Mendele Vol. 22.001
1) "poyer" (Jules Levin) 2) Yiddish for "know it all" (Barbara Krasner) 3) rebbe (Norbert Hirschhorn) 4) gimze (Yankl Falk) 5) Vestiges of progressive voicing assimilation in NEY (Joshua Lebenswerd) 6) "ruf mikh nar un gib mir lekakh" (Ruth Murphy) 7) Yiddish Spell Check (Refoyl Finkel) 8) "Vi shver s'iz tsu gleybn" (Rukhl Schaechter) 9) "Tsistsilist" (Veronica Belling) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: etymology of "poyer" Date: April 27 What is the etymology of "poyer" for "peasant"? Seems more Slavic than either Germanic or Hebrew. Jules Levin 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 26 Subject: Yiddish for "know it all" I am writing a novel that takes place in a shtetl on the road between Warsaw and Bialystok in 1919. I'm looking for the Yiddish equivalent of "pompous ass" or "know-it-all." Any suggestions? Barbara Krasner 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 24 Subject: rebbe Yiddish dictionary on line, citing YIVO standards, spells the Hasidic rabbi as "rebe," http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/ while Wikipedia uses "rebbe." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebbe_%28disambiguation%29 Please, which is correct? A non-Jewish friend of mine read "rebe" as "reeb" Cheers, Norbert Hirschhorn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 24 Subject: gimze Earlier today, Gloria Berkenstat Freund posted a question to the Mendele Personals list, but the answer is of general linguistic interest. Gloria wrote: I am translating an article from the Kurow Yizkor Book. There is a reference to "leder gimzes." The phrase appears in a paragraph about a "Polish shoemaker who agreed to hide Jews in exchange for 10 "leder gimzes." Does anyone know what a leather "gimze" is? In "Jews and Shoes" (Oxford, UK: Berg, 2008), Edna Nahshon defines "gimze" as "thin and supple goat hide... Gimze, which was very pliable and expensive, came in brown and black." [95] For European shoemakers, gimze was "[t]he most expensive leather for uppers." [97] I found another clue in the soc.genealogy.jewish archives (14 Nov 2011): "Gimze" is a regional Yiddish variant for the German gemze but is not standard Yiddish. And Gemze? It's the German name for the wild European antelope better known to us by its French name (chamois). But so far as I know, not related to Gomez (gam zu l'tovah). Yankl Falk 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25 Subject: Vestiges of progressive voicing assimilation in NEY EY famously employs the "Slavic" habit of regressive voicing assimilation in obstruent clusters.NEY is described as having an even more pervasive application than other EY dialects, namely assimilation also applies across word boundaries: "host genug" "hozd genug" etc.Interestingly, the word /nito/ "absent," a contraction of /nit do/ "not here," seems to demonstrate progressive, rather than regressive, assimilation. /nit/ is also a NEY lexical item, cf. nish (mostly non-NEY). Maybe there are more examples, but this is likely a vestige of a time when yiddish employed a different phonology. This should be looked into. Josh Lebenswerd 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 15 Subject: "ruf mikh nar un gib mir lekakh" Tayere leyeners, I was wonder if anyone recognizes the expression "ruf mikh nar un gib mir lekakh" as a song, probably from right around the turn of the century? Do you know which one? I looked on the internet but didn't find anything. The line is from the play "Mirele Efros," written about 1898. Here is the text it appears in: Hannah Devoire: Afilu in der linker peyah ligt es mir nisht. Vi zogt men: ruf mikh nar un gib mirlekakh. . . Ikh vil zen beser di kallah-matones. Ir hot tzugezogt dimentene oyeringlekh, mit a brosh, mit a bronzshelet, nomikh akorsht zen. . . ir meynt nisht, az ir vet opkumen mit shieh-pieh. I'd appreciate any suggestions! Also, I've seen various translations for "lekakh" (cinnamon cake, honey cake). Any thoughts on this word? A sheynem dank, Rus (Ruth Murphy) 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 24 Subject: Yiddish Spell Check A more feature-filled spell checker I have built is at http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/checkSpellUTF.cgi Refoyl Finkel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 29 Subject: "Vi shver s'iz tsu gleybn" Date: April 22 The poem George Sacks is looking for is a Holocaust song called "S'vet Zikh fun Tsvaygl Tseblien a Boym." Lyrics: Sh. Katczerginski. Music: A. Volkoviski. The words and transliteration appear in Gottlieb and Mlotek's *25 Ghetto Songs.* Rukhl Schaechter 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 23 Subject: "Tsistsilist" Hi there, In a Yiddish book I am translating, "Mayn Lite" by Solomon Buirski, published in 1976 in South Africa, but referring to the years 1902-1911 in Lithuania, they use the word (noun) "Tsistsilist" for somebody who has become a free thinker or apikoros. On a google search the word "Tsitsilist" appeared in the online English translation of the Yizkor Bukh for Nowy Sancz on the Jewishgen. What would b a good English equivalent for "Tsitsilist" and what is the derivation of the word? I know what immediately comes to mind is the German/Yiddish word for a woman's breast. However, a friend of mine wondered if there could be any connection with the word "zeteticist," meaning a skeptic, which entered the English and other European languages from the Greek? Veronica Belling ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 22.001 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: [email protected] IMPORTANT: Please include your full name as you would like it to appear in your posting. No posting will appear without its author's name. 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