Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.260 January 4, 1995 1) Copyright (Hershl Berman) 2) "Lehavdl" words (Zellig Bach) 3) Fershot (Dovid Braun) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 18:15:44 +22299440 (EST) From: berman@phobos.senecac.on.ca Subject: Copyright I have been told by someone in whose judgement I have faith that (notwithstanding any copyright messages) any message received on email is yours to treat in any way you want, to share with anyone you want. Internet law is decades (figuratively) behind the technology, so while I can understand that it may be a legal offence to broadcast copyrighted material on email, say,from a book or CDROM disk, there is such little regulation of email that basically, with few exceptions, anything goes.... Hershl Berman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 22:52:11 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: "Lehavdl" words In several recent Mendele postings Abe Bloom (4.248), Harvey Spiro (4.254), and Mendy Fliegler (4.256) discussed the meaning of _khoge_ as designating a non-Jewish holiday. _Khoge_ and _tifle_ (see below) are both "Lehavdl" words. "Lehavdl" is a Hebrew word that entered in the Yiddish vocabulary with its exact same meaning: to differentiate, to distinguish between the sacred and the profane. It is a verb related to the noun *havdo'le,* the pensive domestic ceremony to usher out the departing Sabbath and to separate its holiness from the this-worldly weekdays. If one brings up in a conversation a great Jewish religious leader contiguously with the head of the Christian church, the traditional linguistic usage calls for an immediate "lehavdl." Similarly, if one mentions in the same breath the name of a deceased and a living person, the prompt interposing of a "lehavdl" is obligatory . The intent of "lehavdl" also entered as a differentiating linguistic device to draw a distinct demarcation line between what is _ours_ (Jews) and what is _theirs_ (Non-Jews). Thus, "khag" is ours [khag someyakh -- a freylekher yontef] and "khoge" is theirs. May I share with you a personal experience from my childhood: When I was about 9 -10 years old I was sent away to study in Telzsh in a *mekhine* -- a preparatory school for the entrance into the famous Telzsher yeshive. Although of tender age, I became a beneficiary of the tradition of "esn teg" (to eat "days"), the custom of families obligating themselves to serve three daily meals one week a day to grown-up yeshive students. On my way to my Sunday "day" I had to pass each time the great church on the hill. I knew that in Yiddish it was called a "tifle." In my childish and "learned" mind I tried to figure out why it was called "tifle," and I came to the conclusion that it was a deliberate transposition of "tfile" (Jewish prayer), a purposively wrong pronouncing for the sake of a derogatory connotation. Imbued early on with the idea that Jews are the "chosen people," I thought to myself that our tFiles go up straight to the Almighty, while their prayers are a mere distortion of the real thing, and thus but tiFles. This, I believe, is an excellent illustration of folk etymology, how people unsophisticated in the science of language come up with their own explanations in an effort to satisfy their search for meaning. Zellig Bach 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 04 Jan 1995 00:23:36 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: fershtot To Refoel Finkel: While _forshtot_ means 'suburb', there was a specific part of Grodne that Jews referred to as _fershtot_, with an /e/. I do not know the geographic details about it, but a native of Grodne surely would and a Yiddish book on Grodne would probably be instructive. (What good sources are there on Grodne? Books on Jewish Vilne abound [relatively speaking], but what, dear librarians, are the sources on Grodne?) If you do any digging into the matter, please share your results with us. It would also be interesting to know whether this area has/had a special Slavic name as well. I have never heard it referred to as anything but _fershtot_, but I've only discussed Grodne with speakers of Yiddish. (Maybe I'll have a chance to be in touch with a Grodner acquaintance of mine soon, at which time I'll provide whatever info I can.) _fer_ is apparently one of the older forms of the prefix _for_ mentioned by Perl Teitelbaum and was retained in this place name. There's an interesting article on the prefix by Mordkhe Schaechter in a 1970s (?) volume of the YIVO publication _Yidishe shprakh_. Schaechter also deals with it, more prescriptively than descriptively, in a subchapter in his book _Layitsh mame-loshn_. Among the forms it has or had are /fer, for, fur, foyr, fir/, depending on time and place. The original Yiddish prefix became unproductive, only remaining in fossils (such as _fershtot_) and became unanalyzable (at least to some speakers). My grandmother, alvisholem, was from the Grodne area and visited Grodne (and possibly the Fershtot area). I once asked her why it was called _fershtot_, to which she had no answer -- i.e. she did not associate the name _fershtot_ with the word _forshtot_ 'suburb' and told me that, as far as she knew, _fershtot_ could only be used for that part of Grodne, not for ANY suburb. The other _fir_-fossil that was current in her speech was _firhoyz_ 'foyer'. Etymologically it is obviously _fir_ 'front, anterior' + _hoyz_ 'house'. Checking its analyzability/fossilhood with her on this point too, I asked her why it's called a _firhoyz_. Her answer (recall that Grodner Yiddish is an /h/-less dialect): "vayle se firt oys". A nice folk etymology. Dovid Braun ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.260 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