______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.276 March 10, 1994 1) Ekel, feygl/faygl (Kathleen Noe) 2) Ekl: recent citation (Shleyme Axelrod) 3) Ansky exhibit in Europe? (Lewis Leavitt) 4) Brillnshlang (Dvosye Bilik) 5) Nebbish (Rick Gildemeister) 6) Ashkenazik (Anatole Beck) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 10:35:23 1994 From: Kathleen_NOE@umail.umd.edu (kn11) Subject: ekel, feygl/faygl picking up dan kirschers inquiry conc. 'eklet', yes, the same is used in modern german 'es ekelt mir/mich'. but i would like to contradict arre komar's classification of the word as "pure german" - what does that mean? the word ekel is derived from the germanic stem *aikla, i would therefore expect it to be present in some form in other germanic languages (as it is manifested in yiddish!) just as an aside, nazi-propaganda caused later problems in the usage of these same words (which before the 1930s had been neutral), they had become, so to speak, tainted by ns-ideology. the fact that hitler used the word 'ekelt' to express disgust is not especially surprising, given that german was his native language - and that he expressed anti-jewish sentiment from the word go doesn't strike me as a revelation either. so i guess my point is that i don't get your point. conc. feygl/faygl (or mikhl herzogs back formations feyge/fayge) i am pleased to be able to further confuse the issue: instead of a bird, how about a fig? 'fayg' (dialectical variant 'feyg'?) sounds plausible, too, espec. given the connection to 'faygnblat'. any takers for this one? kathleen noe 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 10:37:35 1994 From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: ekl: recent citation From the Forverts of March 4, 1994 (p. 22): "in a rede far der kneset hot premier rabin oysgedrikt ekl iber der shkhite in khevron." As others have pointed out, the word may have come directly from contemporary German; Weinreich apparently considered it daytshmerish. The Forverts has not been noted for its avoidance of unnecessary imports; its advertising still includes a section labelled "klasifayd eds". I recall seeing an account, years ago, of demonstrations at the Forverts building (on East Broadway in NYC?) by Yugntrufnikes carrying signs calling for "derekh-erets far yidish." Shleyme Axelrod 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 13:23:21 1994 From: Subject: Ansky exhibit in Europe? I was told by someone that that there is to be an exhibit "somewhere in europe" of recently recovered material from Ansky's ethnographic expedition of 75 years ago. -Does anyone have some information about this? Lewis Leavitt 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 15:48:34 1994 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu (db28) Subject: Brillnshlang Dear Wise Persons of Mendele, Brillnshlang in German is the equivalent of "four eyes"--a pejorative for someone who wears glasses,particularly an intellectual woman or bluestocking. In a strange and wonderful Sutzkever story "A Shmeykhl in ek velt" it appears to be an exotic--not to say grotesque, vaguely fishy delicacy. Yes, I fully realize the multiple meanings. However, does the word in Yiddish have the same taytch as in German? Philologists, folklorists, critics, etc. --any answers? Also to our beloved shames--a thousand pardons for forgetting the subj. Amol hot mayn moyekh nit ken koyekh. [Un amol amol shteyt oyf der shames af der linker zayt..] To Anatole Beck a hartsikn grus from me and from Barbara whom I see at folk dancing. Dvosye Bilik 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 16:14:19 1994 From: Subject: "Nebbish" I always believed that the word "nebbish" in Yinglish was just nebekh, in the same way "toosh" is used for tokhes. Well, it's probably a coincidence but nebekh in Mayrev-Yidish comes out as nebish, the way some Germans pronounce Ich as Ish. Bay Yidn in Daytshland zenen kinderlekh geven "kinderlish". There is a distinction in that this "Ich-laut" doesn't "shush" as much as the true "isch" but it sure is different than "kh". Just a little footnote dangling eyninker aleyn. A shtikl funem oytser fun mayrev-yidish. Rick Gildemeister 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 8 18:03:41 1994 From: Subject: Ashkenazik To add another dimension to the issue of the name of my mother tongue, I would say that the name Yiddish makes the same claim of Jewish universality as Jewish, only in our own speech. I stand by my memory that it was a kind of Zionist PC which propelled the name into currency, and after all, most Yiddish-speakers in the 40s & 50s were Zionists. In fact, any desire to specify accurately the scope of our language would denote it as Ashkenazic or Ashkenazish, in keeping with the community in which it was spoken. I am interested in running down the question of whether Daitch was ever widely used and a synonym for Yiddish. There seems little doubt that the source of Yiddish was the Rhenish of the 10th or 11th Century. It is more than possible that those who took the language with them when they went to E. Europe thought they were speaking German, notwithstanding the liberal use of certain Hebrew words. The language antedates the strangling of formal German by the scholastics who locked it into the Procrustian bed of Latin grammar, and may in some sense be a more authentic German than is Hochdeutsch. I find the street German of Vienna & Prague closer to Yiddish than to Goethe. But I find no difficulty in designating myself as an Ashkenaz, which I do sometimes on forms asking my cultural heritage for purposes of pigeonholing me. Let them figure it out themselves, I say. Anatole Beck ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.276 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