Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 14.038
April 18 , 2005

1) balebos and boss (Ruben Frankenstein)
2) baleboste and other ladies (Larry Gillig)
3) baleboste (Ellen Prince)
4) kayn shum hant (Rochelle Eissenstat)
5) "Greetings From Home" (Julie Koven)
6) Gezukht: Halpern un Leyeles lider (Miryem-Khaye Seigel)
7) kuni-leml (Hershl Hartman)

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1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 8, 2005
Subject: balebos and boss

Concerning baleboste and bal(e)bos it would be interesting to investigate
wheter they have some link to the international word, also in colloquial
Hebrew word "boss". The common etymology is though from the Dutch "baas"
(master). But would it be too far-fetched to maintain the English "boss"
and/or the Dutch "baas" stemmed from the false part of the Hebrew-Yiddish
of "balebos" (the part meaning "house" instead of the part meaning
"master")?

Ruben Frankenstein

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 8, 2005
Subject: baleboste and other ladies

An interesting aside was something that I once heard from a chassidic
friend of mine (he's a Belzer but from a Spinker family) who referred to
one of his customers as being very nice for an areyliste (or in his
Galitzianer/Hungarian pronunciation arayliste). I asked him what that was?

It seems that a term for gentile is "orel" or "urel", from "aral" ayin
resh lamed in Hebrew, which means "uncircumcised". This has been
feminized in their dialect to arayliste like balebos to balebuste or
mekhutn to makhteyniste. So there is actually a Yiddish word for a
"female uncircumcised person".

Larry Gillig

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 8, 2005
Subject: Re: baleboste

Lori Simon writes:
...
>> as regards baleboste, I believe it comes from the Hebrew,
>> "baal shel bayis" Lord of the house, with a female ending.

Actually, I believe the standard account is that it's from bal-ha-bayis
(<ba'al ha-bayith), 'master [of]-the-house', plus the Aramaic feminine
suffix -te. The lack of an overt term for 'of' is very common in many
languages and the phrase-type is generally known as the appositive
genitive.

Ellen Prince

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 9, 2005
Subject: Re: kayn shum hant

I disagree with Gertrude Dubrovsky [Mendele 14.036]. here is my take on the
verse:

Hant is a broad pronunciation of haynt = today [or here used as today =
now]. Lots of Yiddish speakers pronounced it that way. So "unemployment is
absolutely not in existence now/today" in this new free land.

Rochelle Eissenstat

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 9, 2005
Subject: "Greetings From Home"

We have a question about the following Yiddish play: "Greetings from Home"
by Sam Auerbach and Heshel Schor.  It was performed at Glicksman's Palace
Theater in Chicago January 6-10, 1926(?).  Cast: Bertha Gersten, Sadie
Shoengold, Morris Kranech and Sam Auerbach

Does anyone know of the location of a manuscript for this play?

Julie Koven

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 11, 2005
Subject: Gezukht: Halpern un Leyeles lider

Tayere Mendelyaner,

Es shraybt aykh Miryem-Khaye Seigel mit an onfreg vegn tsvey lider:

"Nakht" fun Moyshe-Leyb Halpern
(aroysgegebn  in 1916, 1919 un 1927)

"A mayse fun a hundert" fun Arn-Glants Leyeles
(aroysgegebn in 1921)

Ikh hob shoyn gezukht in bikher in YIVO un in CYCO, nisht gefunen. Tomer
veyst ir vi di lider gefinen zikh veln mir zayn zeyer dankbar. Zayt azoy
gut un ruft zikh op tsu mir af dem adresn: yidassist@yivo.cjh.org

A dank,
Miryem-Khaye Seigel

This is Miryem-Khaye Seigel writing with an inquiry about two poems:

"Nakht" fun Moyshe-Leyb Halpern
(Published  in 1916, 1919 un 1927)

"A mayse fun a hundert" fun Arn-Glants Leyeles
(Published in 1921)

I have already looked in books in YIVO and CYCO and not found them. If you
happen to know where to find these two poems I would be very grateful.

Please answer me at this address:
yidassist@yivo.cjh.org

Thank you,
Miryem-Khaye Seigel

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 18, 2005
Subject: kuni-leml

After searching the Mendele archive (via Google, since the Archive page
didn't work for me), I believe this question has not been addressed
previously.

What is the meaning/derivation of "kuni" in the term for innocent
fool/dope/dupe, kuni-leml? (Leml is a little lamb, of course. The term
kuni-leml appears first in the additional words section of Harkavy's 1928
edition.)

One suggestion I've received: "kuni" is a synonym for "lom," lame. Which
might make sense, since a synonym for "kuni-leml" is "leymener goylem,"
lame fool.

Hershl Hartman

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End of Mendele Vol. 14.038

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