______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.250 February 27, 1994 1) The death of Yiddish (Pinye Weichsel) 2) Henry Roth's latest book (per Philologos) (Zachary Baker) 3) Names of Yiddish / Maybe the same (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Feb 24 17:24:30 1994 From: Paul Weichsel Subject: The death of Yiddish My colleague Anatole Beck (I am a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois in Urbana) announces the death of Yiddish in Israel. I am sure that most Mendelniks are well aware that nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are there substantial pockets of population where Yiddish is the language of everyday life, there are also healthy audiences for Yiddish theater,vigorous programs in the universities, etc. Oyf uns gezogt! Pinye Weichsel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Feb 24 20:09:53 1994 From: Zachary Baker (bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu) Subject: Henry Roth's latest book (per Philologos) In his Feb. 25th "On Language" column in the English "Forward," Philologos devotes himself to the derivation of the pejorative term "mockie," which has been variably traced to the Yiddish "make" ("a make oyf dir") and the name Mo (from Moyshe). Henry Roth, in his new book "Mercy of a Rude Stream," gives another explanation: "But now on 119th Street, among all the goyim jeering at Jews: 'Mockies: Make money, oy.' Some even had learned how to say it in Yiddish: Makh geldt [sic]..." Philologos broadens Roth's etymology to include the Yiddish verb "makhn" in general. This alone might make for an interesting -- nay, interminable -- discussion on MENDELE. Nor nit dos bin ikh oysn, as it says in the good book. Philologos then proceeds to discuss other Yiddishisms in "Mercy of a Rude Stream," beseeching his readers to explain whether Roth was "confused or if he is accurately quoting dialectical [sic?] uses (his parents came to America from Polish Galicia) that have subsequently disappeared. Were there actually Jews who said "tokken" instead of takke [sic] for 'indeed'? Or who nasalized the ayin in mayseh, a story or tall tale, so that it sounded like 'manseh'? (Such nasalization does occur in a small number of Yiddish words, as in the name Yakov, commonly pronounced as Yankev.) Or who instead of ikh hob, 'I have,' said 'ikh khom'?.... The strangest word I came across in Mr. Roth's new book is 'shmoolyaris' (singular, 'shmoolyareh'), used by his Jewish immigrants to mean 'dollars.' Do any of you remember such a word from your childhoods? Could it possibly come from 'Shmul,' the Yiddish form of the Hebrew name Shmuel or Samuel -- that is Uncle Sam?" Any takers, MENDELnikes? Zachary Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Feb 24 17:44:42 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: 1.Names of Yiddish 2. Maybe the same 1. Names of Yiddish. Even in Yiddish, the name 'yidish' must be considered a relatively late appelation. An article in "Der Tog" of January 21, 1916 (!!) announces the following little known event: "In der barimter Kolombiye yuniversiti vet men in gikhn onheybn tsu gebn a kurs in yidish". The author, B. Gorin, then feels compelled to explain, at considerable length what he means by "yidish", for what he estimates is more than 50% of his readers, who know only the terms "mame-loshn" or "zhargon" (then still a non-offensive designation) for the language they speak. I, too, spoke "Jewish" before I spoke "Yiddish", and my Yiddish loving uncle never understood why some people were incensed when he boasted to his friends in the "shop" that his "plimenik iz gevorn a profeser fun zhargon". The decision to differentiate "Jewish" from "Yiddish", in American!! English seems to me to be an acknowledgment of the fact that there are other "Jewishes", Judezmo among them. Of course, the split in English, which makes us feel that "Do you speak Jewish?" is a bit off key, has also led to even less acceptable collocations like "I don't like Yiddish cooking?" The problem is reflected in the title of the Yiddish dialect atlas, and I expect to say more about it in the Introduction to Volume III (Volume II is now in press). In all of Uriel Weinreich's (and my own) references to the Atlas in Yiddish, the work is entitled "Yidisher shprakh- un kultur-atlas". The title in English is "Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry". Weinreich felt that "Jewish Language and Culture" would be staking too broad a claim, and that "Yiddish Culture" was a bit off the mark in English. "Yiddish verbal culture" would have been OK, if awkward. Hence "ASHKENAZIC JEWRY". Furthermore, the original plans for the Yiddish Atlas foresaw the possibility of a subsequent "Jewish Language and Culture Atlas" that would examine the geographic distribution of Jewish language and culture features across Jewish language boundaries. Keith Weisser, take note! Unfortunately, even those who should know better (YIVO-bleter, for example) have made the mistake of translating the English title back into Yiddish as "Shprakh- un kultur-atlas fun ashkenazishe yidn". No way. Librarians and bibliographers beware!! I may be repeating myself but, I think that English, in Britain and Ireland, continues to use "Yiddish" to mean 'Jewish'. I've heard "a Yiddishe (sic!) boy" and I know that several years ago, the New York Times carried an obituary for a former employee who, having been born in Dublin, had been the president of the "Yiddish Sons of Eire". Let me add, by the way, that Anatole Beck may be right. There were none too friendly publications about Yiddish in 18th century France entitled, "Argot juifs". 2) Yitzhak Kertesz: P.S. Even Shoshan's use of "lashon meduberet" seems to me to be a euphemism for "Yiddish" (see, for example, the entry "davar akher" s.v. "davar"). Do you think, by any stretch of the imagination, that references you to "spaetrabbinisch" can ever have the same euphemistic connation? Mikhl Herzog ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.250 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Mendele: Yiddish literature and language