Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.304 April 16, 1996 1) Di Bundishe Shvue (Hershl Hartman) 2) Tsu zayn oder nisht tsu zayn (Binyomin Weiner) 3) "Shleymele mayn kind" (Zellig Bach) 4) Slang terms for prison (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Slang terms for prison (David Herskovic) 6) Slang terms for prison (Bob Rothstein) 7) Boxes (Perets Mett) 8) Yok (David Herskovic) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 14:30:52 -0400 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Di Bundishe Shvue Re Rick Kuhn's query (Vol. 5.301), _di bundishe shvue_ appears on a 1972 recording (Stereo JS 11049) issued by the Jewish Students' Bund. "_yidishe lider fun arbet un kamf_/Yiddish Songs of Work and Struggle," featuring the Yiddish Youth Ensemble, most of whom remain prominent in the field of Yiddish music. I'd check with the Arbeter Ring bookstore and with the Bund Archive as to current availability. _di poyle-tsienistishe shvue_was recorded by Theodore Bickel, but I'm afraid I can't cite the recording. Hershl Hartman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 96 14:40:18 EST From: bweiner@sorosny.org Subject: Tsu zayn oder nisht tsu zayn I would be interested in knowing if the Yiddish translations used toward the performance of Shakespeare are still in existence. Also, is there any good scholarship on the performance of Shakespeare by European Yiddish acting troupes? Binyomin Weiner 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 21:56:04 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: "Shleymele mayn kind" I have a vague impression that in the long ago I heard a song starting with the words _Shleymele mayn kind_, but do not have the vaguest idea as to the remaining lines. Any help with the text of the song, also the names of the author and composer, will be deeply appreciated. Zellig Bach 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 96 01:29 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Of jails and prisons, horses and goats; rishes Reb Zellig writes about "slang" words for "prison" in Yiddish and cites three, in particular: _xad-ga'dye_, _ko'ze_, _khey'der_. The last of these is new to me--the only variation I know on the meaning of the word _kheyder_ is in Western Yiddish (Alsace) where it refers to the place where the horses were kept. The Jewish school in Alsace is called _eygo'l_. But we were talking about "slang" and "prison". I hope Zellig can agree to set aside the word "slang" for lack of an appropriate definition. Perhaps he will also agree to make a distinction between "prison" and "jail". Ask a Yiddish speaker where _aresta'ntn_ were held, and he will likely tell you that in the big city there was a _tfi'se_ or a _tu'rme_--unambiguously 'prison'--but that in his shtetl, _aresta'ntn_ were held in a . . . . any one of a dozen or more terms for 'jail', perhaps 'lockup', or 'hoosegow'. Most of these are regionally well-defined, local terms for 'jail', not "slang". (See Atlas, Volume III, Map 120. Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1997!!) So, in all but southeastern Central Yiddish, the word iz _koze_. Southeastern Central Yiddish, along with the contiguous western part of Southeastern Yiddish has _krimina'l_. Northeastern Yiddish and the adjoining eastern part of Southeastern Yiddish is defined by _astro'g_. All of Western Yiddish says _to:'fes_. Shall I go on? There's _kitshn_, _vyenzhne_, _bergi'tkes_, _vakh_, are'st_, _xaps_, and more. In places where several terms cooccur, it seems that _astro'g_, _krimina'l_, _ka'terge_, and _mureva'nke_ served to house the more serious offenders. As for _khad-ga'dye_, it does appear to relate to _ko'ze_ which is 'goat' in both Yiddish and Polish and, at least in Yiddish. 'jail'. Do we know for sure that it doesn't mean 'jail' in (some regional form of) Polish too? And, for good measure, a reference to the word _rishes_ which Zellig mentions in his interpretation of the _khad-ga'dye_ song. As it happens, _rishes_ has variant meanings in Eastern and Western Yiddish. Along with several other words, it's generally considered criterial to the definition of the two major dialect areas. In Eastern Yiddish, it means 'malice' (or 'meanness', as Zellig suggests); in the West, it refers explicitally to 'antiSemitism'. A _ro:she_ is an antisemite, its feminine form, _reshante_. Finis. Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Apr 96 11:46:37 EDT From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Prison My father (a minkacher) uses the word 'dotye' for prison. It may be a Hungarian word originally or a yidish word from that area. The term used most often to say 'He's in prison' is 'er zitst' or 'er yoyshevt'. The word for Prison is more likely to be 'tfise' rather than 'turme'. As reb zeylig provided the paysekh connection to prison by mentioning 'khad gadyo' I'll add something to it. a yid hot amol bazikht a khaver in tfise of khol hamoyd paysekh. er freygt eym viazoy der sayder iz geveyzen. entfert yener az er hot borikh hashem mekayyem geveyn ale mitzves fin matze in morer nor ayn zakh iz eym layde nisht gelongen. "bay shfoykh khamoskho hob ikh nisht gikent oyfmakhen di tir" David herskovic 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 13:09:59 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Slang terms for prison I regret having to disagree with _fraynd_ Zellig Bach, from whom we have all learned so much, but there is indeed a Slavic antecedent for the Yiddish use of _koze_ to mean 'prison'. One of my favorite examples of the subtlety of Slavic influence on Yiddish is the expression _araynyashvenen in khad-gadye_ 'to put in jail', which is built out of Germanic and Semitic elements, but whose meaning arises from a component-by-component translation of Polish _wsadzic' do kozy_. Both phrases contain a verb built on the root meaning 'sit' or 'seat' with the prefix meaning 'into'. This is followed by a preposition meaning 'to' or 'into'. The Polish noun _koza_ 'goat' is a slang term for 'jail', whence presumably Yiddish _koze_ and, more elaborately (or more conspiratorially, since _koze_ would be recognizable to non- Yiddish-speaking Poles), _khad-gadye_. Perhaps the verb _araynyashvenen_, with its Hebrew root, was also intended to be less transparent than the purely Germanic _araynzetsn_. Bob Rothstein 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 13:41:45 +0100 From: p.mett@open.ac.uk Subject: Boxes Can someone advise on the difference(s) in use between: pushke kasten/kestl shakhtl Perets Mett London 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Apr 96 11:46:34 EDT From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Yok I have heard that 'yok' is derived from Yorkshireman. To many, Yorkshiremans epitomise the Englishman especially in their penchant for straight dealing (beloshen sagenoher). David Herskovic ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.304