Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 22.002 June 25, 2012 1) tsitsilist (Akvile Grigoraviciute) 2) tsitsilist (Jordan Brown) 3) Gershon Freidlin (Gershon Freidlin) 4) "A pokerl" (Lucas Fiszman) 5) poyer/know-it-all/reb(b)e/tsitsilist (Hershl Hartman) 6) poyer (Jan Jonk de Koning) 7) poyer (Leyzer Gillig) 8) poyer (Alexis Manaster Ramer) 9) Niborski/Vaisbrot dictionary (Yakov Rabinovich) 10) song sought (Jane Enkin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: May 27 Date: tsitsilist Veronica Belling is asking about the meaning of the word "Tsitsilist": it is a corruption of "socialist". The word also exists in Lithuanian, usually referring to the revolutionaries of 1905. Akvile Grigoraviciute [Moderator's note: similar responses were received from Elozor Reich and Shimke Levine] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26 Subject: tsitsilist Just a guess for the roots of "tsitsilist": Might this word be a jab at the gratuitous free-thinker for incessantly asking questions or weighing alternatives (i.e., overusing the Yiddish "tsi")? Best, Jordan Brown 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25 Subject: tsitsilist "Tsitsilist" was used on the Lower East Side by immigrants who could not easily pronounce "Socialist." May have found its way to Europe and taken on a sarcastic meaning. Remember, the word, "shap" was born the same way and made its way to Europe. Gershon Freidlin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 6 Subject: "A pokerl" tayere mendelyaner, ikh halt bay arbetn mit a por lider vos Maks Perlman hot geshpilt un rekordirt in Buenos Ayres. ikh hob shverikaytn bay zaynem a lid, "A pokerl", vos banutst verter fun shpiln. inem tsuzung ken men tsuhern: //iz dir a kort, mir a kort, im a kort in dem a kort, //shpiln mir a poker biz baginen. //ver es koyft dershikt es "loy[...]", //ver es "tasht" in ver es "strasht", //yeder trakht bazunder tsu gevinen. un oykh zingt er: //ikh kon di kunst in poker, //vi men tasht in vi men git, //ikh ken makhn a blefale, a "glatn". tsvishn gendzn-fislekh shteyen di verter vos ikh ken nisht farshteyn (oder vayl men ken nisht rikhtik tsuhern -di rekordirung iz alt- oder vayl zey gehern tsu a shpil-leksikon vos ikh banuts keyn mol nisht). me ken tsuhern dos lid do: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwSc8XS_AE00RU5RRDd0WExvR2s a sheynem dank, Lucas Fiszman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25 Subject: poyer/know-it-all/reb(b)e/tsitsilist/ Responses to: 1) Jules Levin: The German "bauer" for farmer or peasant is the obvious derivation of "poyer." I'll leave it to the etymologists to find the origin of the German word... 2) Barbara Krasner: for "know it all" I'd suggest: a khokhem fun der manishtane. Lit: A wise man from the "ma nishtana" -- i.e., someone whose depth of wisdom is limited to knowing the simple question asked by children at the peysekh seyder. 3) Norbert Hirschhorn: The appeal to the confusion of "a non-Jewish friend" hardly invalidates the YIVO Standard. Remember the hapless politician who pronounced the "accepted" transliteration of "chutspah" to great deserved derision... 4) Veronica Belling: "tsitsilist" is a disparagement of a "Socialist" (non-believer, apikoyris) with a sideswipe at Litvakes whose displacement of "s" (samekh) for "ts" (tsadi) was a source of great amusement for the pious -- khsidim, especially. Hershl Hartman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 31 Subject: poyer Tayere mendelyaner, In bezug auf die Frage van Jules Levin m=F6chte ich verweisen auf Schmellers Bayrisches W=F6rterbuch' (Jubileumsausgabe, Muenchen 2002, Bd. 1, 187. und 257) und Wolfgang Pfeifers Etymologisches W=F6rterbuch, Berlin 1989, A-G, S.134. Sie beziehen das Wort 'Bauer' auf das ahd. gib=FBro > mhd. geb=FBr (cohibitator ...rusticus). Als Bedeutungen: Familien- Stammesgenosse, Dorfgenosse. Mhd. Geb=FBr(e)/ b=FBr =(Miteinwohner, Nachbar, Bauer, roher Mensch. Vgl. im Holl=E4ndischen: nabuurschap, buur, boer. Schmeller signalisiert den Gebrauch von 'gpaur' auszusprechen als 'paur' ge/gi in der Bedeutung von co/zusammen. Im Bayrischen sieht man oft die Erscheinung von b>p im Anlaut; und mhd =FB > 'au' // im Jiddischen als oi >> vgl.: h=FBs > haus/hois Mit a sheynem grus, Jan Jonk de Koning, Nederland 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25 Subject: poyer poyer (meaning peasant or boor) is the same as the German word Bauer, meaning the same thing. The German B becomes P in some Yiddish words, such as Butter becoming Putter, and the "oy" vowel in Yiddish is often the "au" vowel in German: oykh/auch; hoyz/Haus, etc Leyzer Gillig [Moderator's note: a similar response was received from Vincent Homolka] 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25 Subject: poyer Poyer is the same word as standard German Bauer and English boor. The devoicing of b, d, and g in some words is an old feature of Yiddish and it is also shared with the vast majority of High German dialects--though why some words have it and others not has not really been explained properly. Alexis Manaster Ramer 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 28 Subject: Niborski/Vaisbrot dictionary I am attempting to but a copy of the famed Niborski/Vaisbrot dictionary, which seems to have been out of print for the entire decade since its first publication. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where one can buy a copy or what prices are being asked? Checking with the online antiquarian sellers, I find only one copy available, (condition undisclosed) for $55 and another 25 in shipping. Is this the best one can do. Any advice would be welcomed. Yakov Rabinovich 10)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: song sought Date: June 13 I'm looking for a song that a senior I work with sings. She gave me some fragments: Mit dayne klige oygn Host di mikh tsigetzoygn... .... tsuris host di mikh gebrakht Kh'hob moyre, kh'hob moyre Far vemen hostu moyre... ...bay nakht. Does anyone recognize these lyrics? thanks, Jane Enkin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 22.002 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements, i.e. announcements of events, commercial publications, requests to which responses should be sent exclusively to the request's author, etc., always in plain text (no HTML or the like) to: [email protected] (in the subject line write Mendele Personal) 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. Submissions to regular Mendele should not include personal email addresses, as responses will be posted for all to read. 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