______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.264 March 6, 1994 1) The name for 'Yidish' (Yosl Berman) 2) Sports terms (David Sherman) 3) Sports terms (Moshe Waldoks) 4) Manses/ shmoolyares (Harold L. Orbach) 5) Purim lidl (Yude Rozof) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 2 12:44:59 1994 From: Subject: The name for 'Yidish' The Yiddish word 'Yidish' developed in an environment which truly was Eurocentric. Few Europeans in the middle ages had any concept of the world more than a few kilometres from their homes, let alone the modern-style 'sophistication' to worry about whether their terminology was politically correct. When English speakers finally began to speak in an academic or scholarly fashion about the Yiddish language (many generations after it had come into existence) the English language, being (among other things) the language of the British Empire, already possessed a global context. It may not have been a conscious effort to avoit Eurocentricity which led to calling the language Yiddish, but one cannot deny that the far-reaching nature of English at the time would have had an influence. The English language, for example, had long contained the word 'Hebrew' which was already known to be a Jewish Language. So while in Yiddish, the name of the language tends to reflect, in parts, the insular nature of its original speakers, in English, this context is not a part of the Yiddish paradigm. Additionally, as I mentioned in the past, the very nature of the spoken Yiddish language (with it inherent subtleties and implied meanings) makes it almost impossible to achieve ambiguity about the word 'Yidish' while English, spoken and written, does not possess these qualities. Yosl Berman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 2 13:38:35 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Re: sports terms We don't do "DE-fense" in our pickup volleyball games at Yugntruf's yidish-vokh, but the organizers last year prepared a whole two-sided sheet of sports terms. I believe Binyomin Schaechter put it together. It's titled "Sports Terminology (Yugntruf Yiddish retreat, September 1993)". It shows "to save" (under General Terminology) as "rateven". No surprise there. Under Basketball, "to block" is "blokiern". Feh. I recall discussing this concept with Binyomin while I was going at one of the hoops placed lower than 10 ft., and he said what I was doing was slam-dunkiern. David Sherman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 2 16:02:48 1994 From: WALDOKS@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Sports terms Perhaps neil Jacobs could get them to put up the following on the scoreboards: gib im a shtoys, gib im a rir, lozn zey zebrechen di kep, hep hep hep. gib im a shtoys gib im a rir, varf zey aroys fun tir, hip hip hip. derlang im a frask, derlang im a patsch, nem aroys si hent fun tasch, ra ra ra Moshe Waldoks 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 2 23:09:15 1994 From: Subject: (1) mansehs again and (2) shmoolyaris Re Zachary Baker's remarks on Philologus on HENRY (not Philip) Roth's new book and responses to them: Hasn't there been enough last year by those who grew up saying 'manses/ mansehs in some form to not need any reopening of this? It would seem that Lodzer/Galician Yiddish among others did more than just nasalize and did put in an 'n' sound. I do remember 'shmoolyaris' as being used in relation to money/dollars, but my recollection here is hazy. I suggest Zach that you ask Mike Baker about this one. I don't think there's any connection of 'shmoolyaris' to 'simoleon,' the latter being an old American slang term whose origin the OED (Vol. IV, Supplement, p.190) gives as "obscure" but perhaps modeled on Napoleon. OED gives 1896 as first print use by George Ade, but he spelled it 'samoleon'. I recall it from detective stories and movies, and used on the streets of New York in relation to gambling. OED also cites Alan Lomax's use of 'simoleons' in his (1952) Mister Jelly Roll, referring to a much earlier time. NB: 'fegelah' now appears as an English word in R.L. Chapman's (1989) Thesaurus of American Slang (p.102), one of many nouns for a gay male. Harold L. Orbach 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 3 03:14:14 1994 From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Purim Lidl Eyne a froy hot gezukht di verter fun a purim lidl vos zi hot zikh dermont fun kindvayz. Ikh derken ot dos lidl, s'dukht zikh fun College Yiddish: Haynt iz Purim/morgn iz oys/git mir a groshn/un varft mikh aroys! Inem amolikn mizrekh-eyrope farn khurbm flegn yidishe kinderlekh geyn fun tir tsu tir zingndik dos un enlekhe lider. Di kinderlekh flegn krign matonelekh, kleyn gelt, un dos glaykhn. Der gantser minheg hot a paralel mit Halloween. In amerike geyn kinderderlekh arum oktobertsayt mit a geris: "Trick or Treat." Yude Rozof ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.265 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