Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.295 April 1, 1996 1) Looking for a literary reference (Renee E. Miller) 2) Mayne loshn (Peter Kluehs) 3) Mumps (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Mumps (Bob Werman) 5) Mumps (Avrom Yitzkhok Blair) 6) Mumps (Zachary Baker) 7) Times acrostic (Chana and Yosl Mlotek) 8) Ikh bin mir a meydl (Meyer-Leyb Wolf) 9) Du and aykh in English (Leo Kanowitz) 10) Du and ir (Mikhl Herzog) 11) Du and ir (Mendy Fliegler) 12) Lekoved Peysekh (Moishe Kijak) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 12:39:39 -0500 From: remiller@pipeline.com Subject: Looking for a literary reference In several of Chagall's paintings in the current show at the Jewish Museum, he depicts a fiddler on a roof. The docents at the museum have been told that Chagall may have been depicting something from a Sholom Aleichem story. Does any know what this literary reference might be? Or if it is from some other writer, that would be helpful. Thank you very much, Renee E. Miller New York 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 Mar 1996 22:01:00 +0200 From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de Subject: Mayne loshn tsu der kashe fun Leonard Prager in mendele vol 5.293 dukht zikh mir, az der oysdruk *mayne* shtamt funem daytshishn vort *gemein*, vos iz glaykhbadaytik mitn englishn *mean*. do bay undz zogt men nokh "er f|hrt gemeine Reden", meynendik az emetser banutst zikh mit loshn-hore. peter kluehs wehrheim, germany 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 96 06:57 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Mumps Sorry, Zachary, your Vilna authorities are mistaken; _mandlen_ are 'tonsils'. I'd tell you how to say 'mumps' except that Dovid seemed to suggest that anyone who "knows" is not eligible. You have to "guess". So, let me give you a hint. Think of what a child's face with the mumps reminds you of. Remember that children's game involving fingers (and toes)? Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 96 1:51 +0200 From: rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Mumps Mandlen in Yiddish, as Zachary points out, but khazeret as in horseradish for Pesekh. A kosher, gezunt, un freylikh yontif alemen. Bob Werman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 18:20:50 -0500 (EST) From: ablair@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Mumps Zachary Baker: Mumps=mandlen? I always thought that mandlen (almonds) meant "tonsils." Is "mumps" yet another meaning? Mumps is a viral disease of the parotid salivary glands, which do not look like almonds. On the other hand (or throat), tonsils do. Avrom Yitzkhok (Allan) Blair 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 96 07:18:23 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: Mumps (correction) Correction: Dovid Braun and Dina Abramowicz have informed me that "mandlen" are tonsils, not mumps. Dina recalls that the Russian word "svinka" was probably the one used for mumps (at least in Vilna). Mendel Hoffman, who is originally from Berehovo (Beregszasz), Carpatho-Ruthenia, uses the word "shvinkes" for "mumps." Zachary Baker 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 18:54:29 -0500 From: chaniyos@aol.com Subject: Times acrostic In today's (Sunday's) Times acrostic the decoded message has relevance to Mendele: The quotation is "I plan to continue as a proud Jew and a proud American to speak out on every issue. Sha shtil did not save us from the Nazis, it did not help Soviet refuseniks. We are full citizens and as such we have an obligation to speak our minds." From the book "Chutzpah" by Alan M. Dershowitz. His use of "sha shtil" seems new to me or am I wrong? Chana and Yosl Mlotek 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 21:42:19 -0500 From: wolfim@chelsea.ios.com Subject: Ikh bin mir a meydl The verses that Bernard Katz cites sound to me like those I've heard on record, I think by Theodore Bikel. The following text of the song is from 'Yidishe folkslider' by M. Beregovski & I. Fefer, Kiev, 1938. ikh bin shoyn a meydl in di yorn, vos hostu mir dem kop fardreyt? ikh volt shoyn lang a kale gevorn un efsher take khasene gehat. du host mir tsugezogt mikh nemen, un ikh hob af dir gevart; far vos zolstu, dushenyu, mikh farshemen, tsi hostu dikh in mir genart? un efsher geyt dir, ketsele, in nadn? di mame vet farkoyfn di shtub; mir veln beyde khasene hobn, vayl ikh hob dikh lib! un efsher vilstu visn mayn yikhes? -- der zeyde iz geven a rov; lomir zhe beyde khasene hobn, un zol shoyn nemen a sof! Meyer-Leyb Wolf 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Mar 96 10:19:19 -0800 From: leo@biomemsd.mse.berkeley.edu Subject: Du and aykh in English Miki Safadi recently suggested that "[i]n the US, the formal address form 'aykh' is not used - 'du' is used almost exclusively," and asked "whether in other countries where English is the dominant language, the formal and informal forms are still used, or if only the informal 'du' is used." (Mendele 5.294). I believe the premise of the inquiry is incorrect. The prevailing practice in English is the reverse of the one suggested. That is, the English word "you" is the formal form of address, corresponding to "aykh," which is now almost universally used when speaking to children, adults, spouses, animals, friends, doctors or presidents. In contrast, "thee" or "thou," which are used in addressing the Deity, are the English equivalents of "du." Except for their presence in religious ceremonies and love poetry of an earlier age, "thee" and "thou" are rarely encountered in English today. Leo Kanowitz 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 96 06:57 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Du and ir It's mainly Hebrew and English monolinguals, or Hebrew-English bilinguals (with no experience in other European languages) who have trouble with the _du/ir_, _dir/aykh_ distinctions. On the whole, the "rules" remain the same in America as they were. Saying _du_ to your teacher/professor, mistakenly encouraged by some teachers, is a "sociolinguistic" error, no less (or more) "egregious" than a mistake in grammar. The major changes in matters of "address" probably involve direct as against indirect reference. In my generation, in very traditional circles, one still addressed one's parents indirectly: _Vos vil di mame_? _Efsher vil zikh der tate avekzetsn_? Similarly, one may have avoided addressing the spouse by name: _Her nor_! 'Listen'! or _Tsi herste_? 'Do you hear'? (Whence the euphemism for 'wife': _mayn tsihErste_.) Mikhl Herzog 11)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 22:27:33 -0500 (EST) From: efliegle@capaccess.org Subject: Du and ir Miki Safadi gloybt az men zogt mer nisht 'ir'. Farvos nisht?? Mayn Yidish hot zikh keynmol nisht geendert... In undzer Yidisher tzivilizatsie hob ikh shtendik genutzt 'ir', der iker mit a froy, a fraynt. Es past nisht tzu zogn 'du'. Mendy Fliegler 12)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 05:40:30 -0300 From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar Subject: Lekoved Peysekh tayere fraynt, tzuzamen mit mayne beste vuntchn lekoved peysekh, vil ikh aykh dermonen a kurtze mayse vos iz zikher bakant far fil fun aykh. a groyser oreman hot zikh in shtetl barimt, bald nokh purim, az bay im iz shoyn an halber peysekh tzugegreyt. vi ken dos zayn meglekh? hobn im di yidn gefregt.- gantz poshet-, hot er mit a shmeykhl tzugegebn, -kayn khomets iz shoyn fun lang nishto bay mir in shtub. ikh vintch alemen a freylekhn peysekh. ayer fraynt fun argentine. moishe Moishe Kijak ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.295