Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 68
September 26, 1991
 
1) In drerd (Mikhl Herzog)
2) Tsures (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 91  12:42 EDT
From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.67

A   propos of "in drerd" (from "in der erd"): in "Litvish
Yiddish", "drerd" is treated as a substantive and not as
part of a prepositional phrase. Thus, we get "leyg es avek
afn drerd" in which the original article in "drerd" is, in
effect, replaced by the definite article in "afn" (from "af
dem"). The same happens to the phrase "in der heykh" ('up
above') which is rendered "in dreykh" and yields "inem
dreykh".

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 91
From: nmiller@trincc
Subject: A brokh af..

Hershel Bershady has mentioned 'brokh', which Harkavy defines
as 'fracture, breaking, crack, rent, breach, misfortune'.
Weinreich adds 'rupture' and calls a hernia a 'vinkelbrokh'.
Not where I came from, where a hernia was a 'kille' (found in
Harkavy but not in Weinreich) and a 'brokh' was generally the
rupture that brought on a 'kille'.  This meaning is also
found in 'gebrokh' as well as in such verb forms as
'unterbrekhn zikh'.  Stutchkoff adds 'hobn an eygen shtetl',
a word-play based on 'kille'/'kehile'.  (This pun reminds me
of the better-known 'Yiddishe yerishe' which is connected
to 'mir Iden' from 'miriden' from 'hemoriden').

Which brings up the question of tsures in general.  As I
write this I'm browsing through Stutchkoff's priceless
thesaurus (though I remember seeing lots of copies still
for sale at the National Yiddish Book Center when last I
visited).  First, some comparative numbers.  Under the
rubric 'health' we get less than half a page; for
'illness', seven and a half pages.  Good fortune: less than
five pages; ill fortune: nine and a half.  No comment
necessary.

Numbers aside, the richness of Yiddish imagery and wit
is, I'm afraid, largely gone.  I'd be delighted to be
proved wrong.  A very few examples from hundreds:

Hobn zikh tsu kratsen.
Zayn af gehakte (gebrente, geshvolene) tsures.
Tapn a vant.
Nit kenen zikh kayn eytse gebn.
Hengen bay eyn fus.
Vern farshvartst (farkhoyshekht, farfintstert).
Farshvartst vern in oysher un in koved.
Farshteln dem dales.
Nit hobn mit vos tsu fayfn.
Nit hobn kayn groshen bay der neshume.
In eyvele kayn fendele,in shtaygele kayn hendele, in
   baytele kayn rendele.
Zol dos mir tsukumen vos im feylt.
Onkumen l'idey boser v'dam.
Lign in artsa (in sheol takhtiya, in der adome).

Maybe we can save the section on good fortune for January
and February, when we most need it.

Noyekh
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End of Mendele Vol 1.68