Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.249 December 25, 1994 1) Berkhes (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Lib hobn/holt hobn (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Nit/nish(t) (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Pain in the whatever (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Thieves' cant (Mikhl Herzog) 6) The Yiddish "r"(Mikhl Herzog) 7) Pareve (Mikhl Herzog) 8) Dav(e)nen (Mikhl Herzog) 9) Help Wanted from Germanist or German speaker (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Berkhes Western Yiddish "bEerkhes" or "bArkhes"; definitely NOT "bOrkhes" and NOT "milkhik". It MAY be that one or another of the non-Jewish languages has borrowed the word with "o" or bakes the bread with milk, but this is NOT the case in Yiddish. Cf. American English "holly bread". By the way, doesn't anyone rise to the suggestion that both "berkhes" and "khale" may derive from the names of Teutonic goddesses? Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Lib hobn/holt hobn I never intended to suggest that "ikh hob lib" was the northeastern form. I may have used the expression in order to illustrate the dative-accusative case merger in NEY: "ikh hob IR lib" (no "ZI"). In fact, the characteristic NEY form IS "holt hobn". Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Nit/nish(t) Decidedly regional variants: the former is NEY form. On the other hand, it's very likely that contact AND the literature has yielded much mixture that speakers find difficult to disentangle. German dialects reveal a similar split and, considering German and Eastern Yiddish (in the Slavic countries) as a geographic continuum, the relative distribution of the variants with respect to one another gives us much to think about. Wait patiently for Volume IV! By the way, in Transylvania, the Yiddish word for 'not' is "niks", not to be confused with 'niks' in Dutch Yiddish, where it means 'nothing' (Eastern "gorni(sh)t". Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Pain in the whatever Distinctively Litvish: "es iz mir tut vey di (sic!) kop/di hant, etc." Also, "ikh hob a tut-veyike hant". Howzat? Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Thieves' cant What/who is the source of the suggestion that "jenisch" is of Gypsy origin? Consider that, along with German "Gauner" (of non-German origin), it may derive, instead' from Hebrew-Yiddish "yavan" ('Greece', 'Russian soldier' [as in "a yovn in suke"]). The "Griechisches Beisl" ("bayis!") in Vienna is said to have been a meeting place for thieves. Does anyone know whether, in fact, "grec" in French serves as does "terkish" in the Yiddish expression "opton af terkish"? Does anyone know where I may have picked up that suggestion? Mikhl Herzog 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: The Yiddish "r" Atlas Volume I, Map 68 shows the distribution of the two major articulatory variants of Yiddish "r", described as "lingual tap or trill" as agains "velar or uvular, generally untrilled". I'll leave it to someone else who has seen a copy of the map to describe the geography. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Pareve See David L. Gold "Towards a study two Yiddish synonyms of unclear origin: pareve and minikh," in _Jewish Language Review_, Volume 5 (1985): 128-139. Mikhl Herzog 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Dav(e)nen See Philologus, Dec 9. The proferred "Yevanic" etymon is no more or less convincing than the many that Birnbaum considers and rejects (see Birnbaum in the above-cited _Jewish Language Review_, Volume 5 (1985), and Gold in the same issue). Still, we should be grateful for one more, no less unproven, possibility. Of course, it's not necessary to find a "dav" etymon in any other language to explain this Yiddish word. We have numerous instances of prevocalic "fricativization" WITHIN Yiddish: NEY "novnt/SEY nuvnt" (noent) 'near', "e(y)ver" (oyer/eyer) 'ear', "ever" (toyer/teyer") 'gate', "zaver/SEY "zover" (zoyer!) 'sour'; also, SEY "gedovern" (gedoyern) 'to last', "boven" (boyen) 'to build'. See Atlas Volume I, Maps 20, 26, 31, 40, 41. When we actually find instances of "doyenen" 'to pray' in Belorus, (Atlas, Volume III), it gives one to think. Are these back- formations or do they point to an etymon from which fricativized"dav(e)nen" emerged in Yiddish? We probasbly still "don't know". Mikhl Herzog 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Dec 94 16:15 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Help Wanted from Germanist or German speaker With respect to their stressed vowels, what other pairs of German words relate as do "Schnee" [e:] 'snow' and "schneien" [ay] 'to snow'? Yiddish has either "shney"/"shneyen" or "shnay"/"shnayen". What gives? Mikhl Herzog ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.249 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. 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