Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 207
April 6, 1992

1) Ai un aa (Khaim Bochner)
2) Various (Bob Rothstein)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 92 17:51:39 -0500
From: BOCHNER%HARVARD.BITNET@YALEVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 1.205

Zev Bar-Lev writes:
> (2) Is the diphthong _ai_ always contractable to _aa_ (long
> _a_), in those dialects that have this change?  I've seen a
> whole bunch of these _aa_ (i see much more yiddish in
> transcription than i hear), but don't know if those who do
> it, do it all the time. E.g. I know a lot of people say
> _zaa gezint_, but do _vaan_ and _flaash_ (for "wine" and
> "meat") occur as well?  In other words, is this across-the-
> board sound-correspondance?

It's pretty systematic, but you've got some things
confused. "wine" and "meat" don't have the same vowel in
any dialect I know about (if we agree that German is not a
Y dialect ;-). The normal pattern is:

        Eastern Y.      Central Y.      German
meat    fleysh          flaysh          flaysh (written Fleisch)
wine    vayn            vaan            vayn   (written Wein)

(This is Yivo transcription: ey as in "they", ay as in
"Aye, aye"). If I remember correctly, flaash occurs in
Western Y., but you're not likely to run into that a lot.

So, yes it's a regular correspondance, but these two words
aren't in the same correspondence set.

Like fleysh are: eyn, beyn, beymer, leyenen, meynen
(=think), etc. Like vayn are: arayn, mayn (=my), dayn,
hayzer, haynt, etc.

Also, the regularity of the correspondance is for "old"
words. E.g., my parents say "tsaytung", not "tsaating",
even though they say "tsaat" and "git". Why? Well,
newspapers weren't so common in the Middle Ages. (or
whenever it was that these changes took place.)

Hope this helps,

-- Khaim

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 92 21:48:37 -0400
From: ROBERT.ROTHSTEIN@SLAVIC.umass.edu
Subject: Various

["Matri"--Mendele 203]

For someone like me who in his distant youth was a student
of mathematics (with an interest in logic and foundations),
it's an honor to be able to respond to an inquiry from
Martin Davis.

I would guess that your mother's imprecation was a version
of Russian "idi k chortovoi materi," literally, "go to the
devil's mother," i.e., a less objectionable version of the
"Yemenite blessing."  It's been observed (by my wife,
personal communica- tion, among others) that it's easier to
curse in a language that is not your native language,
perhaps because the words don't have the same tabuistic
force and one therefore doesn't have the same inhibitions.


[Ukrainian songs--Mendele 205]

To David Braun:  Your Ukrainian text is probably just that,
although slightly distorted and with one Polish verb form
(_pshiekali_ for Polish orthographic _przyjechali_).  In
translation:

     The young landlords/masters came
     To bake _hrechanyky_.
     Jump, my _hrechanyky_,
     Jump, my barley-flour ones,
     Jump, my _hrechanyky_,
     May they come out tasty.

Of course hrechanyky (from _hrechka_ 'buckwheat') aren't
supposed to be made from barley flour.

[New topic:  Beregovski]

Mark Slobin (Wesleyan) and I are involved in editing for
publication the folk-song collection of the Soviet Yiddish
ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovski.  We have recently
obtained the unpublished _purim-shpil_ volume (texts and
music) and will eventually be seeking NEH support for a
translation of that volume.

Mark suggested that I ask fellow MENDELEniks for
suggestions (including self-nominations) of potential
translators, who would have to be fluent readers of
"folkloric" Yiddish.  Please consider yourself asked and
please send replies to me personally:

(rothstein@slavic.umass.edu).

Bob Rothstein

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End of Mendele Vol 1.207

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