Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 105 December 2, 1992 1) Khalerya (Ellen Prince) 2) Khalerya (Martin Davis) 3) Khalerya and hobm/khurbm (Seymour Axelrod) 4) Hobm and khurbm (Arn Abramson) 5) Doggerel (Gerald M. Phillips) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 15:07:20 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: RE: khalerya according to a polish (non-jewish) former colleague, kholyere is straight polish, where it literally means 'cholera' but is figuratively used as a curse (a very strong one). ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 11:23:56 -0500 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: RE: khaleria 'twas my mother's favorite curse, as in: Ah chaleria of im I always assumed it meant cholera. Martin Davis 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 01 Dec 1992 15:08:23 -0500 (EST) From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: khalerye, hobm/khurbm Gerald Phillips remembers the pronunciation *chaleria* (or *khalerye*), which I`m sure means "cholera". That's the pronunciation I remember, too. U. Weinreich's Dictionary, though, gives *khoLyere* [where the Ly means the palatalized l]. Eykh mir a verterbukh! Benson Ginsburg notes that /khes-vov-reysh-beys-langer nun/ and /hey-komets alef-beys-langer nun/ both end in nun. But the pronunciations produced by my parents (from around Vilna) were *khurbm* and *hobm*. Indeed, anything like *khurben* or *hoben* would have marked the speaker as non-native, probably American. But *khurbones* would have been the plural of *khurbm*; and, conceivably, *hobenish* might have appeared as a translation of the gerund "having": "Ma, I have a nickel, but I can't find it." "Vos far a bobenish is dos?" or "Eykh (oykh) mir a hobenish!" (What kind of "having" is that?) Shleyme Axelrod 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 13:39:42 EST From: Arn Abramson Subject: RE: khurbm and hobm I thank my friend Benson Ginsburg for his reply to my note on khurbm and hobm. I would respectfully remind him that my comment was prompted by one of our members who cited the pronunciation khurbm in the first place and asked about it!.(I've forgotten who it was.)He may have heard people pronounce it or write it that way.I do not recall hearing it myself, but I drew an analogy to hobm (=the infinitive hobn), which I have indeed heard from at least a few native speakers in relaxed conversation. I don't know what they would do in reading a text aloud formally. (I am not, as Comrade Benson knows, a native speaker.) It is perhaps also interesting that at least one of the Yiddish teachers at the Summer Session of the National Yiddish Book Center, Reyzl,insists on hobm as the normal pronunciation in Standard Yiddish. Given all this, I wanted to help our member, who was distressed over the "unpronounceability" of such a form, by giving a phonetic rationale. Arn Abramson 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 13:37 EST From: "Gerald M. Phillips 238-2943" Subject: RE: doggerel Norman Zide inquires about Yiddish doggerel. There was, of course, a rather droll English verse that preceded the "tsu whom you speakin' tsu whom?" Standing on a corner, Minding her own business, Tsadie Cohen was waiting for a tsrolley car. Her arms vas full from packages, Her mind it vas on bizzniss, When along comes a bimbo in a Chevrolet coupeh. Isn't it interesting that back then, Bimbo was a term applied to a crude male rather than a crude female. There were also "take offs" on the liturgy, like the chorus... In de Torah, ist geschrieven, Mit ein shikse, du muss liegen, Oh main... There are dozens more of these. We were midwestern and I discovered they were different in small ways from the chants used in Philadelphia and New York. Gerald M. Phillips ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.105