Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.009 September 26, 2004 1) shier nisht (Barney Martin) 2) shier nisht (Allan Nadler) 3) shier nisht (Martin Jacobs) 4) shier nisht (Barney Martin) 5) Yiddish show tunes (Cookie Blattman) 6) Zal Kedrova/Sala Kedrowa (Paula Eisenstein Baker) 7) Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany (Marion Aptroot) 8) Abraham Plotkin, 1982-1988 (Arieh Lebowitz) 9) Wolf Yunin (Naomi Miller-Tureck) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: July 27, 2004 From: martin@wildplanet.com Subject: Re: shier nisht In answer to Marty Green, who asked about shier, it looks like a clear cognate of Dutch schier - sheer in English. The sense in Dutch is 'nearly', 'almost', as in schier-eiland (nearly an island, ergo peninsula), schier aal (almost an eel; an eel with deviant characteristics), and similar usages. Similar also to some English usages of sheer - e.g. schier lelijk (utterly ugly). The Dutch language did not borrow from Yiddish till fairly late in the game, but Dutch and Yiddish were originally fairly close relatives. The Germanic root word for shier/schier would probably be something like skeir or skaer - likely meanings: barely, hardly, almost, or almost not. I doubt that anybody borrowed it - it was probably always there, in Yiddish, Dutch, German, and English. [I really should have a copy of Van Dale's etymological dictionary at my desk!] Modern pronunciation of 'ie' in Dutch is 'ee', though in dialects you will hear, in many Dutch dipthonged one syllable words (ie: schier, boer, thuis, etc.) the ghost of that second vowel. Likely it was more than a ghost centuries ago, not only in Dutch, but also further up the Rhine. That might explain the double ayin spelling convention. The 'Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek' (Jan De Vries, fourth printing (1997), published by Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands) states that it is derived from middle Dutch sciere / scier, meaning soon, almost, cognate with Old High German (?) sc§ro, sciaro, scioro (quickly, soon), derived from sk§iro, from Indo-Germanic skei - to sever, separate. Related to Latin scire - to know, to distinguish. The Dictionary of Word Origins (By John Ayto, Arcade Publishing, Inc., New York 1990) informs that sheer (shear) is "the principal descendant of the Indo-European base sker - cut', to which are related also score, share, shirt, short, skirt", etc. Then goes on to say "The immediate source of shear (sheer) itself is prehistoric Germanic skeran, which also evolved into German and Dutch scheren, Swedish sk„ra, and Danish skjaere". Then Mr. Ayto caveats this by indicating that the adjective sheer "probably represents a survival of Old English scir - bright, shining". But, as this must refer to appearance, it is probably not germane to shier. The Roots of English - A Reader's Handbook of Word Origins, by Robert Claiborne (Times Books, 1989), gives the root of the cognate sheer as sker, related to ker - to cut. From which derive also share, sharp, shear, short, shrub, shirt, un so nokh eppes weiter, shier ohn a shiur. Clearly, shier is a word of Germanic origin, with relatives in many Germanic languages. Barney Martin San Francisco 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: July 27, 2004 From: anadler@drew.edu Subject: Re: shier nisht The use of shier to connote limit in Yiddish (e.g. vifil a shier, on a shier, shier nisht. etc...) has absolutely nothing to do with the common Hebrew application of "shiur" to connote a lesson, but derives rather from the more general rabbinic Hebrew usage of "shiur" to denote a precise measure or quantity. In rabbinic Hebrew, "shiur" refers to precise minimum/maximum amounts regarding the fulfillment of specific halakhic obligations or transgressions of biblical prohibitions. For example, the minimum "shiur" of matza one must eat at the seder to fulfill the mitzvah of akhiles-matze; or the maximum "shiur" of trayf one consumes before having trangressed the Biblical dietary laws, etc..... Weinreich unfortunately conflated these two different Hebrew terms in his Yiddish dictionary, thereby creating confusion, "on a shier." Allan Nadler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: July 27, 2004 From: marjacobs1@juno.com Subject: Re: shier nisht Martin Green's question on "shier nit" prompts me to ask a further question. My German dictionary (Oxford Duden) gives two distinct words "schier": 1) almost, 2) pure, sheer. The latter is surely cognate with the with the English "sheer", as in "sheer nonsense" or "an act of sheer bravery", and former with the Yiddish "shier nit". In addition I have come across a Middle High German word "schiere", meaning "quickly", "soon" (Walshe, "Middle High German Reader"). This would be cognate with the word in the old Yiddish version of the Passover hymn, the last line of which runs, I think (I quote from memory): "boy dayn templ shire", where "shire" is spelled like the Hebrew word for song, but which the Hebrew version shows to mean ''soon''. My question is, are all these words etymologically related, or are we dealing with three distinct words similar in sound? Martin Jacobs Brooklyn, New York 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: July 29, 2004 From: martin@wildplanet.com Subject: Nokh further to shier nisht The Roots of English - A Reader's Handbook of Word Origins, by Robert Claiborne (Times Books, 1989), gives the root of the cognate sheer as sker, related to ker - to cut. From which derive also share, sharp, shear, short, shrub, shirt, un so nokh eppes weiter, shier ohn a shiur. Clearly, shier is a word of Germanic origin, with relatives in many Germanic languages. Barney Martin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 3, 2004 From: LBlattman@aol.com Subject: Yiddish show tunes It is not the lyrics I need help with.. It is the composer and lyricist's names I need for "You gotta have a little Mazl" in Eng and Yiddish as well..an old song called "Shlimazl" and a song by Miriam Kressyn I don't have the name for let alone the composer and lyricist..it starts with "A yidishe tukhter farzits nit ba yidn"..I'm stuck on those 3 tunes.. Thanks for any help. Cookie Blattman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 5, 2004 From: eisenbak@stthom.edu Subject: Zal Kedrova/Sala Kedrowa I am trying to locate a hall called "Zal Kedrova/Sala Kedrowa," which appears, without the name of the town, on a concert poster. According to the poster, composer Leo Tseytlin's wife, Esther Sititskaia, performed on a concert there Sat, July 22, 1922, and Tseytlin himself may have played viola. At the time they were living in Vilna, so I have always assumed that the concert took place there, but a research librarian in Vilnius who has investigated it thoroughly (and whom I trust) tells me that there has never been a hall by that name in Vilna. YIVO has no information about it. Here are some clues to where the concert may have taken place: (1) The poster was printed in Vilna, so I assume the concert took place not far from there, BUT there seems to be no mention of it in the Vilna newspapers, so maybe it didn't. The posters are small enough (approximately 19 x 24 in.) that they could have been carried easily. (2) The poster is in two languages, Yiddish and Polish (NOT Russian). (3) No address is given for the hall; either the city was small enough that no a ddress was necessary, OR the hall was very well known. A dance followed the concert. (4) Tseytlin and his wife were both originally from Pinsk; possibly the concert took place there. Private replies, please, to unless you think they are of interest to all. Please excuse multiple postings. Paula Eisenstein Baker 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 8, 2004 From: aptroot@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de Subject: Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany Seventh Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany 4-6 October 2004 The Seventh Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany will be held October 4-6 at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf. This annual Yiddish Symposium is organized alternately by the Yiddish programs at the universities of Trier and Duesseldorf and is intended to offer students and scholars the possibility to present their research, exchange ideas and put forward questions for discussion. The symposium is open to all those interested in Yiddish Studies. There is no conference fee. We do ask participants to register as soon as possible at the address below. The program can be found under: http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/jiddisch/ We are also happy to answer questions by mail, fax or e-mail. Simon Neuberg Marion Aptroot 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 8, 2004 From: ariehnyc@prodigy.net Subject: Abraham Plotkin, 1982-1988 A colleague is doing research on Abraham Plotkin, who had worked for a number of years with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and - we suspect - had written a number of items that appeared in the Jewish Daily Forward between July 1, 1933 and November 31, 1933. [We're trying to see if in fact he did get published there -- they are we believe reports of a trip he made to Germany in 1932, during which time he interviewed a number of German trade union leaders, among others.] He was born in 1892 in Russia, and died in May, 1988 in Los Angeles, CA. If anyone "here" can help with our search for information on his life [and death - it would be very helpful if you know of likely places to search for obituaries] that would be most appreciated. Arieh Lebowitz 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 8, 2004 From: ptureck@rogers.com Subject: Wolf Yunin I am seeking Yiddish writing by Wolf Yunin (he supposedly wrote Yiddish songs, and a Hebrew-Yiddish Dictionary), Yossl Birstein (he lived his final years in Israel), Shomer (he supposedly wrote "shund" material), and Heschel's analysis at a 1946 symposium of Eastern European Jewish Life. Also, who wrote the story "Der Alef"? His first name begins with a B.? and his last name begins with a B.? (Berkhov?, Borowitz?). If you can direct me to journals or books where I can find this material, I would appreciate it. Naomi Miller-Tureck Toronto, Ontario ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.009 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu