Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.050 March 10, 2006 1) pushke(Mikhl Herzog) 2) pushke(Bob Rothstein) 3) kashe varnishkes (Yankev Berger) 4) kashe varnishkes (Bob Rothstein) 5) Wedding Without a Bride (Joan Levin) 6) Heavenly Footstools (Henryk Jaronowski) 7) Opatoshu's Name (Dovid Braun) 8) Opatoshu's Name (Dan Opatoshu) 9) Fiddler on the Roof (Al Grand) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: pushke The origin of the Southern Yiddish word "pishke" (standard Yiddish "pushke") is Slavic--as signaled by the final unstressed -e-- which has long been lost in Yiddish words of German origin (except in several modern borrowings like "dame," "pyese." Other Yiddish words that end in -e are of Slavic origin: tate, mame, bobe, zeyde. If I may be permitted a slightly off-color, but relevant joke: Me shmekt fin a pishkele, un me pisht fin a shmekele. Mikhl Herzog 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: pushke John Burke asked (15.048) about the word "pushke" ("pishke" in southern Yiddish). In Polish "puszka" refers to any tin can, but also more specifically to a tin collection box. A Yiddish proverb that rhymes in Ukrainian or Polish Yiddish characterizes the effects of living on charity: Az me lebt fin der pishke, iz leydik/laydik di kishke (When you live from the charity box, your belly is empty.) In klal-shprakh there would be no rhyme, only assonance: Az me lebt fun der pushke, iz leydik di kishke Bob Rothstein [a similar response was received from Lyuba Dukker] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: kasha varnishkes Regarding Khavertorn Lyba's post: a) It had slipped my mind that I had made the offer of providing the full text to "Soroka Vorona" before. b) Her comment on "varnishkes" as a stand-alone word intrigues me, because cannot recollect hearing it in my household, where 'knaydlakh' were de rigueur. And I too, am a Litvak.... Nevertheless, it is instructive, because if you probe the underlying Russian root, you run into "var" which connotes all manner of boiling. So in my prior message, where I pointed to the word "kashevar, that being a Russian army regimental cook, it would appear that this person might have been a "kasha boiler," which is not unreasonable. What intrigues me is whether "kashe varnishkes" is the composite that Khavertorn Lyuba suggests (pretty likely), or an extension of "kashevar" into kashevarnishkes as I suggested (not unreasonable). I wonder if there is a good way to analyze this question? Regards, Yankev Berger 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: kashe varnishkes Lyuba Dukker wrote that in her family "varnishkes were dumplings" and also referred to the song "Varnishkes" sung by Nekhama Lifshitz. I can't speak for her family, but the usual term for the dumplings she refers to is "varnitshkes," and that is the title of the song published by Y.-L. Cahan and Moyshe Beregovski (see the Mloteks' "Songs of Generations," pp. 122-3). As for the expression "kashe varnishkes," I proposed an etymology in Mendele 3.132 (November 15, 1993). Bob Rothstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: Wedding Without a Bride In response to Sylvio Band and others interested, for further information about ordering a CD of "Budowitz: Wedding Without a Bride" with Majer Bogdanski as badkhen, visit: http://www.budowitz.com/pages/wwab.html Joan Levin 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: Heavenly footstools Another instance of heavenly footstools might be of interest. Isaiah 66:1 reads, "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?" (KJV) Here the meaning of "footstool" (Heb. "hadom ruglai") is positive, too. Henryk Jaronowski 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: Opatoshu's name A hunch, and only a hunch, re Yosef Opatovski's adopting the pseudonym "Yosef Opatoshu": "Opatovski" indicates his people were originally from the Polish town Opato'w (Yiddish: Apt; cf. the other toponymic family name, Apter, such as that of the Yiddish novelist Shimshn Apter). The Polish suffix -owski indicates the name bearer is 'of those people, from that place.' The suffix -shu may be the Yiddish rendition (i.e. Yiddish speakers' pronunciation and Yiddish transliteration) of the Polish suffix of endearment -siu (cf. Polish: mamusiu 'mommy', tatusiu 'daddy'). (In modern Yiddish among speakers of the so-called "Polish" dialect, this is the suffix -shi in "mameshi, tateshi, khaneshi" 'mommy, daddy, little Khane/Hannah.') Dan Opatoshu, Yosef's grandson whose name this now is (and not a pseudoname!) -- do you know anything further? Dovid Braun 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: March 3 Subject: Opatoshu's name In response to Yakira Frank's query, Joseph Opatovsky had an older brother who aspired to be a writer. When Joseph later first began to write, he adopted the pen name Opatoshu so as not to step on his brother's toes. Unfortunately, his older brother's literary output consisted of only a few pieces of journalism in Poland. As far as I know, there was no significance to the choice of shin-vov as suffix other than that he liked the sound of the name. Of course, to a Yiddish reader the pronunciation of Opatoshu is clear and phonetic, and not as confounding as it seems to be in English transliteration. My grandfather, grandmother, father and mother had the family surname legally changed to Opatoshu in New York shortly before my birth in 1947, so that my birth certificate would read Opatoshu, which had long been used in all but "official state" matters (i.e. my father served in WW2 as "David Opatovsky," although he had used Opatoshu in his acting career from the age of sixteen, and Opatoshu was the name on all mail boxes and stationary). Hope this helps, Dan Opatoshu 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: February 27 Subject: Japanese performance of "Fiddler on the Roof"! Turn on your speakers and click here http://www.toho.co.jp/stage/yane2005/asx/yane_r1_low.asx for a terrific Japanese performance of "Fiddler on the Roof"! ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.050 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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