______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.255 March 1, 1994 1) Feygelakh, nokh a mol (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 2) Tsuneyf un azey vayter (Adam Whiteman) 3) "Dialectical" Yiddishisms (Laurie Hollander) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Feb 25 21:52:45 1994 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Feygelakh, nokh a mol I have some doubt about Mikhl Herzog's contention, seductive though it may be, that feygele is merely a "Yiddishoid" version of fag. Firstly, per Feinsilver, it is a common term of endearment, with no sexual connotation implied. So it didn't have to be invented. Secondly, in a strange coincidence, my partner is a DARE editor, and he believes that he spoke to Jacob Mlotek, who told him it was attested in Poland. Thirdly, it is hardly to be credited that same-sex emotional/sexual behavior was unknown among E. European Jews, although balebatishe mentshen would have had that "bay unts iz dos nit geven" response, there was, as we know, a rich underworld of ganeyvim, nofkes, and other such "proste" folk, who must have had a rich vocabulary of terms for sexual preferences of all types. Naturally, the concept of gay or homosexual wasn't available to the more rural and traditional people, who may have viewed what we would consider a gay man as a type of eunuch (sores). Anyone out there familiar with Yiddish underworld slang, any literature available on that? By the way, would love to hear why "Feygel" is not related to birds. Deeply shocked at Jascha Kessler's homophobic remarks. A shande un a kharpe. He must be aware that a Roman male would cruise both girls and boys with equal aplomb (cf. Amy Richlin's excellent "The Garden of Priapus), as homophobia had not yet seized the West with the rise of body-hating Christianity (see Brown's "The Body and Society"). Don't know what kind of weird universe he inhabits, where all the gay people are "depressed, unhappy, and angry"--this is the most egregious sterotyping out of the '50s, much as discribing Jews as "shrewd and avaricious" or blacks as "rhythmical, shiftless, simpleminded". I'd be happy to introduce you to many reasonably happy, self-accepting, creative, life-affirming gay men and lesbians, Jascha. Many of them are also (oy vey!) Jewish, as were, l'moshl, Gerty Stein, Aaron Copeland, Lenny Bernstein, Harvey Milk, to mention be a few illustrious non-depressed feygelakh. As to a group's right to name itself, I seem to remember that it wasn't long ago that the then regnant WASPs referred to us as "Hebrews"--a very distancing term indeed, which we correctly rejected for the upfront "Jew". Another example is naming the Tanakh from the point of view of our historical oppressors the "New Testament"--that too is rightly giving way to the neutral "Hebrew Bible." There are some PC excesses, but I find that those who protest them the most are really just deathly afraid of the changes in our culture threatening their privileged positions. End of droshe. And what of the truly invisible Lesbian in Yiddish? Weinreich doesn't even include the word in his English section; it's interesting that Harkavy, writing in supposedly less liberated times, could include all sorts of real words for sexual and other bodily functions that Weinreich eschews. I've heard "Lesbiankes", but that's probably a fairly recent coinage. Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Feb 26 10:06:36 1994 From: <74031.775@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Tsuneyf un azey vayter Khaver Herzog ir hot punkt getrofn. Ikh un mayner eltern shtamen fun Bronx ober di bobe un der eyropeyisher tsvayg fun der mishpokhe shtamen fun Vaysrusland - Slavyane un Borisov. Itster hobn zey zikh ale ibergetseygn kin Isroel, mer vi 60 mentshn. Teyl fun zey redn nokh alts a sabesdikn yidis vos mir amerikaner hobn farloyrn. Vegn tsuneyf - azey redt men - tsuneyfkumen, tsuneyfzamlen, un azey vayter. Ir hot gefregt tsi fran kontektsn ven men zogt nor "a sakh" un nit "a fule" - ikh veys nit fun kin kontektsn ven men volt gezogt "a sakh" un nit "a fule" ober ikh bin kin lingvist nit. Adam Whiteman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Feb 27 10:52:07 1994 From: Laurie Hollander Subject: "Dialectical" Yiddishisms In regard to [Zachary Baker's] question: >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'? My maternal grandfather was from Lodz, Poland. My maternal grandmother was from Yekatrinislav (sp?), if I remember correctly, or anyway someplace that shifted back and forth between Russia and Poland. Both of them said "Mayntse" instead of "Mayseh". I can't answer in regard to your other examples because I didn't know enough Yiddish to know what they were saying or even parse the words. Through the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton U., I'm finally fulfilling my lifelong goal of learning Yiddish. Zay mir gesint. (??) Laurie Hollander ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.255 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