Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.143 October 19, 1995 1) Sholem Aleichem Street (Andrew Cassel) 2) Sholem Aleichem Street (Michael Shimshoni) 3) Khapn (Louis Fridhandler) 4) Khapn (Dan Leeson) 5) Khapn (Leybl Botvinik) 6) Yo (Dan Leeson) 7) Yo (Zellig Bach) 8) Yidishistn shpiln in koyshbol (Ruvn Millman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 22:00:38 -0400 From: cassel@libertynet.org Subject: Sholem Aleichem Street Iosif Vaisman mentions several ex-Soviet cities with streets named for Sholem Aleichem and one for Perets Markish, as testament to the power & fame of Yiddish writers even in the Soviet era. I don't know if it exactly counts, but I noticed an A. Mapu street in the old section of Kaunas (Kovno) when I was there last spring. Andrew Cassel Elkins Park, PA 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 15:58:56 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: Sholem Aleichem Street Iosif Vaisman expressed his pleasure that there will be now a Sholem Aleichem Street in New York, and lists several towns in Ukraine, that had such streets in the 1920-1950. Vaisman then adds that he knows only of one other Yiddish literary name "on the map", namely that of Perets Markish who has a street named after him in his Podolia. I am sure that it may please many of our readers to know that in many towns of Israel there are streets after Sholem Aleichem. My city of Rehovot is, alas, an exception in that, but we proudly have a street named after this list's "patron saint" Mendele (and one after Y.L. Perets). Michael Shimshoni P.S. In Haifa there is a street named after Perets Markish (and of course those named after S.A. and after Mendele). 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 13:25:16 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: How to _nab_ in Yiddish? Either I missed it or no one has suggested pakn as a Yiddish word for _nab_, _catch hold of_, etc. Pakn differs from khapn as I sense it. Khapn happens after a chase. Pakn can as well, but for me it almost carries the sense of an ambush, or at least the one gepakt is surprised by the event. Khapn also carried the sense of kidnap when the infamous kidnappers of Jewish boys for the cantonist army of Nicholas I were called khapers. Unfortunately, many of the victims (or their families) were not too surprised. It was a generally known custom for decades before Alexander II stopped the practice in 1856. Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 18:00:10 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Khapn Am I not correct in remembering that those men who captured Jewish children for eventual conscription in the Russian army during the mid-1800s were referred to as Khappers? Dan Leeson Los Altos, California 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 09:13:50 IST From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Khapn un pakn interesant, vos biz aher hob ikh nit gezen (oyf mendele) dermont dos vort 'pakn' vi a meglekher taytsh far 'khapn' [=to nab]. ikh gedenk nit genoy vu un ven ikh hob dos tsu ersht gehert, ober dem oysdruk hob ikh gezen fun tsayt tsu tsayt in der yidisher literatur. es ken zayn, az dos iz a min gasn-shprakh [=street-talk/slang], oder banutst gevorn bay ganovim un andere azelkhe fayne layt. dakht zikh az afile bay sholem aleykhemen zet men dos (in motl, peysi dem khazns???). "di politsei hot im gepakt" oder "mir vet men nit pakn". in rusland, in tsarishe tsaytn flegn "khapers" "khapn" kinder un zey farshikn oyf lange yorn dinst in der tsarisher armey. haynt tsu tog, lehavdil, fregt eyn bal tshuve dem andern: "velkher rebe/rov/'rabbi' hot dir gekhapt" [khob dos befeyresh gehert bay a trefung fun 'nay- gekhapte' bal-tshuvenikes oyf a khabad/lubavitcher trefung: 'which Rov "khapt"=you?']. der meyn derbay: velkher rebe/rabbi hot dir arayngetsoygn un dir ibergemakht fun a fray-denkndn, tsu a yires- shomayimdikn. dos vort "khapn" hot nokh a sakh formen. eyner a khaver hot mir gezogt: "a yid shloft nit, er khapt a driml [='grabs a nap']; a yid est nit, er khapt arayn" [="grabs a bite to eat"]; me ken "khapn klep" [=from getting smacked/spanked to getting beat-up] oder "khapn petsh" [= getting slapped/smacked]; un nit oyf undz gedakht, "khapn a hartz-atake".men ken "khapn a kuk" [=take a quick look]. un nokh a sakh azelkhe oysdrukn. lomir take hern fun andere... leybl botvinik netanya 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 18:03:44 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Tell me it ain't so Paul Pascal suggests (though with a smiley face) that Zellig Bach's interview with Colin Powell might be a fabrication. Tell me it ain't so. His Yiddish was so excellent that I saw him in quite a different perspective. But tell me I was not fooled. Zellig would not have done that to me, would he have? Dan Leeson Los Altos, California 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 23:12:07 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Avade "yo" a) I'm puzzled by Paul Pascal's comment (5.141,4) in connection with my "exclusive" interview in Yiddish with General Colin Powell (5.139). Paul writes that the single word "yo," in my answer to a question by the General, "gave away" the fact that the whole interview was but a fictional event, because instead of the traditional litvish-yidish "ye" I used "the African-American slang 'yo'." Well, why in the world would I suddenly use an idiom from Black English? Let me assure the entire Mendele khavruse that _ye_ and _yo_ are equally correct in Lithuanian Yiddish, with the single difference that _yo_ is occasionally more emphatic, as if spoken with an exclamation point. My "yo" answer in the "interview" had nothing to do with African-American slang (nor with Sylvester Stallone's gruff "yo" and his muttered 'signature' sound). b) Another khaver Mendelyaner, a personal good friend of mine, called me to tell that he, too, initially thought that my interview with the General was the "real McCoy" until he came to the passage where I stated that I went to Colin Powell's residence in McLean, Virginia. Knowing that for reasons of health I do not travel, he realized that the whole journalistic "scoop" was a friendly, humorous hoax. Well, there are always some unintended, hidden ways by which one gives oneself away in a light-hearted feuilleton but, in this case, not by a "yo"... Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 18:04:22 -0400 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Yidishistn shpiln in koyshbol Ver zogt az Yidn kenen nor handlen? Zoln zey undz aroysrufn tsu a matsh koyshbol!!! Undzer Yidish-redndik koyshbol-shpil hot shoyn ongehoybn. Mir shpiln ale vokh: mitvokh, 8:00 in der fri in "Thompson Square Park." Mir shpiln shver un gikh...s'iz zeyer hanoadik! Oyb emetser vil shpiln mit undz lozt iber an onzug in Yugntruf byruo (212) 787-6675 oder in post-kestl ruvn@aol.com. Ruvn Millman New York ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.143