Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.333 February 23, 1995 1) Introduction (Charles Kent) 2) Shem-hitl (Kalman Weiser) 3) Tevye (Larry Rosenwald) 4) Rogelekh; Krupin's dictionary (Dovid Braun) 5) Krupin's dictionary (Hershl Hartman) 6) Gikh (Yude Rozof) 7) A Hebrew-Yiddish Puzzle for your amusement (Zvi Lipkin) 8) Mazl (Leonard Prager) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 19:50:12 -0500 From: ckent7500@aol.com Subject: Introduction I'm actually a snowbird from Toronto where many long years ago I completed "mittle shule" at the Workmans circle Peretz Shule. However for the next 50-60 years I had little opportunity to put my knowledge to use. Can speak and write easily but when it comes to reading dos iz an andere tsure. Well this is a begining. Alevay. Charles Kent 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 15:57:16 -0500 (EST) From: kiw2@columbia.edu Subject: Shem-hitl Veyst emetser fun vanen nemt zikh der poylisher oysdruk, "zikh oystun dem shem-hitl?" d.h., az me zol zikh nisht shemen un poshet frey redn. Kent ir andere badaytn? Kalman Weiser 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 16:30:44 -0500 (EST) From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu Subject: Tevye Nokh epes on Tevye, in response to Danielle Harpaz and her class: in calling Tevye's position on Chava's marriage a "dogma," I didn't mean anything pejorative, and didn't mean anything that's at odds with your calling it "faithfulness." Rather I meant to get at a certain quality in that position, namely, that it's not subject to examination. Tevye can ask himself why the wealth of a prospective son-in-law should matter, or why the politics of another prospective son-in-law should matter, but he can't really ask himself why it should matter that a prospective son-in-law should be a gentile. That makes his position one of faith, or one of dogma, and one that in that sense is not accessible to the sort of questioning skepticism he addresses to other positions. Larry Rosenwald 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 00:00:50 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Rogelekh; Krupin's dictionary 1. A reminder, though, that we discovered in our pursuit of the etymology of _rogelekh_ that in fact it is not etymologically related to _rog_ 'corner'. Yiddish _rogelekh_ is related to Polish _rogal_, Ukrainian _rohal_ (and diminutive forms thereof). 2. H. Hartman mentioned that Krupin's dictionary was republished. Could you share the bibliographic reference with us? Thanks in advance. Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 15:21:48 -0500 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Krupin's dictionary Krupin's hantbukh fun hebreizmen in der yidisher shprakh kon men krign, loyt dem letztn numer "der bay," baym arbeter ring bukh tsenter oder durkh dem zun, manuel krupin, telefon 310-391-9659. Hershl Hartman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 02:02:46 -0500 (EST) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Gikh Ikh dermon zikh, nisht nor gikh hobn mir, kinehore, nor dertsu farmogn mir "gikhersht" mitn zelbikn batayt vos gikher, d"h liber, libersht. Dos iz oykh paralel tsu der iker / derikersht, un azoy vayter. Gikhersht hob ikh nisht gekent gefinen ba Uriel: ikh hob dos vort tsum ershtn mol antdekt, meyn ikh, in Mordkhe Schaechter's Laytish Mame-loshn. "Shnel" leyn ikh ba Urieln, vert gerekhnt far a daytshmerizm, ober dos shtimt nisht ayn mit mayn khush: khotsh kh'bin getsoygn gevorn in an english-redndiker heym, fleg men ba undz nokh zogn, (gor zeltn) gey shlofn shnel! Letsns hob ikh di fraze vider gehert ba der uffirung fun der amerikaner-yidisher pyese "Cantorial." Der oylem hot gelakht, heyst es az ikh bin in dem prat nisht eyner aleyn. Mikhl, efsher kent ir mir zogn tsi shnel hot gelebt in di dialektn? Yude Rozof 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 95 15:02:40 IST From: rhle302%uvm.haifa.ac.il@vm.tau.ac.il Subject: A Hebrew-Yiddish Puzzle for your amusement A woman who speaks both Hebrew and Yiddish answers the telephone. The call is for her husband who is resting and also speaks both languages. To alert him and be sure that he understands, she calls him simultaneously in both languages. Her message is understandable and appropriate in both languages, but the words and their meanings are completely different. What did she say? Zvi Lipkin [The answer will appear in Mendele early next week. nm] 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 95 15:12:14 IST From:rhle302%uvm.haifa.ac.il@vm.tau.ac.il Subject: Mazl A friend sent me this: What can you tell me of the concept of "mazel" in Yiddish life? I'm reminded of that when I think of my good health which, with conscious superstition, I attribute to luck; and along the same lines sometimes worry and wonder that my " luck " is going to be used up, run out. I consciously use "luck" in the Northern European (Germanic people's) sense for whom "luck" is (was) a quantity with which people are born; thus some with little luck, others with much luck. Luck can be used up, so that people can run out of luck, or lose their luck. While Americans today use the word luck in the above way all the time they have little consciousness of its derivation or the total concept. The Yiddish/Hebrew "maz(a)l" is translated as "luck". and is today certainly used by Americans Jews in the way the Germanic peoples used it. But is it really the same? It is I suppose a good possibility that European Jews picked up the concept of luck and gave it their own term, although the word "glik\gluk" is in Yiddish in addition to "mazl." Are they simple alternatives or are they getting at different concepts. Try that on Mendele. I'm not on Mendele because I would have not much to contribute and because, in all honesty, chatting about Yiddish is not a high priority. Still it might be fun to lurk. Leonard Prager ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.333 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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