an expression of contempt: "a krankheit, mishteyns gezogt" = "oykh mir a krankheit" 'You call that a sickness?' Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 01 Dec 94 09:29:38 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Western Yiddish folk music A dank aykh fraynd Dovid Braun vos ir hot undz geshribn ayere meynungen un informatsye vegn Mayrev Yidishe muzik. Es iz geven zeyer klor un oykh geven punkt aza min derklerung vos ikh hob gevolt emetser zol undz gebn. A yasher-koyekh aykh, nokh a mol! Rick Gildemeister 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 23:19 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Western Yiddish folksongs To supplement Dovid Braun's recent posting, I have a) a tape of the late Florence Guggenheim-Gruenberg of Zurich singing "kumt der liber shpeysignakht" (= shabeysenakht) b) a copy of a tape made by FG-G of someone singing a well-known Western Yiddish lovesong "Sheynele". Both may also be available in the sound archives of the Swiss Phonogramarchiv. The words to "Sheynele" are included in a work on "Alsatian Yiddish" by Arnold Zivy. c) a recording, which I made myself, of Arnold Zivy singing part of a comic operetta about "shatshen Joule" (= shadkhn Yoel), a recurring figure in Western Yiddish, which he performed at the 1st Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897! I made the recording in 1961, in NY when Zivy visited, at age 80, on the occasion of his granson's Bar Mitsva. I don't know whether this was ever recorded anywhere else. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 01:11:49 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Mendele's biographical note [A paragraph of Zellig's earlier post was missing. Here is the complete text.] Maurice Samuel wrote (_In Praise of Yiddish_, p. 117): "In his boyhood [Mendele] was shanghaied by a master-beggar, who exhibited him as an _ilui_ (a scholar-prodigy.)" Mendele was reputed to know by age 10 the entire _tanakh_ by heart. I was intrigued by the term "shanghaied" and checked this particular detail in the _lexikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur_, published by the alveltlekher yidisher kultur kongres, N.Y. (vol. VI, 1965). The 17-tear-old Mendele was fascinated by the stories of a local beggar who traveled in his horse-drawn wagon from one Jewish community to another. In these stories Jewish life in Lithuania, Podolye, and other parts of South Russia was attractive enough to catch Mendele's fancy, and he joined him on his next trip. It was apparently also a means of breaking away from a highly impoverished home with six siblings and a widowed mother. The name of the beggar was "avreml der hinkediker" who later became the prototype and main character of Mendele's famous work _Fishke der Krumer_. Mendele partook in the food that the beggar managed to scrounge together, and they slept in synagogues, naturally free of charge. In one town the beggar tried to marry Mendele off to a daughter of a rich man who was a "balebos" in the literal meaning of the words "ba'al ha'bayis" because he was, indeed, the owner of a house. The beggar hoped to receive a pretty penny as marriage broker. Mendele's refusal to go through with this plan immensely angered the beggar, and he started to pressure him into paying for "transportation and upkeep" going back to the start of the trip. The beggar's demands and pressures for Mendele's "room and board," a misnomer if there ever was one considering the conditions in which the boy lived, grew louder and harsher. The sensitive youngster experienced them as soul-searing, and one day he left his so-called "benefactor" and walked many miles to the town of Kamenyets where he hoped to get help from a relative. Unfortunately, the relative was out of town: he was a member of a choir with the khazn of Kamenyets and happened to be away on a cantorial tour. Hopeless and despaired, he returned to the beggar as his only support in the whole world. Finally -- Fate smiled upon Mendele. Several weeks later he managed, during one of the trips, to come across a distant relative who, when heard of the young man's plight, met the beggar's demand and thus paid "ransom" for Mendele's freedom. Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.208 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu