Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.007 June 1, 1999 1) Feet and legs (Vulf Plotkin) 2) Feet and legs (Milt Koosman) 3) lernen (Joachim Neugroschel) 4) Balebetshen, Balebetshkes, Mushkes (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 5) Leyg dayn kop (Gie Laenen) 6) doh/aher/doh aher (Miki Safadi) 7) Arbes, lekakh (Shaya Mitelman) 8) lekekh (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 9) lekakh, arbes (pe'rets mett) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 07:39:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Vulf Plotkin Subject: Feet and legs To Yankev Lewis [08.152]: to the best of my knowledge (which might perhaps lack polish, because I learned Yiddish as my mame-loshn 70+ years ago in a shtetl and have been speaking it ever since, but never had proper schooling in it), "foot" and "leg" are simply not distinguished in Yiddish. Moreover, this semantic feature is replicated in the upper extremity, where "hand" and "arm" are not distinguished either. There is thus one word for the entire extremity: "fus" & "hant". The loss of this distinction common to Germanic and other European languages (compare French "main" & "bras", "pied" & "jambe") is explained by its absence in every Slavic language, the common feature of which are single designations for each extremity (Russian "noga" & "ruka"). This is a vivid illustration of how Slavic influence affects the semantic properties of Yiddish words even if they retain their original German shapes and forms. Mit a hertslikhn grus Vulf Plotkin. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 16:56:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Miltonk2@aol.com Subject: Feet and legs Yankev Lewis asks about the same word "fis" for both leg and foot [08.152]. I think we have to live with it...there is no differentiation, that I know, between "finger" and "toe" in yiddish. Milt Koosman NJ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 13:53:33 -0400 (EDT) From: ACHIM1 Subject: lernen The use of "lernen" and "lernen zikh" is more complicated than indicated so far on Mendele [08.152]. North Eastern (i.e. Litvish) Yiddish distinguishes between "lernen" -- teach -- and "lernen zikh" -- learn--a distinction enshrined in standard Yiddish, especially by U. Weinreich in College Yiddish. however, other areas of Yiddishland use "lernen" indiscrimiantely for both "teach" and "learn" so that the distinction has to be clarified in other ways. "He teaches Russian" would have to be rendered as "Er iz a rusish-lerer"--"er lernt rusish" would be ambiguous in those areas.... "He's learning Russian"=="Er iz a talmid fun rusish" etc. "He's majoring in Russian" -- "er shtudirt rusish (in universitet) or "Er iz a student fun rusish" and so on.... Joachim Neugroschel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 18:05:40 -0400 (EDT) From: Feigl I Glaser Subject: Balebetshen, Balebetshkes, Mushkes Ikh hob nit gehert vegn balebetshkes vos men est, ober ikh hob yo gehert vegn mentshn vos balebetshen -- klapn, hakn a tshaynik, redn in der velt arayn, trakhtn nit vos zey redn, nor redn vos zey trakhtn. Vegn kashe-varnishkes veys ikh yo. Un oyb ir veysnt nit vi me zogt 'bowtie' oyf yidish, vel ikh aykh oysogn dem sod fun kheyder -- "mushkes". s'iz afile do a vits vegn "mushkes gepakt in pushkes". Mit fraydlekhe grusn, Feygl Infeld Glezer 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 19:15:41 -0400 (EDT) From: Laenen Subject: Leyg dayn kop Many thanks for al who gives me the words of 'Leyg dayn kop oyf mayne kni.' I shall use the text in my book 'There and back'. First it was a radio-drama produced in Brussels, Den Hague, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and Berlin, now it shall be a book telling the story of a boy of eleven going with his father to a catholic school to survive the war. During the trip the father telled him a old yiddisch story 'The water-palace'. The evening before they say good-bye, the father sings The old lullaby. Forty-five years after the war, the 'boy', now a man of 55, brings his old father back to the house they have leaved during the war. The book shall be published in october this year bij Lannoo Tielt Belgium. A hartsikn grus Gie Laenen Mechelen-Belgium. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 10:05:57 -0400 (EDT) From: michaela safadi Subject: doh/aher/doh aher Ikh hob tsvey fragn: 1) ken men nitsn 'doh' in a zats vi 'zi trogt es doh' vayl men brengt epes mit zikh? oder darf men zogn 'zi trogt es aher' vayl es hot tsu ton mit vaytkayt? 2) iz 'doh aher' an emfatishe forme oder iz es dialektish? Oyb es iz a dialektishe forme, fun velkhn dialekt shtamt es? Vos meynen di koleges? Miki Safadi 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 00:33:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Serge Mitelman Subject: Arbes, lekakh. I was surprised to learn that arbes stands for chick peas (vol.09.003). As far as I know arbes is simply peas (cf. Weinreich and Rusish-yidisher verterbukh, Moscow, 1984, under "gorokh"). It may have changed its meaning in the US, but I must say that chick peas are scarcely available in Eastern Europe. In those areas where they are available, the word is "nait" ("nahit" in Bucovina, cf. Mordkhe Schaechter "Yidish tsvey", NY, 1995, p.83), and the dish described is called tsimes-nait. (The literary Russian word is "nut", or "baraniy gorokh", but in the areas where it grows it is called "nagut", and the Russian Dictionary of Foreign Words, Moscow, 1979, claims Tatar etymology; Moldavian word is "naut", Ukrainian - "nahut".) Lekakh is prepared differently in various regions (I guess Dr.Herzog can say more about this), but honey is not a necessary ingredient. In fact, in Bessarabia and Podolia the name is "onik-leykekh" when the honey is to be used ( and (h)onik-likakh in the rest of Ukraine) - see the aforementioned Rusish-yidisher verterbukh, p.244 under "medovij prianik". Shaya Mitelman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 02:05:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Feigl I Glaser Subject: LEKEKH UN HONIK-LEKEKH Bay undz, in Lodzh, hot men gerufn "sponge Cake" -- lekekh (nit "lekakh), un "honey cake" -- honik kukhn oder honik-lekekh. Feygl Infeld Glezer 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:44:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Percy Mett Subject: lekakh, arbes Many contributors have suggested that lekakh must be honey cake. That would be honig lekakh. stam a lekakh is a sweet spongy cake. zayer geshmak mit a gleyzl tey. About arbes: We call them nahit. The holiday at which they are most likely to be eaten is Purim. They are also customarily served at a 'zokher', the gathering which takes place on Friday night in the house of a newborn male child. (Actually my nephew will be making just such a celebration this week.) ober tsu esn gute makholem darf men zikhn keyn teruts. pe'rets mett ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.007 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