Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.252 December 28, 1994 1) Shney/shneyen (Anno Siegel) 2) Davenen (Anno Siegel) 3) A heymishe khasene (Khayem Bochner) 4) To fonf, or not to fonf (Harvey Spiro) 5) Zamarstynov (shtetl) (Rita Falbel) 6) Az me klingt iz khoge (Rick Gildemeister) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 10:29:09 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Shney/shneyen Mikhl Herzog asks (4.249) >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? The dictionary says, "schneien" is the original form and "Schee" a later abstraction inducing an ablaut. There are a few German word pairs with a similar vowel shift. "Weh" (woe) and "weinen" (cry in tears) correspond to Yiddish "vey" and "vaynen" (not sure if I'm mixing dialects here). Another pair is "Fee" (fairy) and "feien" (protect by magic), where the verb only exists in modern German as a past participle (gefeit), used as an adjective. In this case however, "Fee" entered German twice in history. The older form is "Fei" (now extinct) so "feien" may well have survived from the older form. There is a whole family of etymologically related words which have either [e:] or [ei], all going back to some Indo-European root meaning "something sticky". "Leim" (glue), "Lehm" (clay), "Klee" (clover) and "Kleie" (bran) are examples. Finally, the [ei] -> [e:] transition is quite a regular one, though not universal, between High and Low German, the [ei] form belonging to High German. "Kleid/Kleed" (dress) "Bein/Been" (leg) and "Stein/Steen" (stone) come to mind. Anno Siegel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 10:56:44 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Davenen In his version of the song _A khazen oyf shabes_, Theodore Bikel in one place changes the pronunciation of "gedavent" to "gedabrt", whith a trilled r. The purpose is apparently to characterize the speaker as an athletic, and perhaps somewhat primitive, type of person. While the v to b transition sounds plausible, I don't understand how the r enters the game. Is this a common alternate pronunciation? A mispronunciation? Anno Siegel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 11:40:34 -0500 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: A heymishe khasene Andrew Cassel asks: > "Dobridzen"? "Piptishklekh"? "Rumfel"? "Net brat"? "Gefonfet"? Can > anyone help with these? "dobri-dzien" -- Harkavy says '"Good Morning," music played in honor of the bride on the morning of the wedding-day.' By context, I would guess that "piptishklekh" might be a variant of "pitshevkes". "mit ale pitshevkes" is an expression, usually humorous, meaning 'in great detail', 'with every last detail'. Again by context, I think "rumfel" might be English, "roomful". "fonfen", as some one has already pointed out, is to speak unclearly. Weinreich say 'speak with a twang', but I think Harkavy does better with 'to snuffle, speak through the nose'. I've seen it used about some one speaking at unnecessary length to a captive audience ;-) Khayem Bochner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Dec 27 13:14:22 1994 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: To fonf, or not to fonf In answer to Andrew Cassel's query in Mendele 4-247 about the word "gefonfet," Abe Bloom (Mendele 4-248) answers that "Gefonfet is eqivalent to the expression "muttered in his beard." As one who frequently mutters in his beard, but tries not to fonfe, I beg to differ. My understanding was that fonfen meant to speak as if one's nose was completely stuffed. If you squeeze both your nostrils and speak, the result is what I call fonfen. In my memory, its use was invariably comic or critical, and also implied pomposity or stuffiness ;-) , and sometimes long-windedness. Harvey Spiro 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 17:03:15 -0500 From: rfalbel@cumc.cornell.edu Subject: Zamarstynov (shtetl) If anyone knows anything about a place called Zamarstynov, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can e-mail to me directly. My father came from there and I'm trying to get a picture of what and where it was. The only thing I know is that it was a section of Lvov (Lemberg) where very poor folks lived, and I read somewhere it eventually became the Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation. A sheynem dank. Rita Falbel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 Dec 94 08:42:45 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Az me klingt iz khoge Abe Bloom asks about khoge. As far as I know, the word is used to mean "gentile holiday". I'm assuming there's a connection to the Hebrew word "khag" which means holiday. There's a saying in Yiddish: Az me klingt iz khoge. The figurative meaning, I have read, is "Where there is smoke there is fire". So when the church bells ring, it's a gentile holiday, which brought with it all sorts of danger. Just as there are Yiddish atlases, I've seen maps of customs for handling Christmas. Children either went or did not go to kheyder. Adults would sit up all night playing cards. Those are examples of customs. For Jews Christmas and Easter were days of peril and uncertainty. The poyerim might work themselves up and kill people. So, my message was facetious, since I was born a Christian and was preparing to visit my relatives for Christmas. But the word "khoge" is quite interesting, as is the proverb. Rick Gildemeister ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.252 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