Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.123 December 6, 1996 1) Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke (Joachim Neugroschel) 2) A griner shtern (Larry Rosenwald) 3) Please (Joachim Neugroschel) 4) Litvish (Dovid Braun) 5) Khaneke-lempl (Dovid Braun) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:22:46 -0500 (EST) From: achim1@cris.com Subject: Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke Zschokke (1771-1848) was a german historian and author of very readable, exciting, and thoroughly forgettable tales and novels. i used to imbibe him in my adolescence and, much to my embarrassment,i can barely recall anything. his first novel was _Abaellino der grosse Bandit_ (Abaellino the big highwayman), and all i remember is that someone said in german, of course) to some highly distressed damsel, "Your money or your honor"--and I mumbled to myself "nimm doch beide, um Gottes Willen" (take both, for God's sake)--I was not a very ethical teenager, and it's been morally downhill for me ever since. zschokke, who settled in switzerland (in the grisons of all places) was immensely popular not only in german-speaking countries but in translations as well and was apparently widely read throughout the civilized world (if you can apply that term to europe). the monologist's mother in A Vayse Kapore probably lapped him up the way she might chow down on Jacqueline Suzanne today..... the author may be hinting that she didn't have much taste and simply read whatever was expected of her--I have no idea. an equivalent yiddish author might be Nomberg--whom I actually enjoy reading very much. but dont go by me: while i fully agree that flaubert was a genius, i'd much rather read balzac anywhere, any time.... Joachim Neugroschel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 14:26:32 -0500 (EST) From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu Subject: A griner shtern Hi - I'm puzzled by a line in a poem by Anna Margolin, and wondered whether anyone could help me out. The poem is called "Mari un di gest," and is part of a cycle of poems called "Mari." This particular poem imagines Mary as a sort of hostess - it begins, "Mari geyt iber di tsimern oyf un op,/tseshtelt di frukht, dem vayn, di shlanke blumen" - but it has a hallucinatory quality to it, I think. The phrase I'm curious about occurs in the following context - Mary is addressing various of her guests, and says: Betler, zay gegrist! Bizt mies un finster vi a rob, dokh hob ikh gezen dikh lakhn vi a got eynmol in shney un shturem. Un ot iz a griner shtern, tsvey kustes fun yasmin, [that's the line I'm puzzled by, i.e., "a griner shtern"] a brunem in a hoyf - alts gest fun lite. Un a khasene, tseblite lust, un mentshn kep af kep, un gasn in virvar, un fayern lang farglite. Any ideas? A sheynem dank, Larry Rosenwald 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:44:22 -0500 (EST) From: achim1@cris.com Subject: Please i'm not sure when and how the various yiddish idioms for "please" developed as i've never done much research in pre-19th century yiddish. since most of these formulas exist in german, i assume they were taken into yiddish at various times: german yiddish sei so gut zai azoy gut ich bitte dich ikh bet dikh darf ich dich bitten...? ken ikh dikh betn....? bitte bitte (i know, i know, it's daytshmerish) etc...... zayt zhe moyhl, a periphrastic verb containing a loshen-koydesh loanword, seems to be the only phrase that doesn't go back wholesale to german.... i'm curious if there are other equivalents, perhaps localisms..... german "bitte" has a function that yiddish "bitte" doesnt have: it's used in response to "danke" (thank you). When someone thanks you, you say, "bitte" and perhaps add "gern geschehen" (yiddish: "nisht do far vos). And in german you also say "bitte" when doing someone a favor, say, handing him something that he's asked for: "bitte". There's no equivalent in american english; however in britain when you do someone a favor, hand him, say, a book or a ticket stub, the doer of the favor says "thank you" and is then told "thank you" by the recipient of the favor..... and can anyone tell me the geographic spread for "tank-salat"? Joachim Neugroschel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 20:02:08 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Litvish der yidish-lerer in mir hot zikh tsevekt. s'iz nito keyn vort "litvakish" -- s'iz poshet _litvish_. dos hot mistame Joachim Neugroschel gemeynt tsu zogn in zayn letst brivl. (in printsip *ken* zayn a vort _litvakish_, vos dos volt geven taytsh 'afn shnit fun a litvak' oder 'hobndik di shtrikhn fun a litvak'; af english volt dos efsher ibergegebn gevorn vi 'Lithuanian-like'. ober me redt a *litvishn* yidish; di *litvishe* min-sistem iz andersh fun der poylisher tsi voliner; un azoy vayter.) dovid braun Cambridge, MA 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 20:02:08 EST From: dovid@mit.edu Subject: Khaneke-lempl der yidisher ekvivalent funem englishn 'menorah' un funem modern-hebreishn _khanukia_ iz dafke _khaneke-lempl_ tsi _khaneke-lomp_ (antykegn M. Shimshonis brivl vegn dem inyen). a freylekhn khaneke aykh alemen! dovid braun Cambridge, MA ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.123