Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.203 January 20, 1997 1) A mayse mit a mantl (Marcia Gruss Levinsohn) 2) A mayse mit a mantl (Khane-Faygl Turtletaub) 3) "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish (Mikhl Herzog) 4) "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish (Khane-Faygl Turtletaub) 5) "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish (Les Train) 6) Nasalization of _ayin_ (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Nartlen (Al Grand) 8) Mordecai Kosover (Miki Safadi) 9) Slonimsky phrase book (Ron Robboy) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 20:13:38 -0500 (EST) From: mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: A mayse mit a mantl Khane-Faygl Turtletaub fregt far emetser vegn a lid vos heyst "a mayse mit a mantl." dray Mendelistn hobn geentfert glaykh, ober es nemt mir nokh a bisl tsayt tsu oysforshn un oysfirn vi asoy ikh zol oysklapn mayn entfer af Yidish. Weinreich's verterbukh git nit kayn vort farn Englishn vort, "synopsis," ober ot azoy geyt es; "bay a shnayder in komore...hot men oyfgeneyt a mantl ...farn eltstn bokhur Shmuel...(un az er trogt es 3-4 yorn) ... iz der mantl kurts in ston....tut shoyn on dem mantl Beyle....(u.a.z.v. biz der fifter kindele) entfert... -c'hob fun im dem rekhtn lats opgeshenkt der shvartser kats....un di reshte, lokh oyf lokh, vet onkumen di tsveyte vokh...." dos lid meyn ikh iz geven di inspirirn far a musicalishe lid, "hob ikh mir a mantl" vos mi ken hern fun a tashme, "Mark Olf Sings" un oykh fun "Let Us Sing a Jewish Song" mit Gerry Tenney un Betty Albert Schtreck. un itst iz a zeyere sheyne kinderbikhl (oyf English), _ Something from Nothing_ by Pheobe Gilman, Scholastic Books. dos bikhl iz getseykhnt mit kheynifdike bilder. es hot ober nor ayn khisorn - ven der mantl vert oysgevaksn, zogt di mame, "We have to throw it out." di bilder tsaygn sheyn, reyn shtetl lebn un keyn shtetldike mame vet onzogn aza anaveyre. in bikhl, der zeyde, a shnayder neyt es iber far a vestl u.a.z.v. biz es blaypt funen mantl gornisht, makht men dos maysele. di matse un blikder zaynen oysergeveynlekh Kadia Molodovski's _Yidishe kinder, mayselekh_ ken men efsher koyfn fun Natsionale Yidishe Bikher Tsentrale, South Hadley, MA. I believe this poem was the inspiration for a song, (I have a coat). One can hear this on the audio cassettes (above). And now there is a lovely childrens' book (in English). The charming illustrations depict a shtetl and no shtetl mother would say such a wasteful thing. In the book the zeyde alters the too small coat into a vest and so on until no material remains, so it is turned into this story. The story and pictures are delightful! (It's at the public library.) zayt gezunt un gliklekh, Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 17:13:27 +0100 From: doctorkf@gte.net Subject: A mayse mit a mantl A dank ale di medelistn vos hobn mir azoy gikh geentfert vegn Kadya Maladovsky's lid "A Mayse mit a Mantl." Ikh vel alts ibergebn dem vos hot es gevolt un shoyn aleyn oykh opzukhn. Vider a mol, a dank. Khane-Faygl Turtletaub 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 97 23:50 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish Shloyme-Khayim Cohen asks [6.203] about a "spit-up cloth". The common Yiddish word is _ga(:)ver-tikhl_ 'bib'. Harkavy glosses _ga(:)ver_ as 'slaver', 'saliva'. The associated verb is _ga(:)vern_ 'to drool', 'to slobber'. These are interesting words because they are among the very few words which occur throughout Eastern Yiddish in what must be assumed is their Western Yiddish form. Three other such words are _la(:)fer_ 'knight (in chess)', _Fra(:)dl_ (a girl's name), and _ma(:)d_ 'spinster'. We might have expected *_geyvern_/_gayvern_, *_loyfer_/_leyfer_, and we do find _Freydl_/_Fraydl_, _moyd_. Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 17:18:33 +0100 From: doctorkf@gte.net Subject: "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish Afn muster fun "tishtukh" tablecloth, "fartukh" apron un andere azelkh verter ("noztikhl"-di zelbe zakh nor diminutiv), volt ikh forgeleygt "oysshpaytukh" far spit-up cloth. Khane-Faygl Turtletaub 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 00:00:43 -0500 (EST) From: ltrain@chass.utoronto.ca Subject: "Spit-up cloth" oyf yidish I noticed in one ofthe isogloss atlases the word gaver-tichl, specifically for spit up cloth. Technically speaking, the action of shpay/spit, involves the diaphragm, and some chest muscles, hence the word ex-pector-ate (from the chest). When dealing with a drooling infant, I believe it's a weak esophageal sphincter that allows the drool to issue forth. Therefore, the passive gaver (gob in English) is to be preferred over the more active shpay. (Besides, the term is already there, so why not use it?) Les Train 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 97 23:50 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Nasalization of _ayin_ Concerning the nasalization associated with _ayin_ in Yiddish and its probable connection to _patah-hataf-patah_ (cf. nasalization in _kaansher_ and _ya:ndes_ as well), there is probably enough material in the the Mendele archives for a doctoral dissertation. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 09:59:13 -0500 (EST) From: savoyid@aol.com Subject: Nartlen I was fascinated to learn that the Yiddish verb "to ski" is _nartlen_ from a recent post by Leybl Botvinik [6.202], and I'd be grateful for a gloss on its etymology. My sense is that it's not German, French or Russian. Is it Hebrew? Oh for a good Yiddish etymological dictionary so that I wouldn't have to keep burdening Mendele with my emergency etymological bafflements! Al Grand 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 10:53:00 -0700 From: msafadi@ucla.edu Subject: Mordecai Kosover Efsher emetzer veys vi/oyb me ken zikh farbindn mit Mordecai Kosover. Er hot aroysgegebn a bukh, Arabic Elements in Palestinian Yiddish in 1966 durkh Rubin Mass, Israel. Er hot gelernt in Brooklyn College un in City University of New York. Maybe someone knows how/if one can get in touch with Mordcai Kosover. He published a book, Arabic Elements in Palestinian Yiddish in 1966 through Rubin Mass, Israel. He taught at Brooklyn College and at City University of New York. Miki Safadi 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 14:35:50 -0800 From: rrobboy@cts.com Subject: Slonimsky phrase book In a "New Yorker" magazine profile several years ago, Nicholas Slonimsky told of his uncle Josef Slonimsky, of Warsaw, who wrote travelers' phrase books. Among these was a "Norwegian-Yiddish booklet." Has anyone ever seen a copy of this? Ron Robboy ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.203