Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.332 February 22, 1995 1) Shmuel Rozhanski (Moyshe Zekharye Beker) 2) Yiddish board games (Shulamith Berger) 3) Gikh/gikher (Anno Siegel) 4) Rogelakh (Rick Turkel) 5) Doktoyrim, naronim un lehavdl kabtsonim (Hershl Hartman) 6) Kabtzonim (Berel Leiser) 7) Plurals: _tokhes_/doctor (Shleyme Axelrod) 8) Tokhes (Hershel Stillman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 11:12:55 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: Shmuel Rozhanski Shmuel Rozhanski z"l iz geven a mekhtiker klal-tuer, loytn altn mizrekh-eyropeishn shteyger. Azelkhe vi er zaynen vos a mol vintsiker bay undz yidn haynt-tsu-tog. Ikh hob gehat di groyse skhie tsu bakenen zikh mit im (mir hobn zikh getrofn etlekhe mol beys zayne bazukhn in Nyu-york, un tsum letstn mol, sof november, bay im in shtub in Buenos-ayres). Fraynd Rozhanski hot gemakht a tifn ayndruk af ayedn vos hot im gekent. Er hot oykh ufgeboyt dem vikhtikn kultur-oytser vos heyst der Argentiner YIVO. Koved zayn ondenk! Moyshe Zekharye Beker (Baker) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 11:02:52 -0500 (EST) From: sberger@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Yiddish board games "Handel Erlekh", the Yiddish "Monopoly" game which was featured in Joshua Fishman's article in Yeshiva University's alumni magazine, can be purchased in Eichler's book store on 13th Ave. in Boro Park, Brooklyn. They also sell "Shtayg Hekher," a Yiddish version of "Chutes and Ladders." Shulamith Berger 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 17:08:58 +0100 From: anno4000@w172zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de Subject: Gikh/gikher In 4.327 Mikhl Herzog asks: >1. Are there any regional German cognates of _jaeh_ with word- initial >"g-"? (Berlin, Anno?). Not contemporarily, as far as I know. MHG forms of "jaeh" were "gach", "ga:", "gaehe" (fast, sudden) until Luther adopted the dialectical initial j. Berlin, and probably earlier related dialects too, substitute the j sound for g wherever they can, but never the other way around. >2. Is there a regional German usage in which _jaeh_ is 'synonymous' with >_schnell_? The word still means, (besides "steep") "immediate", "unexpected" and "jerky" (of a movement). "Schnell", on the other hand, means primarily a rapid spatial movement, the meaning of "soon", "jaeh" only being secondary. There is certainly some overlap, perhaps best characterized by "rasch" (brisk). Richard Wagner (ahem) uses "jach" for "sudden(ly)." (_Das Rheingold_, 3rd scene, Alberich: "Bestimm', in welcher Gestalt soll ich jach vor dir steh'n?") Not the purest of sources, to be sure, but W. certainly new how to use his German. >3. Is there a German usage of the comparative that parallels the Yiddish >one? (The Yiddish being: _eyder geyn tsu der arbet volt ikh haynt gikher geblibn in der heym_.) Hmmmm, that sounds familiar... :-) "Jaeher", "schneller", etc. cannot be used this way. "Eher" (sooner) comes closest, though it is used to give preference to one of two unfavorable choices, excluding the other: "Ich zahle nicht! Eher gehe ich ins Gefaengnis!" (I won't pay! I'd rather go to jail!) Can "gikher" be used like this? Alas, there is no connection of "eher" to "jaeh", plausible as it may seem. German "jagen" has a primary meaning of "hunt (for game)." The earlier sense of "move fast" lives on in "nachjagen" (follow swiftly). Its etymology is not very well known, but a connection to "jaeh" is nowhere suggested, nor are there forms with an initial g. To conclude, "gikh" and "jaeh" are most probably cognates (I wasn't aware of this), as are "yogn" and "jagen". However I was unable to find the missing link between "jaeh" and "jagen." Anno Siegel Berlin, Germany 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 15:20:27 EST From: rturkel@cas.org Subject: Rogelakh Meyshe-Yankl Sweet asked (Vol. 4.331) about the etymology of "rogelach." "Rog" in Slavic (Russian, etc.; Polish ro'g) is the horn or antler of an animal, which is quite a bit larger than the baked good in most cases, hence the diminutive plural ending -lakh. FWIW, the hand signal for a cuckold, the forefinger and pinky extended over a clenched fist, is called "rogovi" (horns) in Serbocroatian. Rick Turkel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 14:14:06 -0500 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Doktoyrim, naronim un lehavdl kabtsonim Don't understand the source of ellen prince's doubts about etymology of "kabtsn." It appears, defined as "beggar, pauper" in both my Hebrew-English dictionaries and in Nakhman Krupin's invaluable and just-republished "hantbukh fun hebreizmen in der yidisher shprakh." The Ehud Ben-Yehuda pocket Hebrew-English dictionary gives the related verbs kabats as "to assemble" or "to gather" and kibeyts as "to beg; to collect." Given the vehement nature of the kulturkamf among yiddishists and hebraists, i doubt that modern Hebrew would have taken over kabtsn from Yiddish. S'leygt zikh nit afn seykhl. Hershl Hartman Los Angeles 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 22:16:16 EST From: leiser@pacevm.dac.pace.edu Subject: Kabtzonim Ellen Prince asks about "kabtzonim" (Mendele 4.327). I believe the word is ori ginally Hebrew, derived from the piel form of _kvtz_ having the root meaning "to gather." The nun ending indicates that the person referred to is one who is a constant or frequent practitioner of the activity alluded to by the verb--i.e ., a constant gatherer or collector of things, a beggar. So kabtoznim, in Hebrew or in Yiddish, are rag pickers, beggars, or shnorrers. By the way, the Israeli kibbutz gets its name (obviously without, kholile, the negative implications) from the same root--a collective farm. Which leads me to wonder: Where does "kibbitz" or "kibbitzer" come from, since I see no connection with gathering or collecting? Berel Leiser 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 14:05:26 -0500 (EST) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Plurals: _tokhes_/doctor Alan Shuchat fregt vegn _tokhaysim_ far der mertsol fun _tokhes_. Mayne eltern (fun vilne gubernye) flegn zogn _te'kheser_. In Vaynraykh (1968) shteyt far 'physician' _dokter, doktoyrim_; far 'holder of any doctor's degree' shteyt _doktor, dokto'rn_. Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 15:41:04 -0800 (PST) From: durian@coyote.csusm.edu Subject: Tokhes In re the question of Alan Shuchat (4.330) about not finding "tokhes "in his Vaynraykh ,the same is true for my Harkavy 1910. I always understood that the Hebrew word for "under" (tokhes) was our answer to the Germanic "hinten ". Hershel Stillman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.332 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu