Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.157 October 28, 1994 1) Introduction (Etan Cohen) 2) Petrushke; Yiddish after 50 years (Cecile Kuznitz) 3) "Only in MY family..." (Jules Levin) 4) Chopped liver (Dovid Braun) 5) Chopped liver (Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner) 6) Pasternak/posternak (Dovid Braun) 7) Nukhem Stutchkoff (Heynekh Sapoznik) 8) Yiddish funny stories (Kayle Goodman) 9) Vegn breyres (Peter Kluehs) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 94 13:23:20 -0500 From: ecohen@husc.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Etan Cohen and I am a sophomore in college. My major is Yiddish with a special interest in Yiddish liturature. As I spoke no Yiddish at all before this year, I began learning it as part of my studies. I'm enjoying it a great deal and am very excited about becoming a part of Mendele. Etan Cohen 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 10:32:07 -0700 (PDT) From: tsirl@leland.stanford.edu Subject: Petrushke; Yiddish after 50 years My mother uses the word "petrushke" (which she pronounces *petritshke*) to refer to parsnip, not parsley. She also uses the word "arbes" to refer only to chickpeas, not green peas (which seemed to confound Dr. Schaechter). A while back Glen Levine, I believe, asked about the level of Yiddish among people who had not used the language for several decades. My father grew up speaking Yiddish in the home, but did not use it as an adult. When I began to study Yiddish and would ask him questions, it was the first time he had used Yiddish in many years. Now, he can understand spoken Yiddish and remembers individual words if I ask him, but he has difficulty producing complete Yiddish sentences. Cecile Kuznitz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 11:08:35 -0700 (PDT) From: jflevin@ucrac1.ucr.edu Subject: "Only in MY family..." I will respond to [Dovid Braun's] challenge. In my family a child who fooled around, acted silly, etc., could be called "a silly gazinkas..." After Yiddish speakers assured me there was no such word in Yiddish (and it certainly isnt in English), I decided it was a family word made up in the following way: On the pattern of English "silly goose", the Yiddish word gants (well known in the family in the expression 'gants gut, kachke besser'-- we tried to be funny in Yiddish even with minimal language skills) was given the *Lithuanian* suffix -inkas, actually an agent suffix like English -er in pisher (:-)). My zeyde certainly knew Lithuanian, and even moderate contact with the language would familiarize one with this very common suffix. (The Lith word for goose is 'zha:sis, so the whole word 'gazinkas' isnt Lith.) The combining of a Yiddish word with a Lith suffix would contribute to the humorous effect in the whole context. My mother's generation, with much less linguistic sophistication than my zeyde, dropped the first 'n', and *ganzinkas became gazinkas. Anyway, I'd really be surprised and delighted if this turned out to NOT be a family word! Jules Levin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 17:07:48 EDT From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Un vos bin ikh -- a hunt?! The Yiddish for "What am I, chopped liver?!" is "un vos bin ikh -- a hunt?" (This is assuming I know what the English expression means. I've heard it only in the past 5 years. All the times (but once) the idiom was used in such a way as to mean that _chopped liver_ is something lowly, disgusting, worthless. In one instance, I heard it with the opposite meaning -- actually extracted from the full idiom: "Why does everyone think she's chopped liver?!" i.e., 'hot stuff'. Chopped liver has very positive asociations in Yiddish foodlore, so if the "canonical" use of the idiom treats chopped liver as something yucky (in technical terms), it probably doesn't come from Yiddish. But maybe I've misunderstood the English idiom. Dovid Braun 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 94 09:20:21 CET From: reisner%plearn.bitnet@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Subject: Chopped liver The query in Mendele 4.155 about "chopped liver" as a metaphor reminded me of a line often used by my Litvak bubbe, aleha ha-shalom. When she was feeling left out, she used to say: "Vos, mayn neshome 's a rozhinke?!" (What, is my soul a raisin, some kind of dried-up thing? I'm also a person worthy of respect and dignity!) Curious if this phrase is widely known.... Yale J. Reisner 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 17:09:45 EDT From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Pasternak/posternak Any explanations for the pronunciation [posternak] 'parsnips', specifically with [o], in NON-tote-mome-Yiddish? I'm aware of it from Northern Poland and other perhaps some areas. Dovid Braun 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 22:30:33 -0400 From: sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Nukhem Stutchkoff Well known for his magnificent Yiddish thesaurus, Nukhem Stutchkoff was a prolific and high quality author of both radio drama and commercial copywriting. (In fact his commercial advertising prose--mostly for Manishewitz matzos--was so well written that numerous listeners said that they never tuned to other stations during his commercials because they would always want to hear him find a new way to describe a matzo...). In addition to writing the plays he was a very skilled actor on-air (a GREAT dialectician...vu den?) in addition to directing the programs and reading all his ad copy. The only thing he didn't do was play the organ intro to the show. Given his full-time non-stop radio career from 1932 (on Brooklyn's WLTH) to the late 40s (for WEVD) it is sobering to consider that, for all intents and purposes, Stuchkoff's "der oytser fun der yidisher sprakh" was compiled in his spare time! (In addition to his dramas he even produced a short lived show about etymology and folklore called "vi di mame fleg zogn".) Excerpts from some of these broadcasts will be part of a documentary being co-produced by Living Traditions and National Public Radio called "The Stations That Spoke Your Language: Jewish-American Radio 1925-1955" set to air in December of 1995. Heynekh Sapoznik 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 19:39:53 -0700 From: ac939@lafn.org Subject: Yiddish funny stories Dos is far dem foter fun Patrick Markowicz. Di mayse heyst NISHKOSHE. ******** Eyn id treft dem andern af'n gas. Got helf, reb Yankl, vos makht ir epes? Ay vos zol ikh aykh zogn! Nit gut! Mayn gantse hoyz mit'n gesheft zanen ogebrent gevorn. Oy vey, is dokh shlekht! Khapt nit, es iz nit azoy shlekht. Ikh bin geven farstrakhirt, hob ikh opgenumen mer, vi di hoyz mit'n gesheft zanen vert geven. Akh, iz dos gut! Zayt ir dokh tsurik afn ferd! Aylt zikh nit, es iz nit azoy gut! Vos iz? Mayn vayb nit far kayn idn gedakht, iz geshtorbn. Oy iz dos shlekht. Neyn,; es iz nit azoy shlekht. Vi heyst? Nit shlekht? Vos ken zeyn nokh erger? Farsshteyt ir mikh--ikh hob genumen an andere, a yunge, a sheyne, mit asakh nadn. Akh, aderabe! Iz dokh gor fayn. Khapt nit, es siz nit azoy fayn oykh. Vos iz? Es volt geven take gor fayn, nor mir hobn antkegn unzer hoyz a yunger ofitser. Iz treft zikh a mol, az mayn vayb klaybt zikh ariber tsum ofitser. Un az an ofitser mit a yunger sheyner vaybl zanen tzuzamen, ret men mistome nit fun toyre. Fe! Iz dokh mies a bizoyen! Iz dokh take emes shlekht! Es redt zidkh azoy: shlekht, ober es iz nit gor shlekht. Vos heyst, vos redt ir? Es iz dokh mies. Der ofitser, darft ir visn, hot a yunge vaybl, un take a sheyn vaybl. Iz ven mayn vaybl geyt tsum ofitser, kumt dem ofitsers vaybl tsu mir. Nu, meyle is dokh vayter kayn sakone nit, iz dokh gut. Es iz nit _gut_, un es iz nit _shlekht_; es iz _nishkoshe_. ***** Ikh hof az der foter vet hobn anoye un mayne mendelnike fraynt oykh! Kayle Goodman 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 28 Oct 1994 15:45:00 +0200 From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de Subject: Vegn breyres Lernendik vayter dem sheynem yidishn loshn ikh ze mit fargenigen (hanoe), az a bal-loshn hot alts (tomed) tsvey oder mer breyres (meglekhkeytn) kedey tsum opklaybn dos rikhtike vort. Ot, a pasike mayse fun salcia landmanns bukh: =0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0= Beys der ershter velt-milkhome hot zikh a yidish yingl gedarft shteln far a militer-komisye. Fort der tate tsum rebn fregn im an eytse. Zogt der rebe: "Du darfst dir nisht makhn kayn agmas-nefesh. A yid hot tomed tsvey breyres." "Viazoy tsvey breyres, rebe?" fregt der yid. "Her mikh oys! Dayn zun shtelt zikh far a komisye. Oder men vet im nemen, oder men vet im nisht nemen. Vet men im nisht nemen, iz avade gut. Vet men im yo nemen, hot er tsvey breyres. Oder er geyt oyfn front, oder er geyt in di sanitet. Geyt er in di sanitet, iz avade gut. Geyt er oyfn front, hot er tsvey breyres. Oder er vert farvundet, oder er vert nisht farvundet. Vert er nisht farvundet, iz avade gut. Vert er yo farvundet, hot er tsvey breyres. Oder er lebt als invalid, oder er shtarbt. Lebt er als invalid, iz avade gut. Shtarbt er, hot er tsvey breyres. Oder er vert gebrakht tsu kever yisroel, oder er vert bagrobn in a masengrub mit goyim in eynem - ersht demolt ligt er mitn kop in der erd!" =0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0=0= Agev, ikh halt un ikh meyn, az mir zoln hobn a data baze mit yidishn tekstn vu mir mendelniks voltn gekont aroplodn zikh interesante naye literatur, oder in hebrew ascii oder transliterirt in yivo oysleg. vos sogt undzer shames tsu dem inyen? Peter Kluehs [Zogt der shames: makhtese, mit dem grestn fargenign! Ober vi kumt di kats ibern vaser?] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.157 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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