Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.229 December 11, 1994 1) Words of Semitic origin in Western Yiddish (Dovid Braun) 2) Oon/chatchke (Arre Komar) 3) Pain (Dan Leeson) 4) O Ir Kleyne Likhtelekh (Sheldon Benjamin) 5) Rotwelsch (Eve Jochnowitz) 6) Women writers (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 Dec 1994 23:03:14 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Words of Semitic origin in Western Yiddish Rick Gildemeister: I think saying that there are more words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin in WY is impressionistic. You, who are more familiar with Eastern Yiddish, read a WY text and the words (of Semitic or other origin) that aren't familiar to you in EY varfn zikh in di oygn. If a speaker of WY were to read an EY text, the Semitic-derived words of EY (that aren't used in WY) might varf zikh in di oygn of that speaker. Dovid Braun 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 18:09:51 -0500 (EST) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Oon/chatchke In reply to Mikhl Herzog's RQ for documentation: oon: This usage of a dual pronoun in Yiddish was reported to me by an elderly native speaker from Lodz. She said it was spelled in Yiddish: aleph vov lange nun. She was also familiar with the form enk but said that in her region and further east toward Russia oon was preferred. Chatchke vs. tsatske: I became conscious of the distinction ( as opposed to always being subliminally aware) when the discussion of its etymology arose here in Mendele. Could it be that one usage comes from the Hebrew while the other comes from the Polish? A Yiddish speaking friend of mine, whose family comes from the neighborhood Bialystock, upon hearing of my observation concerning the distinction in usage between the two differnt pronunciations of what I thought of as the same word, replied that of course she knew the difference; they are two different words. Re my own yiddish provenance: My mother came from Staraya Bikhov, a small Dnieper valley town in Minske gubernia, Belerus. She spoke a proste Yiddish and in this country generally read the Forvest. My father came from a shtetl deep in the Ukraine near the town of Cherkass. His command of Yiddish was more sophisticated. His preferred newspaper in this country was Der Tog. I am not conscious of whether there were any dialect differences between their speech, and if so, which is the one I learned. I rather suspect that in Yiddish my mother's version dominated since she continued to speak to me in Yiddish all my life while my father had complete command of English and generally preferred it when speaking to me. In fact as I think about it now, I seem to have gotten the impression that Yiddish was the language of women and perhaps little children, and of course greenhorns, but that men preferably speak English. My father came to America about 1906 at the age of 20, my mother 1912 at the age of 16. They both regarded their native language as Russian even though it was not spoken in their respective homes, nor was it used but rarely in our home. Arre Komar 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 08:18:31 EST From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Oi, I'm in pain but need a word for it!! In a conversation with the shames, I mentioned that, unlike English, the various pains and aches spoken of in Yiddish all seem to have a specific word that describes them. In English, for example, there is a pain in the head, a pain in the back, a pain in the arm. I happen to have a pain in the ankle. But in Yiddish there is a considerable distinction between "klopt in di zaytn" and "hakt in kop." (I am grateful for Noyekhh helping me with my spelling but he bugged out on the next one. Perhaps my mother made it up?) Then there is the ear. In Yiddish, one does not have an earache. Instead, one describes the condition as "geooghit". As for the stomach, no one has a bellyache. Instaed, the "boach bochtzit." My problem is my ankle. I don't know the word for that specific pain and cannot communicate with my MD. What is the word for ankle pain? (I know. I know. Six people will give me 8 words, and 11 will correct them.) Is this a discovery that will rank with that of knowing that the earth goes 'round the sun instead of vice-versa (whose translation I would also appreciate)? Is there some metaphysical principle involved here? Dan Leeson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 21:59:54 EST From: sbenj@MIT.EDU Subject: O Ir Kleyne Likhtelekh O Ir Kleyne Likhtelekh is a wonderful little Khanike song by Rosenfeld (music by Leo Low). It appears in several song books including the Hebrew University Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs. We always sing it at Khanike tsayt, and I remember it being sung in my grandmother's house as well. Words on request (I've noted a propensity of late for the shames to nix the posting of songs for public consumption in favor of his forwarding them to the individual who inquired). Sheldon Benjamin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Dec 1994 01:25:41 -0500 (EST) From: jochnowe@is.nyu.edu Subject: Rotwelsch? Reuven Frankenstein writes that 300 to 400 Hebrew words have entered German either through Yiddish or Rotwelsch. What is Rotwelsch? Eve Jochnowitz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Women writers Over the last year or so several subscribers have mentioned the existence of leyenkrayzn in Toronto, New York and elsewhere whose focus is on women Yiddish writers. I'm happy to report that one of these groups has produced an impressive collection which has just appeared: _Found Treasures_: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers, ed. Frieda Forman, Ethel Raicus, Sarah Silberstein Swartz and Margie Wolfe. Toronto: Second Story Press, 1994. ISBN 0-929005-53-8 _Found Treasures_ contains twenty selections from the work of eigtheen writers, among them Rokhl Brokhes, Miriam Raskin, Esther Singer Kreitman, Malka Lee and Kadia Molodowsky. There are as well an interesting introduc- tion by Irena Klepfisz, two very useful bibliographies and some entrancing photographs. Vert dos gelt. I leave serious literary criticism to my betters, who I hope will not be slow in reviewing the book. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.229 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 subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu