Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.006
May 26 , 2005

1) Eardrum (Lyuba Dukker)
2) Eardrum (Elyea Palevsky)
3) Eardrum (Bob Rothstein)
4) preyglen ayngemakhts (Leizer Gillig)
5) kak zey bkheyrem (Leizer Gillig)
6) kak zey bkheyrem (Robert M. Shapiro)
7) mohver (Sema Chaimovitz Menora)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 25, 2005
Subject: Re: eardrum

The Yiddish for eardrum is poyk heytl.

Lyuba Dukker

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: Re: eardrum

bay undz in der heym (eltern fun vilne) hobn mir gezogt pereponke(s).

makh shtiler di radyo, se platsn bay mir di pereponkes!

Elye Palevsky

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: Re: eardrum

Shapiro's Russian-Yiddish dictionary gives _poykhaytl_ (literally, 'drum
membrane'), a calque from Russian _barabannaia pereponka_.

Bob Rothstein

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts

Not that Mendele is here to exchange recipes, but as a cultural note, in
the Bobover hasidic community in Brooklyn, the custom was that on Shmini
Atzeres all of the esroygim of the community were collected by the small
boys in shul (sometimes without the knowledge of the owner of the esrog)
and the rebitsn would "preygl ayngemakhts", which were enjoyed  beginning
with Tu b'Shvat (which was never called "Tu" but was called Khamshosor - or
in Galitzyanish; khamshoosa, and distributed each Shabes morning at
Kidush.I have no idea how to do it, but am told by balebostes that making
esrog-ayngemakhts is quite a tedious process.

And on the subject of "ayngemakhts", I have heard people sing a rather
mournful tune (sounds almost like the Yom Kippur davenen) with the lyrics:
lekekh, un bronfn, un ayngemakhts... la la la la la la la.... does
anyone have any idea what this song is about? (Other than honeycake,
whisky, and preserves? The people who were singing it couldn't tell me
anything other than that it was a custom to sing toward the end of a
wedding, when men were called up to dance the "mitzva tants" with the
kale.)

Leizer Gillig
LGillig@timeequities.com

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: Re: kak zey bkheyrem

Having learned my Yiddish in a hasidic k'hile that was very makpid
(meticulous) in its turns of phrase (to the extent that if someone asked
directions to a location that was at the bottom of a hill, they would be
told "geyt do aroyf" (vayl a yid tor nisht arop geyn, nor allemol aroyf
geyn) ...I never heard the rather earthy-sounding expression "kak zey
bkheyrem" which would mean to (excuse me) shit them into excommunication -
we used "leyg zey areyn in kheyrem"... but kheyrem is a horrible fate for a
religious person to endure, and certainly "kakn" would be an appropriate
verb to use in placing someone into kheyrem.

kheyrem means that a person could not do business with anyone in the
community, no one would marry his children, no one would have _anything_ to
do with him, at least not in a positive way. In general it is not used
anymore, even in very religious circles.

Leizer Gillig
LGillig@timeequities.com

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: Re: kak zey bkheyrem

The expression is probably "Kh'ob zey bekheyrem", literally "I have them
under a ban". Kheyrem or Herem is Hebrew for a ban of excommunication, of
total shunning from and by the community.

Robert M. Shapiro

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 26, 2005
Subject: mohver

A group of people meet in a local senior center and converse in  Yiddish.
The Yiddish is far from grammatical and most of the speakers do  not read
or write Yiddish.  The word "mohver", meaning a type of large building
according to the speaker, was a word none of the other participants
recognized.  The "moh..." had a kometz aleph sound,  although  the speaker
wasn't even sure how it was spelled. Is anyone on Mendele familiar with
this word?

A sheynem dank

Sema Chaimovitz Menora
cybersavta@aol.com

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End of Mendele Vol. 15.006


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