Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 62 September 19, 1991 1) Brukhes un kloles (Ellen Prince) 2) Brukhes un kloles (Hershel Bershady) 3) Request for clarification (Dave Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 10:48:11 -0400 From: Ellen Prince Subject: RE: Mendele vol1.61 blessings and curses: nisht bay dir/im/ir/... gedakht: when speaking of someone else's misfortune dir/im/ir/... tsu lange yorn: when comparing a living person with a dead one hob im/ir/... in 'duis': i think this may be 'dos', a euphemism; the functional import was 'he/... can go to hell' a kholyere!: pretty strong curse something like 'nise deroyf', after someone sneezed a second time lang lebn: after a third sneeze (we sneezed a lot) (there was also an obligatory ear-pulling if someone sneezed while a dead person was being discussed) oyf mayne sonims gezogt (why 'sonimS'?): when speaking of one's misfortune one english one that i'm sure is a translation of the yiddish was: wear it and tear it well: for new clothes other very very frequent english translations in my house were: god willing (accompanying every verb in the future tense, unless it was bad, in which case one said 'god forbid') you shouldn't know from it it shouldn't happen to a dog kiss me where the sun don't shine don't give me/him/... a canary (= evil eye) you/he/... should only bust he/... should rest in peace and one nonlinguistic one was ritual spitting, three times, vocalized as 'poo poo poo', accompanying 'kenahore'. most of these were more frequent from women than men--this was attributed to their greater superstitiousness (= stupidity, according to my father, he should rest in peace...). 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Sep 91 11:51:02 EST From: "Dr. Harold Bershady" Subject: Farewells, Curses, Expletives One of my aunts used to regale us with her effusive farewells: e.g. "Geh gesunt erhade, fuhr gesunterhade, kimm tserick gesunterhade." Her brother-in-law, my uncle, who was skeptical, used to mutter under his breath, "A vaytig in pupick. He would also say "Zoll vachsten vee a tzibilla mitt im kopf in drerd..." He w ould refer to this aunt, sometimes, as "A cholera." When really irked he would say "A cholera zoll dihr (or ihm or ihr) choppen." A common expletive, perhaps not quite a curse, is the simple: "Chaser!" A negative group designation: "Cha serim!" "Cheye-a" or "Vildeh Cheye-a" I've heard used to refer to anyone -- children, adolescents, adults, blacks, whites, etc. "Shtinkerki" is a deroga- tory character term for a sloven, not quite a curse. I remember my grandfather uttering a curse so terrible that I only remember its meaning not its words: the meaning was: he should die and have no sons to mourn him. (Words are power- ful among Jews). Genug. A gutten juhr! Hershel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 22:45:44 EDT From: David Sherman Subject: RE: Mendele vol1.61 > a kloks af Kelombes (B) ??? ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.62