Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 14.051
May 2, 2005

1) prezhenitse (Lucas Bruyn)
2) ikh vil nit keyn ayzerne keytn (Elye Palevsky)
3) pisn boymelekh (Mirl Schonhaut)
4) lakhn mit yashtsherkes (Lucas Bruyn)
5) lakhn mit yashtsherkes (Sheldon Clare)
6) Galitsiye (Gitl Dubrovsky)
7) tekhnishe inyonim (Noyekh Miller)
8) yidish! (Noyekh Miller)

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1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: prezhenitse

Al Grand asked in 2001 (Vol. 11.005) about the etymology of `prezhenitse',
given in Weinreich as `scrambled eggs'.

He took the trouble to look the word up in the Russian-English dictionary
and found : yaytsinitsa-boltuni - scrambled eggs. Without the boltuni,
yatsina has the meaning `fried egg'. The same dictionary gives: eggs >
yaytso - egg > .yaytsini - egg- (attr.). The Polish-English dictionary
gives: scrambled eggs - jajecznica > jajko - egg. The Russian Yiddish
dictionary gives: yaytsinitsa - fankukhn, eyer-kukhn. prezhenitste >
oyg-prezhenitse

The 'oyg-prezhenitse' suggests a fried egg with the yolk not broken, sunny
side up. As became clear from several contributions `faynkukhn' is the
usual word for omelette, though `omelet' is also used.

There seems to be some confusion between omelette, scrambled eggs and fried
eggs. May be the basic meaning is `egg-dish'.

Sarah Zarrow (vol. 14.045) asked a similar question. She suggested a
Serbian connection: `prezentise', rejecting a Ukrainian origin.

In the Ukrainian-English dictionary I found: buttered, scrambled egg(s);
omlet - yaitsiya, pryazhenya.

Yiddish prezhenitse seems to be related to Ukrainian pryazhenya, as
Ukrainian yaitsiya seems to be related to Russian yaytsinitsa. Both meaning
and form appear to have been somewhat scrambled. The Serbian form is
obviously related.

Could The Russian language have been mixed up with the Ukrainian dialect,
to give a Yiddish form prezehenITSA prezhenitse = yaytsinitsa + pryazhenya

Prazhenya is close to the Serbian form mentioned in the original question:
the Serbian word for omelette is also prezentise.

I don't know of other examples where words from two different languages got
mixed to form a third one. However: hodeven has two meanings in Yiddish,
one coming from Ukrainian, one from Polish.

Lucas Bruyn

[efsher shoyn genug vegn eyer-makholim?--Mod.]

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: Re: ikh vil nit keyn ayzerne keytn

A quick translation

Elye Palevsky

**************************************

I don't want chains of iron
I want no golden crown
Servitude is ugly and bitter
May it (servitude) be the divinity itself.

I know of no fear before people
I know no bowing (prostrating myself) before god   (see the "oleynu")
My heart is my servant and commander
My will is also my command(ment).

May the petty foe curse/rant
And sharpen his dull sword
In my future he's destined
To sink into the dark void.

So I spin my demands of sunbeams
And weave my flag, (of) my faith
Of those who risk their lives  (-shpiln in lebn- as in -shpiln in kortn-)
Only the bold win the stakes.

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: Re: pisn boymelekh

boyml is oil, implying a holy use I guess. beymelekh are trees; no such
word as bomelekh.

My family said pishn beymelekh (sic) to describe one was "holier than thou".

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan
Boynton Beach, Florida

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: Re: lakhn mit yashtsherkes

Bernard Brazen asks in Vol. 14.050 about the meaning of yashtsherkes.

Weinrech: yashtstsherke, di (-s) lizard. Lakhn mit yashtsherkes - laugh
through tears, laugh on the wrong side of the mouth.

Russian yashtsheritsa / Polish jaszcurka -lizard.

Lucas Bruyn

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: Re: lakhn mit yashtsherkes

In mayn hoyz, dos hot gemeynt az es iz nit an emese gelekhter.

Sheldon Clare
Tucson, AZ

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 1, 2005
Subject: Galitsiye

[A propos Ruth Gay's post (14.050)]:

My parents were also from Galitsiye. While they all understood the same
Yiddish, they probably had different dialects. It must depend on where in
Galitsiye they lived. A Yiddish professor I once had told me, with an air
of authority, that the most interesting and creative people came from
Galitsiye. I choose to believe it, although ordinarily I would ask: "where
is the proof." It is nice to know that I have landslayt (once removed --
it doesn't matter).

Gertrude (aka Gitl) Dubrovsky

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 2, 2005
Subject: tekhnishe inyonim

If you were among those who received a series of test messages from
Mendele, please forgive.  They reached you only because of the general
incompetence of the undersigned who thought that only he would receive the
messages.

Nevertheless, it was heartening to learn that a number of readers were able
to read the Yiddish texts. As we approach the beginning of our 15th year
the moderators have been trying to find ways of making Mendele easier to
write to and also perhaps to include Yiddish messages.  It is possible but
not certain that we will turn to a new listserver program that might make
such things possible.

Our biggest problem however is not getting the stuff out of Yale but
getting the stuff onto readers' machines.  If all our readers used the
latest Windows or Mac software there would be no problem, but for all we
know there are Mendelists whose mail readers aren't even graphic.  Others
use older graphic operating systems that may or may not be
Yiddish-friendly.

So here's a request:  If you're running an older machine and/or system,
please drop a note _directly_ to mailto://nmiller@trincoll.edu, indicating
what machine and system you've got and whether you were able to read those
Yiddish texts.

Finally, every effort will be made to avoid annoying you with meaningless
test messages. If more slip through just ignore them.

Noyekh Miller

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 2, 2005
Subject: Yidish!

אָט איז אַ באַװײַז אַז מע קען לײענען ייִדיש צוזאַמען אין אײן דאָקומענט מיט ענגליש.

נח מילער

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