______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.284 March 14, 1994 1) Transliteration Table (Jack Lubowsky) 2) Word evolutions: foygl, feygele; klezmer (Louis Fridhandler) 3) "Feygele" (Hope Ehn) 4) Naughty bits in yiddish and various (Michael Sweet) 5) Cricket (Michael Zylberman) 6) Wife Beating, Ba undz? (Sheldon Benjamin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 13 12:14:58 1994 From: Subject: Transliteration Table After growing up in Brooklyn where Yiddish was the lingua franca and watching it slowly disappear, it was wonderful to find this list. A glick hot mir getrofen...which brings me to my question... Is there a formal transliteration table for Yiddish/English so that my Yiddish spelling doesn't get even worse than it is? I must tell you that in my father's last year, although we frequently conversed in Yiddish, I lived in Washington, D.C. and began to write him in Yiddish. Of course he wrote in return. Somehow letters in Yiddish always seemed warmer. Jack Lubowsky 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 13 12:24:06 1994 From: <74064.1661@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Word evolutions: foygl, feygele; klezmer I dare say most are aware that Weinreich defines feygele as checkmark as well as little bird. I've NEVER seen feygele used to mean checkmark, but the image is compelling. Use of feygele to mean male homosexual was certainly known in Montreal in the '30s. It never occurred to me to ask when, where or how it evolved. Other bird allusions with disparate meanings are found in 1) foyglmilkh for irrational fantasy or something impossible to get; 2) nit foygldik to describe something not going well; and 3) (as has been pointed out) a foygl may refer to a slick operator, someone from whom you might expect a fast shuffle. I can't think of any common factor here. A jaunty plea for mercy for a bird is in a wonderful record called CHICKEN (played by Henry Sapoznik's Kapelye): hot rakhmones af dos feygl lost es lebn, est a beygl. Henry Sapoznik's note about how very recent has been the first use of "klezmer" to indicate a musical genre (rather than a musician) is (to me) an astonishment. I never thought of asking that question. Now I wonder when "klezmer" came into Yiddish (from the Hebrew for musical instrument) to mean a musician, especially a traveling musician (a disreputable calling in the shtetl). Apropos, I looked up a couple of things. The opening lines of the 1903 revision of Sholem Aleichem's 1888 novel "Stempenyu" alludes to Stempenyu's father thus: "zayn tate iz geven a klezmer." The 1888 version does not mention "klezmer" in this context. Could this mean anything regarding first use of klezmer to mean a musician? Or, does it mean anything regarding change in status of a klezmer from disreputable to (almost) respectable? The 15 years between the two versions would seem too short a time for that radical change to supervene. Jewish weddings in Montreal in the 30s and 40s always had music played by men whose conversation was characteristically saucy. They seemed a breed apart, not "regulars," perhaps because they were hired hands. I think they were called klezmorim, but I'm not sure I remember accurately. I envied them, and I never got the impression that they were generally considered low class or disreputable. But then, Montreal has always been a different kettle of fish, far removed from New York ambience. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 13 20:17:50 1994 From: Subject: "Feygele" I was reading the Philologus column dealing with this group and the word "feygele" in the English "Forward" when my daughter phoned from Minneapolis, where she is in graduate school (in music). Like me, she knows Yiddish only from what she has picked up, and perhaps from a tape. I asked her if she knew the Yiddish word for "gay." She responded right away: "feygele." I asked her how she came to know that, and she said from Mel Brooks in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." Hope Ehn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 13 21:19:16 1994 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Naughty bits in yiddish and various Another addition to genitalia names in Yiddish--"shmue", which Harkavy gives quite directly as "cunt"--how did he get away with this in 1928? My mother, olehasholem, who was extremely puritanical in English, actually used this as an endearment when crooning to my baby sister "usa sheyne shmushkele." As Michael Steinlauf pointed out, the lebedike yidish of the common people was quite earthy, as opposed to the prissiness of the balebatim. Regarding the urgency of getting living Yiddish recorded--why isn't this being done? What happened to the Great Yiddish Dictionary? With dictionaries of everything from Sumerian to medieval Spanish getting funding, why not a project of such importance? What if the 400 or so Mendelnikes contibuted a mere $100 a piece--would that be enough to get things started, get some matching grants from the NEH or some Jewish organizations? Ellen Prince--thanks for the suggestion, but the story I'm looking for is definitely not "Yentl der yeshiva bokher"--that was about a girl who cross-dressed to get into the yeshiva--the one I read was about two boys who fell in love in the yeshiva, with one cross-dressing, when they move to the big city, in order for them to "pass" as a straight couple--quite a tragic ending too, unlike Yentl. Michael Sweet 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 13 23:57:15 1994 From: Subject: Cricket I am seeking anyone out there who can help with Yiddish terminology for the sport of cricket. There must be some out there as it was and is a game confronting Anglo Jews many of whom would have made references in Yiddish in newspapers or magazines. I must confess that even I an Australian born Jew has some difficulty in explaining the game to others. Typical terms in English are: Silly mid on (and of course off) Short square leg Googely Slips Bails and wickets As far as Yiddish in Australia is concerned and Thomas Keneally is concerned these are topics for another time. Michael Zylberman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 01:43:35 1994 From: sbenj@MIT.EDU Subject: Wife Beating, Ba undz? The March 13th Mendele contained a hopeful interpretation that the inclusion of the phrase on beating one's wife in the little purim ditty was perhaps lifted from a non-Jewish ditty. If the number of Yiddish folksongs with reference to such habits are any indication (and I beleive they are) , then such behavior was probably not too hard to find. As evidence I would offer: Nemt a Yid a vibele which contains the phrase "tse farn kugel darf men di vayb shlogn." Or a little jump rope song from my Bubbe's village in Belarus: Oyf di gas vos geyt fun Kolverot, rays men bay di gantse shtot, dortn veynt Berl Polavik (this one names names yet!), shlog di vayb mit a shtrik. Or how about the song, A Yor Nokh Mayn Khasene, which contains reference to "raysn oyf di tseyn" refering to the behavior of the young husband toward his unfortunate bride. There are many others. Many also refer to Jewish men coming home drunk and beating the wife, in contrast to Geyt a Yid in Shenkl Arayn, which draws the distinction between the gentile who gets drunk and disorderly and the Jew who, when drunk, likes to khap a minkhele or some similar spiritual endeavor. I am fairly certain I could cite other examples of folksongs with reference to male misbehavior but I think the point is made. Shelton Benjamin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.284 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