Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.085 October 26, 1997 1) sneezing (Mikhoyel Basherives) 2) Tumbalalaika (David Krycer) 3) Tumbalalaika (Ellen Prince) 4) Yiddish music in strange places (Martin Davis) 5) Etymology of dav(e)nen (Dovid Braun) 6) Tashme and Hebrew words from Yiddish (Yossel Weiss) 7) Yiddish Texts (Siegfried Risse) 8) Finger in fist - a fayg (Franklin Gracer) 9) equivalent of English saying in Yiddish (collective) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 16:25:14 -0700 From: Mikhoyel Basherives Subject: sneezing Regarding superstitions & sneezing I had always heard the response "tsum emes genosn!" ('sneezed to the truth') upon hearing a sneeze, meaning that the last thing anyone said before the sneeze was confirmed as being true by the sneeze. Doesn't Molly Picon have a line somewhere in the film "Yidl mitn Fidl" where she says, "Someone should only sneeze now!" in wishing that something someone had just said were true? Mikhoyel Basherives 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:22:51 +1000 From: Krycer Subject: Tumbalalaika We used to sing 'A shtayn......' until it was pointed out that the phrase was properly 'farshtayn ken vaksn on regn' (understanding can grow without rain). It's a very appealing explanation. Has anyone else heard this version? David Krycer 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 20:29:03 EDT From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Tumbalalaika Re a shteyn vos ken vaksn on reygn -- Maybe we're being too nature-oriented for Yiddish? Maybe we should think more about kidneys and gall bladders? Just kidding -- but it's the only stones I could ever think of that that line makes sense for -- and I think of it whenever I hear the song, which has severely lessened the romantic character of that song for me. ;) Re Harvey Spiro's sneeze recollections, wow! If the truth be told, what I remember did NOT really sound like 'Nis deroyf' but more like /nisederof/. The second vowel is an unstressed shwa. Since my parents said /of/ for /oyf/, I may well have hypercorrected that back to an /oyf/ that it never was. But I'm pretty sure the first vowel was /i/... And they didn't speak Russian. (Mother's family from Poland, father from Slovakia.) I'd be interested in hearing more about what this could be. Also, I must admit I'm having second thoughts about whether that was the 3rd-sneeze response or the response to a sneeze during someone's assertion, proving that the assertion was true, which would make some variant of 'Nis deroyf' more appropriate. But what was that vowel doing there after the 'nis' and before the 'deroyf'? Hm... As for Harvey's 'Galitzianer roots', hey, I was 'accommodating' the Yivo-ites/Litvakes out there -- Be assured that in my house it was 'Tsim gezint' and 'Lang leybn'! And yes, thanks for reminding me, 'Tsi lange yu:rn'. (But that phrase I associate more with speaking of the dead and the living in one clause, with 'Im/Ir/Dir tsi lange yu:rn' inserted.) Which reminds me -- when you got new clothes, the English line was 'Wear it and tear it well' -- I forget the Yiddish line. I note that my Misty Harbor raincoat says on the label 'Wear it in good health'. Hm... And, yes, we too did not go back to get something after leaving the house. (Or, if we had to, we'd be very nervous. ;) ) Question: Discovering you or someone else was wearing something inside-out 'meant' something -- can't remember what. Does this ring a bell? ('You're going to get a surprise' keeps popping into my mind -- but I may be confusing this with something else.) Ellen Prince 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 17:38:27 -0700 From: martind@cs.berkeley.edu (Martin Davis) Subject: Yiddish music in strange places I heard BEI MIR BIST DU SHAYN (without words) on the constant "musak" program at a hotel in Nagoya. Martin Davis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 01:01:40 EDT From: dovid@MIT.EDU Subject: Etymology of dav(e)nen A. Manaster Ramer has stated: "The crucial point here is that only the d-b-b etymology acounts for teh actual form of the word in Yiddish." I'd appreciate seeing exactly how this works. Dovid Braun Cambridge, MA 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 01:34:50, -0500 From: MCQE03A@prodigy.com (MR YOSEF WEISS) Subject: Tashme and Hebrew words from Yiddish Does someone know the origin of the word tashme for tape or cassette? Hugh Denman comment about hebrew words that have its origin in Yiddish. "Dash Ham" is one of these expressions, it comes from "a vareme gris." A git kvitl evereyone un a freiliikhe yomtiv Yossel Weiss 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 16:13:50 +0200 From: Siegfried Risse Subject: Yiddish Texts The ENCYLOPAEDIA JUDAICA on CD-Rom has three Yiddish songs sung by Jan Peerce: Rozhinkes mit Mandlen, If I were a rich man, Rabbi Elimelech. Unfortunately the text is not given in print. I would like to have the text in order to understand the songs. Thanks for help. Siegfried Risse 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 97 11:29:49 EDT From: "Franklin Gracer" Subject: Finger in fist - a fayg I read a translation of a short story, many years ago, called "Makh a Fayg" - unfortunately, I don't remember the collection or the author. I think it has a NY immigrant setting, and concerns a mother and child walking in the street, confronted by an old woman who always casts curses at the child. The mother instructs the child to "makh a fayg" to ward off the curses. If anyone can identify the collection and/or the author, I would be greatly appreciative. Franklin Gracer 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 Subject: equivalent of English saying in Yiddish In response to Barbara Lamm's question in 07.084: From: "Wolf Krakowski, Paula Parsky" "Yeder hot zikh zahn pek'l." ("Everyone has his own baggage.") From: Helen Abeles 'Yeder eyner hot zayn pekl' From: CHFriend@aol.com (Chaim H. Friend) "Er truckked a sverien peeckle" - (He carries a heavy load). From: Gruvnruvn1@aol.com "shver tsu zayn a yid" From: Matt Hoffman 'yeder yid hot a pekel' or 'trogt a pekl' From: Gitl Dubrovsky Mir trogn di tsores oyf di pleytses. From: "A. Krishtalka" yeder mentsh/yid hot zikh zayn pekl" ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.085 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html