Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.415 May 10, 1995 1) Introduction (Murray Kastner) 2) Yiddish software (Stan Schwartz) 3) Genendel (Elliot D. Lasson) 4) Does German mies come from Yiddish? (Louis Fridhandler) 5) Alfons (Michael Steinlauf) 6) Hotsmakh (Bob Rothstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 08:13:14 -0500 From: kastner@cam.org Subject: Introduction As a child, I went to the Lubavitcher yeshiva for my first six years of schooling. At the time, in the forties, Hebrew was reserved for davening and for holy studies. Yiddish was taught as the language of business and the street. But my yiddish has fallen into disuse, for obvious reasons. I even had to learn a completely different Hebrew when I lived for a short time in Israel. Therefore I was very happy to find Mendele, as it gives me the opportunity to once again read yiddish. I especially love the little poems, stories and jokes ( got a lot of mileage out of the Ex-Lax jingles, I can tell ya!) I look forward to each digest of Mendele, and will try and contribute at some point. (I am even thinking of the week in the Berkshires!) Murray Kastner 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 07:21:39 -0700 (PDT) From: schwartz@cts.com Subject: Yiddish Software Can anyone suggest or recommend Yiddish software for the Mac? Stan Schwartz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 17:27:40 EDT From: elasson@moe.morgan.edu Subject: Meaning and Origin of Yiddish name "Genendel" I am wondering if anyone knows of an ond Yiddish name, Genendel. Does it have a translation into Hebrew or English? What are its origins.? My research has found that the name Genendel may be a contraction of Gendel and Nend(t)el. Is there any translation for these names individually. Any help would be appreciated. Please respond by private note as I am not a regular on this list. Elliot D. Lasson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 20:09:50 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Does German mies come from Yiddish? My citation of a confusion of *mise* in *mise meshune* with *mise* in *mise zakh* (4.412, 4) led to a discussion with Ellen Prince (direct E-mail). In *mise meshune* mise means death, and is from Hebrew. In *mise zakh* mise means ugly, and I thought it comes from German *mies.* Ellen suggested it was the other way around, that I had it moyshe kapoyer. She suggested that the German word, mies, came from Yiddish; and that the Yiddish word, mis, came from Hebrew. Now I wonder if the Yiddish word for ugly comes from the Hebrew, ma-US (loathsome). Ver veyst? Ellen meynt az Mikhl Herzog ken es mistome klor makhn. Oyb er hert vet er zikh efsher onrufn. Louis Fridhandler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 21:44:44 -0500 (EST) From: m_steinlauf@acad.fandm.edu Subject: alfons To one of Joseph Sherman's recent queries: an alfons (in Yiddish, Polish and probably some other languages too) is a pimp. Michael Steinlauf [Virtually identical messages on this score have been received from Iosif Vaisman, Dovid Braun and Moyshe Taube. nm] 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 22:31:55 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Hotsmakh (cont.) I'm sorry to disillusion Dovid Braun about my research skills, but I've been unable to satisfy his hope that I might be able to find a children's game song about a blind Hotsmakh in one of the standard folklore collections (4.397). I did, however find descriptions of children's games with blindfolding in the two major sources (that I'm aware of) on Jewish children's games: Shmuel Lehman's "Di kinder-velt," in the collection _Bay unz yuden [sic]_ (Warsaw, 1923), and Regina Lilientalowa's _Dziecko zydowskie_ [_The Jewish Child_] (Cracow, 1927). Lilientalowa describes a game called "farblendenish" or "blendenish-shpil blinde ku," in which a blindfolded player tries to catch one of his or her fleeing playmates. (She writes that both boys and girls play this game, but usually separately.) Before the game begins the following dialog takes place, with the blindfolded player answering: "On what are you standing?" "On a barrel." "What are you drinking?" "Apple kvas." "What are you eating?" "A bagel." "Catch the bird!" Lilientalowa gives the text in Polish, but points out in a footnote that the original is rhymed: fas/kvas, baygl/faygl. Lehman quotes a similar text from Cherkasy, near Kiev: "Oyf vos shteystu?" "Oyf a fass." "Vos trinkstu?" "A glezele kvas." "Veme's hendelekh geyen arum ibern hoyf?" "Mayne." "Az du vest zey koyln, vestu mir oykh gebn?" "A make." "To khap zhe mikh take." The Warsaw version of the game is called, according to Lehman, "shlepa-baba" (from Polish "slepa baba" [blind old woman]). He also quotes other names: "blindenish"/"blindzenish," "farblendenish," "blinde hener," "zhmurke," "blindzekayt," "blinde-ku," "blinde keytsh." His Warsaw introductory dialog is a little earthier than Lilientalowa's: "Babele, babele, vu geystu?" "Nokh fish." "Zets dikh anider un pish." "Babele, babele, vu geystu?" "Nokh rayz." "Zets dikh anider un shays." "Babele, babele, vu geystu?" "Nokh puter kukhn." "Gey dayne kinderlekh zukhn." "Babele, babele, vifil kinderlekh hostu?" "Tseyn." "Gey ale kinderlekh zeyn." In an earlier version of her work (1904), incidentally, Lilientalowa describes a string game "koleczko-lozeczko" ["circle-bed"], which Alfred Landau interpreted (in his German translation [1908]) as "etl-betl." She names the following figures: "bed," "cake" ("piernik," Landau: "lekakh") or "moon," "water," "cradle," "cake" again, "mirror," "saw." Bob Rothstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.415 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. 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