Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.211
December 4, 1994

1) Introduction (Jeff Zucker)
2) Tshepn (Martin Davis)
3) Tshepn (Bob Rothstein)
4) Tshepn (Ellen Prince)
5) Tshepn (Paul Pascal)
6) Hebraicization (Rick Gildemeister)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 94 19:28 EST
From: zucker@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
Subject: Introduction

I am a professor of Computer Science at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Canada .  I am from South Africa, so my Yiddish is Litvish -- or it would
be, if I could speak it. In fact, my Yiddish is rudimentary (picking up a
bit from my parents). I am trying to learn Yiddish now, by working
through Weinreich's book.  I have also acquired Sheva Zucker's book (no
relative, to my knowledge).

There are two reasons I'm interested in Yiddish.  One is that I'm
interested (at an amateur level) in linguistics. I already know a fair
amount of Afrikaans and Dutch (having spent some time in Holland), and am
fascinated by the similarities and differences of these with Yiddish
(ignoring temporarily the vocabulary of Heb./Aram. origin). The other is
because of an emotional attachment (now _not_ ignoring the vocabulary of
Heb./Aram. origin).

Although I am trying to work through Weinreich on my own, that is
obviously not as good as attending a class. Although there are classes
given in Toronto nearby, I cannot fit any of them into my schedule. So my
first question is: Are there any on-line (via Internet) exercises or
study aids, or other resources?

Assuming not, here is another idea: is there some kind soul out there,
who would be willing to mark my exercises from Weinreich (or S. Zucker,
if you prefer) on a regular basis -- for a fair remuneration, of course.
I'd email you my exercises in YIVO transcription, and you'd email me back
the corrections.  Obviously, this is not as good as the classroom
experience, but it's something.  Is anyone interested in this?

Jeff Zucker

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 94 13:16:12 -0500
From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu
Subject: Tsugetschepet

In my family the terms "tsushepenish" and "unshikenish" were all too
frequently heard for some unpleasantness that occurred (in the one case
in the sense that it had "grabbed" one of us, in the other that it had
been "sent" our way.

Martin Davis

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 1994 14:24:02 -0500 (EST)
From: rar@slavic.umass.edu
Subject: Tshepn, tshypyorek

Polish _czepic' sie,_ means 'adhere, cling' both literally and
figuratively. It also means 'find fault with, carp, cavil'.  Without the
"reflexive" particle _czepiac'_ is a colloquial term meaning 'annoy;
bother with questions'.  (Polish _cz_ spells [ch], i.e., Yiddish _tsh_.)
The root has that initial consonant everywhere in Slavic except in
Russian, where it has [ts] as in _tsepliat'sia_ 'clutch at, cling to'.

Polish _szczypiorek_ (orthographic _szcz_ is [shch]) is 'chives', but
Harkavy gives 'scallions, eschalot' [shallots, I assume] for Yiddish
_tshipyor_.  (All the same genus Allium, I believe.)  Sounds like we're
back to the great parsley/parsnips controversy.

Bob Rothstein

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 1994 15:15:42 EST
From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: tshepen zikh

[Yude Rozof writes:]
>  I doubt the origin suggested: tzepeetsa does not sound enough
>like tshepn, first of all.

whether it came from this or not, i do not know, but, _if_ it had and if
it had followed the usual correspondences, i believe it would be
precisely _tshepen zikh_. you are perhaps misanalyzing the slavic
reflexive and perhaps also the slavic infinitival ending as part of the
verb stem and you are definitely forgetting that the yiddish verb stem is
in fact bisyllabic. one really must do a bit of analysis to see
linguistic patterns and can't just go by whether two forms 'sound enough
like' each other.

ellen prince

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 04 Dec 94 11:04:39 EST
From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com
Subject: Tshepen

Following on the discussion begun by Mottel Lakin on the origin of
"tshepen", the Polish word "cep" (pronounced "tsep", though Litvakes
might pronounce it "tshep") is a noun meaning: flail.  On the other hand,
"czepiac sie" (which, with proper accent marks is roughly transliterated
"tshepiatsh shan") has among its meanings: to peck at.

Incidently, while looking this up in my Polish-English dictionary, I
happened across this entry:  "cacko" (pronounced tsatsko)--jewel,
trinket, plaything, toy, beauty.  I had always been under the impression
that the Yiddish "tsatske" was from the Hebrew "tsaatsu'a" (meaning toy)
with a Polish-Yiddish diminutive ending.  (Of course, it's always
possible that Isaac Mozeson, who wrote _The Word: The Dictionary That
Reveals the Hebrew Source of English_, may have another book in the
making, showing the Hebrew source of Polish!   ;-)   )

Paul Pascal

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 94 13:24:43 EST
From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu
Subject: Hebraicization (cont.)

I read over my earlier posting and found I had been unclear in my
discussion of the "crypto-language" I was referring to, as opposed to
Yiddish. The book _Die Reste des Juedischdeutschen_ contains phrases used
by Jews in Germany to speak to each other without being understood by
Gentiles. An example: Zege melokhnt lau = Yener goy arbet nisht.
Invariably, the words used are from loshn-koydesh, and quite a number of
the words laid out in the book are to be found in Yiddish farther east,
with different pronunciation, of course.

In this sort of context, the loshn-koydesh words are "low" usage as
opposed to the "high" usage of H.-A. in religious discourse. Suffice it
to say that this slangy use of Hebrew-derived vocabulary may explain in
part the large percentage of loshn-koydesh words in Glikl's memoirs
(30%). I don't remember Weinreich's estimate of the percentage in
Central/Eastern Yiddish, but I do remember that it was significantly
lower.

I just remembered another word: "akhlen", which means to eat. As far as I
know this word is not found farther east. And then there are Romance
words which are also not found farther east: "bafen" = to drink;
"plankhenen" = to cry. A Hebrew-derived word with a "good" meaning
(neither high nor low) is "leff" = heart. As people can probably tell by
now, I really loved discovering Western Yiddish for myself. One book in
particular fascinated me: _Jiddisch im Allemanischen Sprachgebiet_ . The
conversations recorded in Switzerland had only one Schwyzerduetsch word;
and the language was not "Daytshmerish". It had more in common in its
"feel" to Ukrainian Yiddish than to Gentile German of any sort that I
know of.  Antshuldikt mir, tayere khaveyrim, ikh bet aykh, vos ikh hob
azoy lang geredt, ober di temes vos iber zey ikh hob geshribn khapn mir
baym "leff" un gibn mir a hunger nokh mer tsu "akhlen" far zikh.

Rick Gildemeister

______________________________________________________
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