Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.231 February 19, 1997 1) Tevye's aphorisms (Mechl Asheri) 2) Tevye's aphorisms (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Gender in N.E. Yiddish (Adrienne Maltz) 4) "Tate" af yidish (Adrienne Maltz) 5) Shimmalekhl (Gene Sucov) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 22:23:43 +0200 From: donnom@netvision.net.il Subject: Nokhamol Tevye's perush Thanks to David Herskovic for his derekh erets in disagreeing with me, but it is no more than what one would expect from him. The only thing is, his disquisition on the posik in question was hardly necessary since, as Reb David points out, there is no way to understand how Tevye can attribute his perush to Rashi and that is exactly my point: Tevye is giving his own interpretation and attributing it to Rashi and the only way it makes sense is to put m'geyfo in place of bagopoy etc. and say exactly what he says, "Az men legt arayn krenk, nemt men aroys kadokhes" Since, contrary to Reb David's quotation there is no indefinite article anywhere there, Tevye is speaking in a general sense. That has shaykhes to the posik, but only, as I can see it, that way. Now in the matter of "kukn vi hon in Bney Odom", the only real difference between what I said and what Reb David says is that he says it ten times more clearly than I did, without leaving out essential detail that I did leave out. If this letter looks shaky it is because I am writing it with my left hand while shloging al khet with my right. Mechl Asheri 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 12:38:22 -0500 (EST) From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Tevye's quotations (continued) David Herskovic (in 6.224, 1) quotes Tevye as saying _ayn khokhme, ve'ayn aytse ve'ayn tvine keygn a krank ferd_ somewhere in the _first part_ when his horse _breaks down_. Eureka! With David Herskovic's help (6.230, 2), hob ikh es gefunen! It occurs at the beginning of the first Tevye story, Dos Groyse Gevins (after the introductory letter, Katonti). But memory plays tricks on us all. It is not as David Herskovic suggests (6.230, 2) _on the way home from Boyberik_. Tevye (the monologist) is explaining to Sholem-Aleykhem (the faithful listener) how you can't argue with destiny. Luck comes or it doesn't. As I read it the quotation is _eyn khokhme v'eyn eytse neged a shlekht ferd. Neged (Hebrew) and keygn (Yiddish) both mean against. Neither wisdom nor advice defend against trouble from a bad horse. This is said well before Tevye's horse takes it into its head to run while Tevye stands beside the wagon, holding the reins ready to _stand_ shimenesre. Tevye must hold on, running and shouting shimenesre while continuing his comic translations of some of the blessings.. Incidentally, this scene could have been exploited for its comic possiblities in a movie. Of course, it was not and could not have been done in a theater on a stage. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie (Fiddler on the Roof) were (apparently) fixated on the confines of the stage version. As I have discussed elsewhere (in Der Bay), Sholem-Aleykhem with his great visual imagination worked on silent movie scenarios, had many ideas which were never realized. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 16:41:33 -0500 (EST) From: akmaltz@cpcug.org Subject: Gender in N.E. Yiddish I quoted Dovid Katz's text on the Yiddish Language (p. 53, 4.1.4) which states that pre-YIVO Northeastern Yiddish had only two genders (and still does for the descendents of those speakers?) to a friend who expressed amazement, stating that since German was the preponderant component of Yiddish and German certainly had/has a neuter gender, that this would seem impossible. What do I tell her by way of explanation? A dank faroys, Adrienne Maltz Potomac, Md 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 16:51:06 -0500 (EST) From: akmaltz@cpcug.org Subject: "Tate" af yidish This past Sunday the TV Series "X-File" aired a supernatural drama based on the golem myth. In a scene between a hasidic father and daughter the father is addressed by the daughter (three separate times) as "tah-TEY";could there be another explanation for this other than an attempt by an un-coached actress to pronounce the word "TAH-te"? I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who happened to see this episode. Adrienne Maltz Potomac, MD 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 97 22:29:07 GMT From: gene@netmedia.net.il Subject: Shimmalekhl I would like your help in translating this word "shimmalekhl". The context is as follows. When I used to play hide and seek, the one who was out stood with his eyes closed and head against the wall or a tree. One of us would draw a circle on his back and say, "I make a shimmalekhl and I stick my finger in". This was the signal for the "out" boy to start counting to 100 and for the rest of us to scatter to our hiding places. I know "lekhl" means hole, but what is the meaning of the full word "shimmalekhl"? Thank you for any help you can give me. Gene Sucov Jerusalem ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.231 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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