Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.095 December 8, 1998 1) Saltshe (Dovid Braun) 2) Saltshe (Herman Taube) 3) erotic terminology (Harvey Varga) 4) "sheygets" (Mikhoel Ronn) 5) walker in Yiddish (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 6) prokladim (Fred Cutter) 7) "prikladn" in a "mayse fun a hinkndn" (Joachim Neugroschel) 8) Brooklyn radio stations (A. Joseph Ross) 9) shtandirn (Andrey Bredstein) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 21:03:33 -0500 (EST) From: David S Braun Subject: Saltshe Comes from Polsih _Salcia_ which is a diminutive of _Sala_, I think (probably equivalent to English Sally). A woman called _Saltshe_ in Yiddish was probably named _Sore_ and grew up in a slightly, or extremely, Polonized milieu where _Sore_s were called _saltshe_. (Like Freydes who became Frania, Miryems who became Mania, Sheynes and Sores who became Sabina.) Best, Dovid Braun 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 22:12:56 -0500 (EST) From: HTaube218@aol.com Subject: Saltshe Mendy Fliegler hot gefregt fun vanen es shtamt dos wort: Saltshe. Dos wort un der nomen Saltshe iz shark populer geven in Poilin. Saltshe iz di Polilishe iberzetzung fun Sure, oder Surele, A devaksene froy hot men gerufen Salah, a young maidel: Saltshe, oder Salthele, punkt wie Sure, oder Surele. Herman Taube 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 00:30:56 -0500 (EST) From: Varga96@aol.com Subject: erotic terminology Tayre mendelistn, I am in the process of putting together a questionnaire to hand out to native Yiddish speakers concerning erotic terminology. Indulge me for a moment to give you the background. I have a cousin in Jerusalem who, like me, is a son of Holocaust survivors, and also native Yiddish speakers. I became a Yiddish teacher at Stanford, and he became someone who has a strong dislike for the language as well as lack of respect for the culture. Probably has a lot to do with his relationship with his father, ober yeder hot zeyr eygen mishigas. This past summer we were once again discussing the merits, or lack of, of Yiddish, and Izzy mentioned how Yiddish was an incomplete language that didn't have its own words for everything,..... he made some comment about sex, and I said - "Did you think your parents broke out spontaneously into a fliysig French when they created you? Vus den hobn zey geredt?" But to tell you the truth, not too many of these words hobn zich arayngekrochn between me and my parents. Closely adhering to the culture of the 50's and 60's , sex wasn't talked about. The Jewish glass ceiling, "Dos past nisht far Yidn", kept me in the dark, while my Brooklyn English tryefene pisk is gegangen vi oyf reydlech; and the Forward didn't have a letters to the editor page that anywhere near resembled the one in Penthouse. To make matters maybe worse, if I ever find myself in bed with someone that speaks Yiddish, I'll be totally tongue-tied (already sounds interesting, huh?) without the proper terminology, barely more eloquent than a caveman. The fact of the matter is that every language has its erotica and language for sex, and I know of no glossary for Yiddish, though I know the words are there. I remember reading in one of Irving Howe's books about how E. 2nd Street, on the lower East Side was where all the Jewish prostitutes and pimps lived.What were they saying when they were transacting business with their customers? What were my parents and grandparents saying? Yiddish is as three dimensional as any other language. I certainly can't imagine the majority of Jews being quiet in this situation when we're not in most others. I am working on a questionnaire with one of my students, to send out to native Yiddish speakers that they might send back anonymously, and have some people that I will interview. I would like to ask anyone to share their knowledge in this area with me, as well as any articles you might know of. I'd love to share this with all of you and see this on Mendele, oyb nisht, contact me directly at my e-mail address. Sincerely, Harvey Varga 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 04:02:09 -0500 (EST) From: chromelion@juno.com (Michoel Ronn) Subject: "sheygets" Duch zikh mir az ikh hob ersht geleynt letstns in "Mendele" az dos vort "sheygets" shtamt nit op funem loshn-koydeshdikn vort "sheikets" nor fun a daythishn vort. Tsi ken eymetser mir tsushikn yenem hezber oder lozn mir tsu visn avu ikh ken dem gefinen? Agav, vi zogt men "in-line skates" af yidish? Mikhoel Ronn 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 00:42:11 -0500 (EST) From: Lights4607@aol.com Subject: walker in Yiddish Is there a Yiddish word for walker, in this case referring to the walking device used by older or disabled people. Sema Chaimovitz Menora Chicago, IL 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 07:36:04 -0500 (EST) From: cutterf@juno.com (Fred Cutter) Subject: prokladim Elliot Rosenkrants asks about the meaning of prokladim. I assume that he is spelling something phonetically, and my intuition is that the words and context support the idea: a por klader = a pair of dresses,&/or clothes. Fred Cutter 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 10:25:03 -0500 (EST) From: ACHIM1 Subject: "prikladn" in a "mayse fun a hinkndn" The query about "prikludn" in Nakhman's story raises a difficult issue. Both the Zetser edition of the Tales and Rozhansky's Musterwerk edition spell this noun with a yud. Rozhansky footnotes the word as meaning "shtof far begodim": cloth, textile, material..... But Rozhansky is inaccurate so frequently (to the point of confusing the mythological figure Pan with "pan"--a Polish title covering the span from Mister to Lord. In Zetser, "prikladn" is in quotes--implying, perhaps, that the word isn't quite current in Nakhman's (or his scribe's) Yiddish. It might help to check the Hebrew version of the story--and I would be interested to hear from a Hebrew speaker about this. One might also consult the Pauline Press translation of Nakhman's Hebrew text. in Russian, "prikladn" means "trimmings"--but a Ukrainian origin would be far more likely. Unfortunately I have neither a Ukrainian dictionary nor the earliest Nakhman edition handy. Joachim Neugroschel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 23:47:54 -0500 (EST) From: "A. Joseph Ross" Subject: Brooklyn radio stations I thought people around here might be interested in an article in the January 1999 issue of =Popular Communications= magazine, which is now on sale. The article is "The Great Brooklyn Radio Wars!" and is all about a collection of radio stations that used to exist in Brooklyn in the old days. The article mentions that several of them did a lot of Yiddish broadcasting. A. Joseph Ross Boston, MA 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 14:49:34 -0500 (EST) From: "Andrey Bredstein" Subject: shtandirn In eyner a zamlung fun yidishe folks-mayses (aroysgegebn in Varshe, 1924) hob ikh zikh ongeshtoysn af a modne vort "shtandirn". Loyt dem kontekst muz es badaytn "studirn", ober oyb azoy, oyb dos iz a variant vos vert gebroykht in Poyln, to kumt dokh a shayle: funvanet nemt zikh do der "nun"? Un ot iz an oystsug funem bukh: "Do in Konstantinopol iz gevezn a sultan [...]. Un der meylekh hot mer nisht gehat vi eyn zun [...]. Hot er im geshikt keyn Pariz er zol dort shtandirn un zol lernen vi azoy a melukhe tsu firn." Efsher hot emetser gehert aza vort? Mit frayntshaft, Andrey Bredstein ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.095 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html