Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.057 January 26, 2000 [Moderator's note: questions about drinks usually provoke active response in Mendele. The gogl-mogl's record (17 replies, vol.07.197) has been successfully challenged by the current slivkes case with the same (perhaps magic) number of replies and divided opinions. While _slivki_ (small plums) and _slivki_ (sweat cream) are homonyms in Russian (and some other Slavic languages), Yiddish _slivkes_ are only the latter. -i.v.] 1) slivkes (Paula Teitelbaum) 2) slivkes (Jack Berger) 3) slivkes (Carl Goldberg) 4) slivkes (Aren Portnoy) 5) slivkes (Moyshe Kijak) 6) slivkes (Paul Glasser) 7) slivkes (Hugh Denman) 8) slivkes (lynda mcgraw) 9) slivkes (Feygl Infeld Glezer) 10) slivkes (Mitja Farber) 11) slivkes (Shaya Mitelman) 12) slivkes (Ida Selavan Schwarcz) 13) slivkes (martin horwitz) 14) slivkes (wlodek goldkorn) 15) slivkes (Moyshe-Shaye Steinlauf) 16) slivkes (Fay Berger) 17) slivkes (Shimke Levine) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 18:08:40 -0500 (EST) From: PTAW85@aol.com Subject: slivkes Perhaps if you think of heavy whipped sweet cream with the pastries rather than IN the tea, it won't seem that strange? Paula Teitelbaum Queens, NY 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 18:29:13 -0500 (EST) From: Jack Berger Subject: slivkes My Russian Dictionary shows 'sliva' to be either a plum or a plum tree. It further shows: sliva-t : to pour off, to decant sliv-ki: cream sliv-i: plums I'm no expert, but it sounds like maybe some sort of plum compote that you either ate with tea, or even sweetened the tea by pouring a little into the tea glass. I remember my grandparents doing this with orange marmalade in the USA. I imagine the range of options in Eastern Europe might have been more restricted. It'll be interesting to hear from others. Regards Jack Berger 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 20:29:52 -0500 (EST) From: "Carl Goldberg" Subject: slivkes "Slivkes" surely comes from the Russian "slivki", cream; and the Yiddish is plural because the Russian word is plural. (There is no singular.) As for why sweet cream in tea, a number of people drink tea that way, and not only in eastern Europe. Zayt mir gezunt. Carl Goldberg 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 23:29:05 -0500 (EST) From: noy@panix.com Subject: slivkes Dakht zikh mir az slivkes zaynen kleyntshik floymelekh. Fun dem makht men "slivovitz" brendi. Se dakht zikh mir oykh az ven me zogt "hobn ale gest gehot heysn tey fun samovar mit di gute slivkes un gebeksn," meynt es az s'i faran "nit azoy gute slivkes." Un vos tut men mit zey? Ayngemakhts, mistame. Aren Portnoy 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 05:07:02 -0500 (EST) From: kijak@einstein.com.ar Subject: Vegn 'slivkes" Tayere fraynt, der khaver Noyekh Miller fregt zikh nokh vegn "slivkes". Ikh gloyb as es handlt zikh vegn SHLIVKES. Mayne eltern, beyde shtamen zey fun shtetl Stock, lebn Vengrov, nisht vayt fun Varshe, rufn azoy on di floymen (plums). Loytn kontekst gloyb ikh az dos iz es take. Dos vort hob ikh oykh nisht gefunen by Stutshkovn. Zayt ale gezunt. Ayer fraynt fun Argentine, Moyshe Kijak 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 09:34:17 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Glasser Subject: slivkes My Polish-English dictionary has s'liwka (initial s with accent mark), meaning 'plum'. Paul Glasser 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 01:39:23 +0000 From: Hugh Denman Subject: slivkes did you consider Polish (with 's acute' - one day e-mail will allow us to spell things accurately) and Ukrainian "plums"? When my wife and I have tea in the garden in the summer in our Austrian home, we often have either fresh or dried plums with tea. Hugh Denman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 14:42:18 -0500 (EST) From: TelAviv893@aol.com Subject: slivkes A case of mistaken identity, perhaps? Perhaps this is a case of broken telephone, and the suspect word "slivkes" actually was Sliwowicz (sp? Slivovicz)? You know, that strong, clear schnapps that appeared on our table for special occasions? To us it was Newfie Screech with a slavic twist. I always understood that Sliwowicz was distilled plum vodka that could spike anything -- even (and ESPECIALLY) tea -- without affecting its color or smell. Thoughts, anyone? lynda mcgraw 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 15:27:29 -0500 (EST) From: Feigl I Glaser Subject: SLIVKA Dem 11tn Yanuar, 2000 , hot Noyekh Miller gefregt vegn SLIVKES: Der entfer iz a posheter:"Sliwka", starting with a "s" with an apostrophe above the S, could be found in every Polish dictionary under SLIWA or SLIWKA (after the "S" and SZ comes the labial sibilant 'SH'). It is pronounced "shlivka" , in plural shlivki) and it means in Polish a plum or prune. So some Jews may have said "a slivke" instead of "a floym", azoy vi di Amerikaner Yidn "volkn tsu tsu der vinde". I hope that I was of some help. Mit frayndlekhe grusn, Feygl Infeld Glezer 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 04:07:21 +0300 (MSK) From: "Mitja A. Farber" Subject: slivkes vayl rusish iz eykhet mayn mame-loshn, ikh meyn az ikh farshtey ayer probleme mitn vort "slivkes". di mayse iz in rusisher shpakh nitsn mir "slivkes" - nor in mertsol un s'heyst milkhn-krem. me trinkt "kave mit slivkes" un m'est "truskavkes mit slivkes" - iz faran keyn eyntsol. di etimologie, shtamung funem vort geyt fun rusishn verb "lit'" - heyst "gisn", "s-liv-k-i" - "arop-gegos-en-e" vayl beshas tsugreytung nemt men tsu di slivkes funem badek fun der farzeyerter milkh. mit yidishe grusn fun moskve, Mitja Farber 11)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 22:57:43 -0500 (EST) From: Serge Mitelman Subject: Slivkes Slivkes does mean cream (skimmed from milk) - and in Russia it was available in cartons identical to those for regular milk. It may be used with coffee, tea, or in any other way in which milk is used. In Russian it is called "slivki", which is plural (no singular form). So in Yiddish it's called slivkes by analogy. It isn't sweet - it tastes very close to milk. It means "smetene" only figuratively - in the expression "slivki obshchestva", i.e. the cream of society (di some smetene/tsimes fin gezelshaft). Also - "slivochnoe maslo" - piter fin slivkes, or azkrem fin slivkes/"slivochnoe morozhennoe" - are common products there. Shaya Mitelman 12)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 16:07:47 +0200 From: "Dr. Joseph M. Schwarcz" Subject: slivkes Since slivovitz is plum brandy perhaps slivkes is plum jam. Ida Selavan Schwarcz Arad, israel 13)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 10:15:45 -0500 From: Martin Horwitz Subject: slivkes Slivki in Russian is cream (many nouns use a plural form in Slavic languages - here the etymology shows why: s-livat=off-pour of the milk is... the cream). Polish is shlivki. From here we get slivkes. and I assume the people were living high of the, lhavdl, hog and could afford cream,not milk,in their tea. ales gutns, martin horwitz 14)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 09:55:43 -0500 (EST) From: "Wlodek Goldkorn" Subject: slivkes Noyekh Miller fregt wos iz slivkes mendele 09.052 ("hobn ale gest gehot heysn tey fun samovar mit di gute slivkes un gebeksn"). As far as I konw , in this case ,slivkes means a kind of plum marmelade. The Polish word for it is Konfitura, In Russia, You drink tea (tey) with plum marmelade (slivkes). zayt gezunt wlodek goldkorn firenze 15)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 10:59:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Michael Steinlauf" Subject: slivkes Our distinguished shames emeritus could have pierced to the heart of this mystery by spending just a bit more time with the Polish dictionary. If one puts a diacritical on the [s] and then pronounces the word shlivki, the mist begins to part: you have plums in Polish, which is what I suspect those Jews were eating, in the form of compote or perhaps preserves. Mit derherets, Moyshe-Shaye Steinlauf 16)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 00:45:48 -0500 (EST) From: JuniperViv@aol.com Subject: slivkes I thought of the resemblance of slivkes to slivovitz plum brandy. I looked up "plum" in the Langenscheidt Polish English dictonary and got "sliwka". Could the tea have been used with plum preserves? Fay Berger 17)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 14:46:03 -0500 (EST) From: Stan Levine Subject: slivkes Noyeklh Miller asks about the remark "hobn ale gest gehot heysn tey fun samovar mit di gute slivkes un gebeksn". He wonders about drinking tea with cream among Eastern Europe Jews. Wouldn't the cream be eaten with the gebeks, not mixed in the tea? A grus, Shimke Levine ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.057 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