Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 13.038
May 6, 2004

1) nebbish and nebekh (Enrique E. Gildemeister)
2) nebbish and nebekh (Gershon Freidlin)
3) nebbish and nebekh (Hershl Hartman)
4) enge benge (Lori Cahan-Simon)
5) dona dona (Refoel Goldwaser)
6) Peter Aptakin (Peter Aptakin)
7) The Singers' neglected sister (Hershl Hartman)
8) Vilne writers (Naomi Miller-Tureck)

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1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 30, 2004
From: RGildem550@aol.com
Subject: Re: nebbish and nebekh

I've heard that the Czech etymology for "nebekh" is the most probable.
Still, it has also been suggested that it comes from German "nie bei euch"
-- never by you.

"Nebbish" is the Western Yiddish pronunciation of "nebekh".  But, could it
be that, like "tush" for "tokhes", "nebbish" is used by East European
immigrants' children because _kh_ does not exist in American English?  Maybe
the similarity with Western Yiddish is just a coincidence.

Enrique E. Gildemeister
Brooklyn, NY

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 30, 2004
From: freidlin@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: nebbish and nebekh

Speculation on nebbish vs. nebekh........My spec is based upon having heard
the terms in usage........Nebbish is derived from a Germanic pronunciation
of nebekh.  The noun used in my dialect is, nebekhl, not nebbish.

Gershon Freidlin

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 30, 2004
From: hershl@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: nebbish and nebekh

May I, hesitantly and with trepidation, nebekh, offer the possibility that
"nebbish" is a Yinglish word, not recorded in Yiddish dictionaries nor to be
found in Yiddish literature?

In his 1898 Yiddish-English dictionary, Harkavy cites "nebakh" (sic) as a
masculine noun. By 1928, in his Yiddish-English-Hebrew dictionary, Harkavy
gives "nebekh" as both an interjection and a noun (substantive), also adding
"nebekhl/nebekhlekh" -- pitiful little one(s) -- as nouns.

Stutchkoff's oytser (Thesaurus), 1950, Category 591, umshuldikeyt
(innocence), shows "nebekhl" in a noun grouping that includes
"nyeboshtshikl" and "yezus" (comments below); he includes "nebekhdik"
(pitiful) under adjectives.

Finally, Weinreich, 1968, gives "nebekh" as an interjection, "nebekhdik" as
an adjective and "nebekhl/nebekhlekh" as nouns.

Not a "nebbish" in the bunch. Not Yiddish. Nohow, no way.

About Stutchkoff's grouping: might "nyeboshtshikl" be a "Russianized"
version of the Czech origin attested to here: nye bozha meaning "no god"? As
for "yezus" as a synonym for innocence, further commentary might bring on
additional trepidation, nebekh.

Hershl Hartman

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 5, 2004
From: lorelecs@juno.com
Subject: Re: enge benge

I'm glad you asked this, as my great interest is in children's material. I
have one version in a khanike story, "Khanike-gelt", by Sholem Aleykhem,
where an excited child hops on one foot:

Enge, benge,
Stupe, tsenge,
Artse, bartse,
Gole shvartse,
Eymele, reymele,
Beygele, feygele --
Hop!

Ruth Rubin includes a similar rhyme in her book, Voices of a People, p. 46.
In "The Children's World" chapter she indicates this is a counting-out
rhyme:

Eyndl-beyndl, tsuker shteyndl,
Artse-bartse, rimen shvartse,
Kale royte, sik-sak,
Oybn on, shteyt der hon,
Shlip-shlape, aroys!

Y.L. Cahan in his Yidishe folkslider mit melodiyen, #362:

Engele, bengele,
Shtup a stengele.
Pif, paf!
Nogl bray!
Ane zane,
Kumt di pane,
Greyt tsum tish
Un khapt arop
Di greste shtik fish.

There is another much longer one in a Soviet collection that I have that
begins Engele, bengele.  If you want that one, let me know.  If yours is
different, I'd like to know that, too.

Lori Cahan-Simon

[Rose Jimenez and Norman Buder have posted similar replies.]

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 5, 2004
From: rafael.goldwaser@wanadoo.fr
Subject: dona dona

M'fregt bay mir vos badayt dos "Dona-dona" inem bakantn lid. Tsi hot emetser
fun aykh epes a tshuve?

A dank fun foroys.

Refoel Goldwaser
Strasbourg

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 5, 2004
From: peter.aptakin@valley.net
Subject: a nekhtiker tog

How would you translate "a nekhtiker tog", a phrase that comes to my mind
without a context.  How would the phrase be used?

Thanks for your help.

Peter Aptakin

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 5, 2004
From: hershl@earthlink.net
Subject: The Singers' neglected sister

An excellent article by Ilan Stevens appears in the May 5 edition of
The New Republic. The opening paragraph is below and the full article
can be read at http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=lost&s=stavans050504

Hershl Hartman

"There are two Singers in Yiddish literature," Irving Howe wrote in
1980, "and while both are very good, they sing in different keys." He
was wrong. There are three: the master novelist Israel Joshua Singer,
his younger Nobel Prize-winning sibling Isaac Bashevis Singer, and
also their long-eclipsed older sister Esther Kreitman, who died in
neglect in London in 1954.

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 6, 2004
From: ptureck@rogers.com
Subject: Vilne writers

I would like to read Yiddish poems and prose and essays by Yiddish writers
from Vilne or Yiddish writers who wrote about Vilne, and find others who are
interested in the same.  The reading material is to be in Yiddish.  What I
want to do is coordinate the reading material on a weekly or bi-weekly
basis, and discuss the material by e-mail.  I am interested in the
uniqueness of Vilne by way of language, literature, culture, communal
organizations, relations with majority and minority cultures, etc.  I want
to partake in such an undertaking to learn about Vilne Jewry, and to
practice my Yiddish literary comprehension skills. The e-mail discussion of
the Yiddish material is to be in English.  The reading material is to be in
Yiddish.

Naomi Miller-Tureck
Toronto, Ontario

Please address replies to mailto: ptureck@rogers.com

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End of Mendele Vol. 13.038

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