Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 5.095
August 26, 1995

1) Altfrenkish (Zachary Baker)
2) Henry James un idish (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 95 12:27:32 PDT
From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu
Subject: Altfrenkish

The (English) Forward's pseudonymous language meyvn, Philologos, has
lately attempted an etymology of "the Yiddish and Israeli slang word
frenk in the sense of a Sephardic or eastern Jew."  In the August 25th
issue he reports about a letter received from Dr. Perry Brickman, of
Chattanooga, Tenn., who writes:

        My wife was born in Atlanta, where her Polish-born parents
        settled and spoke a southern Polish Yiddish to her.  To this day,
        whenever she sees someone who looks different or old-fashioned,
        she calls that individual an alt-frenkisher mentsh (i.e., 'an old
        frenkish person'). ...  I asked her 93-year-old mother the
        derivation of the term and she said that it was just a phrase she
        had heard in Zamosc, where she grew up.  There didn't seem to be
        a Sephardic relationship, but based on your research, it probably
        did originate from the 'Sephardic Other.'

Philologos begins his response to Dr. Brickman as follows:

        I have never heard the expression an alt frenkisher mentsh and
        wonder if any of you have.  Presumably, as Dr. Brickman implies,
        the explanation for it is that Sephardic Jews from the Ottoman
        Empire traveling in Eastern Europe, especially if they were
        dressed in Turkish fashion, would have struck Yiddish speakers as
        strange and even antique, so that in some regional varieties of
        Yiddish the adjective frenkish eventually lost its meaning of
        'Sephardic' and came to have the sense of 'outlandish.'"

As a non-native speaker and reader of Yiddish, I can attest that I have
come across the expression "alt-frenkish" frequently in my reading of
Yiddish literature.  I suspect that many of our Mendelyaner khevre can
say the same.  And it surprises me that Philologos has apparently not
bothered to consult the standard Yiddish dictionaries, where the words
"frenk" and "alt-frenkish" (if not their etymologies) are indeed present.

"Frenk" is found on page 279 of Alexander Harkavy's Yiddish-English
Dictionary (copyright 1898), where it is defined as "Spanish Jew (in
Turkey)."  In the same dictionary, "frenkish" is defined as "of the
Spanish Jews; old-fashioned."  On page 62, there is a cross- reference
from "alt-frenkish" to "alt-modish," which is defined simply as
"old-fashioned."  These words and definitions are repeated (with some
minor nuances) in Harkavy's Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary (1928),
which was reprinted by Schocken and YIVO in 1988 and is still in print.
Uriel Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary does
not include "frenk" or "frenkish," but its definition of "altfrenkish"
(page 746) is "old-fashioned, quaint."

"Altfrenkish" is indexed in Nahum Stutchkoff's Thesaurus of the Yiddish
Language (Der oytser fun der yidisher shprakh) in two places:  Section 75
(Fargangenheyt, Altkeyt), where it appears as an adjective (page 56),
between "altmodish" and "altshteygerish," and Section 369 (Shprakh),
where it appears -- again as an adjective (page 350) -- in a sequence
that reads as follows:

"dyalektish, idyomatish, mundartlekh, arkhaish, zeltn, koydrish,
oysterlish, opgelebt, altfrenkish."

From the foregoing it is apparent that the pedigree of "frenk,"
"frenkish," and "altfrenkish" is reasonably venerable in Yiddish; serious
research (as opposed to checking a couple of dictionaries) would probably
shed more light on these words' history and usage. Perhaps some of our
Mendelnikes might care to put in their own two cents' worth.

Zachary Baker

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 95
From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu
Subject: Henry James un idish

Ikh hob gehot in zinen aykh tsu gebn vaytere protim vegn Henry James un
zayn Forverts roman un ikh hof az ikh vel dos nokh kenen tun.  Ober ersht
muz ikh tsufridenshteln di leyener velkhe hobn mir shoyn geshribn. Faran
tsvey tsdodim.  Eynike (platonistn) taynen azoy: bshum oyfn nisht, a
priori unmeglikh! s'ken nisht zayn! vos heyst, _Henry James_ zol kenen
idish?  Vos iz dos far an oystrakhtenish?  Der tsvater tsad (aritotelyer)
zogn bloyz: nu, efsher, ober dervayl zet men nisht kayn bavays.  Zog ikh:
ir vilt visn viazoy Henry James hot gelernt idish, iz leynt vayter.

Der tate fun Henry James iz geven a kluger mentsh ober oykh nisht a
bisl meshuge.  Er hot geshlept di gantse mishpokhe zayne fun eyn ek
velt biz der tsveyter, amol in der fremd, amol in Amerike.  Henry James hot
ongefangen lernen meditsin, hot dos nisht gepoylet.  Zogt der tate,
efsher volstu gevolt lernen ingenirye?  Makht Henry: farvos nisht?  Gut.
Shikt men im avek in der Shvayts oyslernen di arbet.

Darf men dokh kenen daytshish.  Iz er geforn mit a por khadoshim eyder
dem onfang fun klasen, un hot genumen a tsimer mit a daytshish-rednike
familye, zeyer a frayntlikhe un a fayne.  Mit zey hot er farbrakht
dem gantsn zumer un ven s'iz geven tsayt tsu onfangen zayne limudim hot
er shoyn geredt daytshish vi a vaser.

Kumt er tsugeyn in Hochschule, hert oys di lektsies, un nokhdem
zukht khapn a shmues mit zayne naye khaverim.  Redt er tsu zey un zey
entfern im.  Ober er derfilt az zey kuken im on vi men volt gevolt
fregn: ver iz der doziker, fun vos far a farloyren vinkl hot er zikh
geyovet?  Ahin, aher -- fregt men im: vu hostu gelernt aza daytshish
redn?  Entfert er: bay mayne balebatim.  Un ver zenen di balebatim dayne?
Zogt er: Her un Froy Zalomon Rabinovitch.  Heybt men on tsu lakhn, men
halt zikh azkh bay di zaytn.  Meynst Rabinovitch, der idisher shrayber?
Fregt Henry James: vos iz?  Hot men im shoyn gegeben tsu farshteyn vos
iz.

Azoy hot Henry James gelernt mameloshn.  Ober an akshen iz er oykh geven.
Epes gelernt, darf derfun zayn a takhlis!  Hot er geshribn a roman
af idish.

**********

Iz dos eyn nusekh.  Der tsveyter nusekh iz azoy.

Di khaverim zayne zenen geven zeyer orentlikh un hobn im nisht
gevolt farshemen.  Der poyel-yoytse derfun iz az James iz geblibn kol
yomov fest in zayn gloybn az er redt flisik daytshish.  Teyl mol fleg er
afile shraybn af daytshish. (Faran kritiker vos zogn az er hot _tomid_
geshribn af daytshish.)  Eyn mol baklogt er zikh tsu a gutn frayn zaynem az
er halt in eyn shraybn far di daytshishe tsaytungen in Amerike, ober az di
redaktorn varfn op kseder dos vos er shikt zey.  Farlangt der fraynt,
aleyn a redaktor, a muster fun zayn arbet.  Makhtese, entfert Henry
James, ot iz a mayse vos ikh hob ersht geendikt haynt inderfri.

Der fraynt leynt iber di mayse.  Er iz zikh meyashev a vayle. Dernokh
zogt er tsu James: vilst mikh folgen?  Nem un shik dos tsu tsu mayn
tayern khaver Ab Kahan in New York, un zog az ikh hob dos rekomendirt.

Der fraynt hot geheysn William Dean Howells.

V'kakh-have.

******

Zogt aleyn, tayere fraynt, ver iz gerekht --di platonistn tsi di
aritotelyer?

Noyekh Miller

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End of Mendele Vol. 5.095