Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.283 April 11, 1997 1) Leybish (Harold Leonard Orbach) 2) Yiddish reading for Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Morrie Feller) 3) Yidishe shprikhverter (Peter Kluehs) 4) Peretz's "Dray Matones" (Ruth Fisher Goodman) 5) Nibl-pe (Berel Leiser) 6) Nibl-pe (Arnie Kuzmack) 7) Ruth Rubins bukh (Keyle Goodman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:47:46 -0500 (CDT) From: hlorbach@ksu.edu Subject: Leybish As my Yiddish name is Hirsch Leybish I can answer Liebe Denner's query (6.281) from "life". The 'Leybish' -- representing one of two grandfathers -- is a diminutive of 'leyb'= lion and thus my English name on my birth certificate, undoubtedly supplied by an "expert" to my Yiddish-speaking parents, Harold Leonard Orbach Manhattan, Kansas 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:28:45 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Yiddish reading suitable for Yom Ha'atzma'ut My leyenkrayz group has been asked to do some Yiddish readings for the Yom Ha'atzma'ut observance here in Phoenix on May 11. If anyone knows of suitable material for this occasion, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please send to my e-mail address. Morrie Feller Phoenix 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Apr 97 18:58:59 -0500 From: pelokoha@t-online.de Subject: Yidishe shprikhverter vegn ot dem interesantn inyen ken ikh aykh meldn, az s'iz faran zeyer a sheyne naye oysgabe fun Ignaz Bersteins yudishe shprikhverter un redensarten , warshe 1908, vos ikh hob bakumen fun Georg Olms Verlags-Buchhandlung, Hagentorwall 7, D-31134 Hildesheim. ikh hob batsolt 178 Mark. in dem kleynem yidish-verterbukh funem Dudenverlag zaynen dermont a sakh vertlekh un geshmake oysdrukn vos ikh hob tsunoyfgeklibn tsulib mayn fargenigen. efsher veln gefinen eynike mendelyaners a shtikl nayes. araynknakn emetsn a patsh klepn zikh vi arbes in vant lakhn zikh in arbl a fintsternish - khotsh di oygn aroystsunemen er iz der tate mit di beyner er iz der tate oysn oyg opshpiln emetsn a khasene der dales fayft im in ale vinkelekh tantsn nokh emetsns dudke keyner vet do keyn ek nit dergeyn nit visn mit vos men est es farraybn dem inyen reydn fun der puster fas az s'iz nito keyn fish, iz hering oykh fish hobn flign (fley) in der noz shteyn vi a leymener goylem geboyrn vern in a haybl shvenken dem haldz raysn zikh oyfn haldz a kelt - a hunt tsu fartraybn hengen oyf a hor shisn tsvey hozn mit eyn shos ven in himel vet zayn a yarid trefn in karb arayn hobn a ketsener zikorn s'felt im a klepke in kop hobn a kop fun a minister hobn leymene hent farkoyfn zikh vi matse-vaser a moyl oyf shroyfn araynfaln in laytishe mayler di neshome zayne iz antlofn in di shpits knekhl krikhn emetsn unter di negl shtupn di noz vu me darf un vu me darf nit zayn an oyg mit a bret s'hot mir opgenumen dos loshn kh'hob im in der linker peye (pyatke) raysn zikh in an ofener tir derlangen emetsn in der zibeter rip shem zikh in dayn vaytn haldz arayn! mir zenen keyn hinkedike shnayder! zukhn a shpilke in a vogn hey firn shtroy keyn mitsraim bletern dem zikorn hobn dem zibetn tam fun eyn teyg geknotn nisht tshepen keyn flig oyf der vant valgern zikh in di gasn shtoysn vaser in a shteysl nisht visn vi der kats dem ek tsu farbindn nisht vert keyn tsibele makhn a tsimes fun epes Peter Kluehs 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 15:52:40 -0400 (EDT) From: ruthfg@aol.com Subject: Peretz's "Dray Matones" Does anyone know what the three gifts are that Peretz describes in "Di Dray Matones"? Ruth Fisher Goodman Wilmington, DE 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Apr 97 15:42:19 EDT From: leiser@pacevm.dac.pace.edu Subject: nibl (nivl) peh Sam Weiss's query (6.282) as to whether we should pronounce nibl-peh with a beys or a veys may lead to the conclusion that gam zeh v'gam zeh nakhon, or, perhaps, that obscenity is obscenity however you say it. The expression is, of course, from loshn koydesh. The root NAVAL (nun veys lamed) refers generally to things that are shriveled up and thus decayed. From this, we get the notion that the word refers to things that are filthy and smelly. (Yekh!) But in that grammatical form (kal), we're referring only to ordinary filth. if you want to get into real filth, superlative and (as the kinderlekh would say) really gross filth, then you switch to the intensive form of the word (pi'el), which has a nominative form, nibbul. This leads to nibbul peh (filth of the mouth, for which the remedy used to be a bar of Palmolive soap applied generously), contracted in Yiddish to nibl-peh. For minor obscenities, we might use the less intensive form with a veys, but then, to be properly pedantic, we probably should pronounce it "nval-peh" rather than "nibl-peh." Of course, in our day the entire subject is superfluous. When everything has a hekhsher, nothing is treyf. Berel Leiser 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 00:53:58 -0400 (EDT) From: kuzmack@cpcug.org Subject: Nibl-pe Sam Weiss asks about the pronunciation "nibl-pe", which he has heard in Yiddish speech as [nivl-pe]. I can't comment on what native speakers of Yiddish actually say. From the standpoint of the Hebrew source, however, I think [nivl-pe] is impossible. [nibl] is the verbal noun derived from the piel form of the verb, actually [nibul] in Hebrew. The piel always has a dagesh (dot) in the middle consonant. There is a qal form of the verb, meaning "to wither", but the corresponding form would be [*nviles-pe]. B'sholem, Arnie Kuzmack 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 12:12:21 -0700 From: ac939@lafn.org Subject: Ruth Rubins bukh Ken emitser mir gebn dem adres fun Ruth Rubin. Ikh hob ir geshribn ober mayn post iz tsurikgekumen. Ikh vil koyfn ir bukh ISBN 9622930 0 8, 1989 vegn folkslider. A dank foroys Keyle Goodman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.283