Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 123
December 6, 1991
 
1) Suffixes for womens' names (Frederick Van Doren)
2) Yiddish and Bavarian German (Ellen Prince)
3) Recordings (David Sherman)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 91 8:13:19 est
From: "Van Doren, Frederick L." <VANDOREN@DICKINSN.BITNET>
Subject: Suffixes for women's names

The apparently changing use of "-khe" is similar to the
Russian suffix "- sha". In the 19th century, when women
were defined in terms of their husbands' occupations, a
"generalsha" was a "general's wife"; a "bibliotekarsha" the
wife of a librarian, etc. Today one can use the suffix
colloquially to indicate a woman with the given profession:
"kassirsha" ['woman cashier'] v. "kassir" ['cashier' - the
official job title; and 'male cahier']. For some speakers
these suffixes emphasize that the job holder is a woman, as
in "lady cashier"; for others they are unemphatic,
particularly where the job holder is traditionally a woman.
 
Most grammars agree that "generalsha", though rare, still
retains its 19th century meaning, since "there are no women
generals" [!].


2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 91 10:31:17 EST
From: Ellen Prince <ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.122

dave sherman writes:

>There have been a couple of references recently to Bavarian
>German being similar to Yiddish.  Can someone elaborate
>more on this?

one little similarity is one that you noticed in the park
in munich--bavarian german has the -l diminutive suffix (as
in meydl, as opposed to the -chen suffix in maedchen).
however, note that the 'intensive' diminutive ending, -ele,
as in meydele, occurs only in yiddish.

another, of course, is the negative concord phenomenon,
which beatrice santorini has just described beautifully. (a
dank, beatrice! i was waiting for you to do that...)

there are a bunch of other similarities between yiddish and
bavarian german, but i can't find the references to them at
the moment.

as for why there are these similarities, you've hit on a
very controversial topic! while the official weinreich
(pere et fils, i believe) position was that yiddish
originated in the rhineland, whereas at least one linguist,
germanist robert king (utexas at austin), has argued (very
compellingly, in my opinion) for a bavarian origin.

you see, in yiddish, as in linguistics, EVERYTHING is
controversial!

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 91 12:32:27 EST
From: dave@lsuc.on.CA
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.122

Re:  Oy iz dos a rebetsn

This song is on the "Maxwell Street Days" album by the
Maxwell Street Klezmer Band (an excellent album, by the
way).  It's called "Der Rebbe Geyt".

The verse ending "Un der rebbe is arois a nasser" can be
heard on the "Goldene Lider Yiddish Favourotes" tape, sung
by David Fiedler (I might have his last name wrong; I don't
have the tape handy).

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End of Mendele Vol 1.123