Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 143 January 20, 1993 1) Mess; pedant; sneezing (David Braun) 2) Pedant (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 19:34:00 EST From: David Braun Subject: mess; pedant; sneezing libe khaveyrim, punkt azoy vi daniel sherman, kum ikh tsurik tsu mendele nokh a langn iberrays. mayn tsil iz oykh geven tsu zayn produktiv, nor ikh hob (nokh) nit ken bibliografye mit gedrukte artiklen. daniel, mayne frukhtn (forsharbet) veln dikh efsher farinteresirn; hob ober nisht ken faribl, tomer vel ikh _dayne_ frukhtn nisht leyenen. (shtayern -- fe!) ikh ze, az in di letste numern fun MENDELE iz gegangen a reyd vegn nisn. fun mayn heym (yidish fun sukhovolye, a shtetele tsvishn grodne un byalistok), vintsht men dem kind an ander vintshevanye nokh yeder nos: tsu gezunt tsum lebn tsu lange yorn tsu vaksn tsu kveln tsu der khupe tsu shteln. (kh'hob a DEJA-VU: mir dukht zikh, kh'hob shoyn a mol dertseylt vegn dem.) az ikh fleg shoyn nisn azh finf mol ober ken zekster nos iz poshet nit gekumen, fleg ikh dos falsheven kedey oystsuhern di gantse vintshevanye, dem gantsn gram. ikh hob, agev, a sakh informatsye vegn dem inyen vos ikh vel aykh brengen ba an ander gelegnhayt. mekoyekh terminen farn englishn MESS: mir iz nor bakant der banuts fun _hekdesh_ far an ort vos iz ongemakht. az dem kinds tsimer iz ongemakht, zogn im tate-mame: "dos iz a hegdesh!" oder "dos iz a khazer-shtal!". dos vort _ongemakht_ aleyn heyst MESSY, MESSED UP. "ze nor vos du host dortn ongemakht" = LOOK AT WHAT A MESS YOU'VE MADE. _ongemakht_, a perfektiver verb, iz an eydelerer oysdrik far _ongekakt_, far a mentsh oder far a khaye. ven m'iz oysnTO MAKE A MESS (OF ONE'S CLOTHES WHILE EATING), vi dos tuen kleyne kinder (un "groyse kinder" a mol oykh), zogt men "host zikh farshmirt (di kleyder/dos ponim)" (oyb me hot zikh farflekt mit a shmirevdiker zakh) oder, in algemeyn, "host zikh farkhazert". _makhn a tel_ un _makhn a khurbm_ (nisht "khurve" -- _khurve_ iz af yidish a tsebrokhn, ayngefaln hoyz) zaynen a sakh erntster vi dos vos a kleyn kind tut esndik. az dos kind tserayst epes af shtiker, lomir zogn, iz shayekh "es hot fun x a tel gemakht"; "s'hot ongemakht a khurbm (in hoyz)" hot dem zelbn taytsh, azoy oykh "makhn an iberkerenish". ober dos iz beemes an uftu, nit stam zikh farshmirt. ven daniels shviger hot gelakht vegn dem kinds banuts fun _hegdesh_, iz dos geven (meyn ikh), vayl es hot (loyt ir banem) a) shtark ibergetribn -- zikh a bisl farshmirn iz vayt nit ken _khurbm_, un b) vayl s'hot geredt mit a vort funem repertuar fun tate-mame (tate-mame shrayen afn kind: "ba dir in tsimer/shtib iz a hegdesh!" dos kind vet nit zogn, neytralerheyt, "kum tsu mir arayn in hegdesh"). far vayterdike terminen, kukt lemanashem in stutshkovs _oytser fun der yidisher shprakh_. dort vet zikher nit feln ken verter. a shtikl sakhakl: _zikh farshmirn_, _zikh farkhazern_ hobn tsu ton mit esnvarg, flisikaytn un enlekhe produktn; CHAOS un DISARRAY iz an iberkerenish, a balagan; MESSY PLACE (ober take brudik, paskudne) iz a _hegdesh_, _khazer-shtal_, _moyshev_; TO MAKE A MESS (OF STG PREVIOUSLY IN ORDER, OPERABLE) iz _makhn a tel_, _makhn a khurbm_. zol imetser mit stutshkov ba der hant undz vayter lernen... eyn vort far SCREW-UP (der substantiv) iz _mikhshl_ (lemoshl: "s'iz geshen a mikhshl un der kompyuter hot opgemek di gantse informatsye" 'THERE WAS A SCREW-UP AND..."). _mikhshl_ iz nor mitn verterlekhn taytsh, meyn ikh, in uriel vaynraykhs verterbukh: 'STUMBLING BLOCK'. [noyekh -- hemshekh kumt, oder vi me flegt shrayb in di fardaytshmerte amerikaner yidishe bleter: "fortzetsung folgt"] David Braun 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 23:21 EST From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Pedant Noyekh, I'll bet your aunt and uncle would have known what "medkdek" mean. And, if not, . . . Which reminds me of something Max Weinreich onc said (du zost ober keyn faribl nit hobn): "When an English speaker encou word he doesn't know, makht er a shvay and looks it up in the dictionary (Think of the number of words "that never were" in an English dictionary But, when a Yiddish speaker encounters a word he doesn't know, he writes ter to the Forverts and insists that there ain't such a word. Ober nisht dos bin ikh oysn. I wanted to say a word about your "gole gornisht". I don't know what its connection is to the other words that were being discussed, but it's interesting in itself. It serves various functions in Yiddish in its two Slavic-origin guises: "gol" and "hoyl": er geyt in a goln/hoyln kop; i.e., bareheaded er golt zikh di bord; i.e., shaves dos iz nisht keyn kave, siz hoyle vase; i.e. pure water There's an interesting paper on the subject which YIVO published some ye ago by Vera (Lockwood)Baviskar, now deceased, on the distribution of the forms and the relationships among their meanings. Slavists note. Mikhl. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.143