Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.409 May 4, 1995 1) Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele (Mathis Chazanov) 2) Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele (Marcia Gruss Levinsohn) 3) Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele (Ruben Frankenstein) 4) Housing needed (Brian Zumhagen) 5) Etl-betl (Arre Komar) 6) Etl-betl (Dan Leeson) 7) Antplekn (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 13:10:32 -0700 (PDT) From: chazanov@news.latimes.com Subject: Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele checked with a native speaker (mom spent her early years in kasrilevke, or a place much like it, in the backwoods of grodno gubernye) only to learn that they called the ladybug not meyshe's ki'ele, but eliyahu's ferdele. in hebrew, though, there can be no doubt that the ladybug is the bovine parat moshe. Mathis Chazanov Los Angeles 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 20:19:56 -0400 (EDT) From: mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele Thank you Zellig for your stories. I use a wooden set of picture dominos with my Mishpokhe Yiddish classes and it contains "meyshe rabeynu's kieles." I have asked your question of many rabbis, and other Jewish scholars. You're right about connecting them with Shvu'es for I have been told that when Moses was on Mt. Sinai scribing the 10 commandments, his lone companion was a "ladybug." Marcia Gruss Levinsohn Silver Spring, MD. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 13:16:08 +0200 (MESZ) From: frankens@mibm.ruf.uni-freiburg.de Subject: Meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele Dear Zellig Bach, dear Mikhl Herzog, here is my entry in trying to solve the riddle. This tiny insect has got funny names in many languages. Hebrew folowed Russian and Yiddish in this case. The russian name translated is: "God`s cow". Likewise Yiddish named it: "Moyshe Rabeynus ferdl" or "Moyshe-Rabeynus-beheymele" and "Moyshe-rabeynus-kie`le" which is the diminutive for "cow" in yiddish. It must have been Chayim Nachman Bialik who introduced the ladybird into the Hebrew in his poem "Zohar" (=Brilliance): "Ben-suso-shel-Moshe-rabe(y)nu". Later the small horse became a cow: "Parat-Moshe-Rabenu". The latin name is "Coccinella", the french "coccinelle" or "bete a` bon Dieu" and the Germans call it "Marienkaefer", that is "Marias Beetle" or "Sonnenkaefer" (sun`s beetle.> Ruben Frankenstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 02:40:50 -0400 From: branstone@aol.com Subject: Housing needed I am going to be participating in the Yivo/Columbia U. Uriel Weinreich summer intensive Yiddish program from mid-June until early August. I am trying to make the experience as inexpensive for myself as possible. If there are any Mendelniks out there who know of available rooms/sublets in the vicinity during that time, or who know of any relatively inexpensive housing options for summer students, please e-mail me at my personal address (so as not to clog up Mendele), and I shall be ever grateful. Thank you, thank you! Brian Zumhagen San Francisco, CA 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 10:16:07 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Etl-betl It would seem quite clear that betl is a small bed, i.e. a cradle. Indeed that's what the structure looks like when completed. As for etl, my guess is that it was a name chosen (i.e. Ethel) for its alliterative sound, as is the case for the choice of the word cat to preceed cradle. Surely Ethel has as much claim on the betl as the cat does on the cradle. Shtimt? Arre Komar 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 06:55:16 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Etl-betl Until Mikhl Herzog spoke of a particular position in cat's cradle as having a specific name, I absolutely never knew that any of the positions achieved in the game had Yiddish names. Of course, I used to make up names as I played it and the difficult pinky position I called, "The Spider" but why I have no idea. I suppose because it required so many fingers to get it right. Ah! I was a master of the spider. No matter how good the opponent, an improperly displayed spider would drive them into submission soon enough. You had to hold the spider in such a way that the solution strings were hidden (or, more accurately, all bunched together making the right grip impossible to discern). But were there more names to the various positions or is "spiegel" the only one? It is exciting to think that the pinky position might have a Yiddish name. I presume that anyone who played the game for any length of time came to realize that almost every position had more than one solution; that is, given a position one could go in any of two different directions depending on the solution method chosen. As I remember, there were about 8 different patterns that were achievable including the dreaded pinky position. But the spiegel could be solved from the bottom or from the top, though as I remember, you got the same next step no matter which direction the attack. Other positions would yield quite different solutions depending on the direction of attack. Ah, but I woolgather! Dan Leeson Los Altos, California 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 95 10:37 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: _Antplekn_ revealed _antplekn_: the mystery "revealed" To Peter Kluehs' query about _antplekn_ 'to reveal': Yiddish _antplekn_ has a single surviving related form which, to the best of my knowledge, occurs only in a small northern Polish area, in the context of (would you believe it?) 'sticking out the tongue'. Rendering the English sentence "It's not nice to stick out your tongue", most people say _siz nit sheyn aroystsuSHTEKN di tsung_; some say aroystsuSHTELN di tsung_. More interesting, however, is _aroystsuLEKN (sic!!) di tsung_, probably a folk reinterpretation of the term in the adjoining area, the otherwise unintelligible but most relevant, _aroystsuBLEKN di tsung_, the cognate of _antPLEKN_. The transitive form of Middle High German _blecken_ means 'to show'. In Modern German, it's said of dogs: _die Zaehne blecken_ 'to bare the teeth'. Interesting, no? Variation in the gender of _tsung_ is a separate matter. Mikhl Herzog ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.409 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