Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 26.003 March 30, 2017 1) hobn/hubn (Martin Jacobs) 2) vi di kats fun mitvokh (Johanna Kovitz) 3) Newly Discovered Yiddish Folk Songs (Norbert Hirschhorn) 4) vind mir (Maurice Wolfthal) 5) Yiddish-inflected protest sign (Amy Kaufman) 6) Meanings of "A bronch kopf" and "...samelejda" (Darren King) 7) In hafen fun Hayfa (Paula Grossman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 13 October 2016 Subject: hobn/hubn If memory serves me correctly, in Southern Yiddish "hobn" has two forms, "hobn" and "hubn", one form for the infinitive (tsu hobn) and one for the plural of the present tense (mir/zey hobn). I cannot, however, remember which is which, which the infinitive and which the plural. Can anyone please enlighten me? Thank you. Martin Jacobs 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 November 2016 Subject: vi di kats fun mitvokh Does anyone know the origin of the phrase “vi di kats fun mitvokh” as found in the expressions listed below? They are all taken from Nahum Stutchkoff’s Oytser. arn vi di kats fun mitvokh frum vi a kats fun mitvokh hobn seykhl vi di kats fun mitvokh visn vi a ku fun mitvokh / fun montik How does one understand the preposition “fun” in these examples? How might one translate the expressions literally? I realize that the meaning of the phrase is “not at all,” but I would like to understand the underlying structure. Thank you, Johanna Kovitz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 January 2017 Subject: Newly Discovered Yiddish Folk Songs The 'Henonville Songs' (Henonville, France) collected by Dr. David Boder in a DP camp in 1946. The history of the recordings, their discovery last year, along with several clips, are given here: https:// centerhistorypsychology.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/ A listing of some of the songs can be found here, from Archives of History of American Psychology, Winter 2016 Issue: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__drive.google.com_open-3Fid-3D&d=DwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=hgSCSvtHqNOp40iT6T4uKyOHqvQreUPfVso-KO1Kgto&m=ebdgCX6leyAs5w4QciQ7GQgoxIZn7QVQ9OxO6TbF4fc&s=hHM6wa3A6JjncAPSiOlINqriRLaCijnamT98CZckNiU&e= 0ByPhX8vdW1nZd3ViTEp1cFNkVkE. Kindest regards, Norbert Hirschhorn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 February 2017 Subject: vind mir Does someone know the origin of the phrase "vind mir?" The tree in Itsik Manger's "Oyfn veg shteyt a boym" laments, "Vey iz mir un vind mir." Maurice Wolfthal Houston 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 February 2017 Subject: Yiddish-inflected protest sign A sign was seen at one of the Women's marches here in the US that said, "Oy, again with the fascism?" What makes this sound so Jewish (besides the "oy")? Is it the use of the word "the"? Is it the "again with (the)"? What is it, and is it from Yiddish? A sheynem dank in advance for your thoughts Amy Kaufman Massachusetts, US 6)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: Meanings of "A bronch kopf" and "...samelejda" Date: 19 February 2017 I am in the process of translating an account, written in Czech, by former residents of a Czech colony in Ukraine (Volhynia). In this book, the Czechs record memories of their Jewish former neighbors. They mention a few Yiddish phrases that they recall their Jewish neighbors using. These have been recollected after 75 years, and then transliterated into Czech orthography, so I am having a little trouble figuring out what the actual words are supposed to mean (I have a fairly good working knowledge of Yiddish). The first phrase is "A bronch kopf," which they explain meant "a dimwit." I am trying to figure out what Yiddish word is meant by "bronch." Since the orthography is Czech, I assume the "ch" represents a kh sound, and not ch, but I can't really think of a Yiddish word like this. I'm wondering if it could be a garbled form of "gebrokhn"? The other phrase they record is "Kis mir in tuches, samelejda." They translate this as Kiss my...., madman." The "Kis mir in tuches" is self-evident, but I can't figure out what the word "samelejda" is supposed to be. I assume it's of Slavic origin, and at first tried looking in Russian/Ukrainian/Polish dictionaries under words starting with "samo-" ("self-," "auto-,"), but didn't find anything similar. I then wondered if the "same-" might be something like the Russian "suma-" or "s uma-," meaning "out of your mind," but again got nowhere. Just for kicks, I tried googling samelejda in Cyrillic to see if it showed up in any colloquial speech online, and did find a few places where the word "sumaleda" was used in chat, but I can't figure out the meaning or context. Any help, especially from any native Russian/Ukrainian/Polish speakers out there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Darren King 7)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: In hafen fun Hayfa Date: 20 March 2017 I heard the following song as a child: In hafen fun Hayfa shvimt a krokodil.(2) Oy vey, oy, vey, er veyst nisht vos er vil. In hafen fun Hayfa shvimt a krokodil. Does anyone know anything about this song? The pronunciation is daytshmerish, and I wonder if it was originally so, or if it was changed and sung that way by people who didn't know Yiddish well? Paula Grossman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 26.003 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. They must also include the author's name as you would like it to appear. 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