[Mendele] Mendele Vol.18.016

[Victor Bers]

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 18.016
January 5, 2009

1) yolop (Al Grand)
2) Yankev (Paul Ilie)
3) pogrom (Norman Buder)
4) pogrom/terminology for female genitalia (Zev Kesselman)
5) Gershon Freidlin
6) S'a lign (Miriam Stein)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  December 26, 2008
Subject: yolop

Every so often a Yiddish word or expression that I hadn't heard since
childhood suddenly begins to gyrate within my brain. I was startled when
the word "yolop" suddenly appeared. I hadn't heard that word nor thought of
it for the past six or seven decades (I am seventy-eight). I'm sure that my
mother used that word to refer to anyone who she considered to be a
blockhead. Does anyone else remember hearing it? It has a sort of Slavic
ring to it so I assume it's from Polish or Russian. I can't find it in
Weinreich. I'd be supremely grateful to anyone who can provide a gloss.

Al Grand

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 24, 2008
Subject: Yankev

Can anyone explain how the "n" sound entered the Yiddish "Yankev" from the
Hebrew Yaakov?

A sheynem dank.

Paul Ilie

[Moderator's note: since this issue - and the related one of "may(n)se" -
has already been discussed at some length on Mendele, readers may wish to
consult the Mendele archives at http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele/]

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 24, 2008
Subject:  pogrom

In view of the spelling given by Sonia Kovitz, it is not clear to me
whether the author she cites meant to write "Pares, shkhites, un hariges"
or "Proes, shkhites, un hariges."  The first means "Pharaohs, slaughters,
and massacres." The second means "Pogroms, slaughters, and massacres." Only
the context can help determine with certainty whether he meant "Pharaohs"
or "Pogroms."

"Pare" [Pharaoh], "Shkhite," and "Harige" are all found in Weinreich's
dictionary in their standard Yiddish, i.e. Hebrew, spelling. "Proe"
[pogrom] is not found in Weinreich and is probably very rare in Yiddish.

Norman Buder

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 25, 2008
Subject:  pogrom/terminology for female genitalia

I think the word is pra'ot = the Hebrew word for riots, uprising, etc.
That's peh-resh-ayin-vav-tav.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett's reference to "shmoysl" reminded me that my
family used something like "shmitsikl." I'd always considered that to be a
euphemism using the word "shmutzik" but maybe there was something more to
it.

Zev Kesselman

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 24, 2008
Subject: terminology for female genitalia

Forget not, from "Call It Sleep," "knish," or the Talmudic "oyse-mokem"
(oto makom), sometimes used in translation as "yener ort".......I think we
now have enough terms to fill a harem.

Gershon Freidlin

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  December 28, 2008
Subject: S'a lign

Does anyone know where I can get the written words to Sholem Aleichem's
story  "S'a Lign, "or in English "It's a Lie."

I have the story being read on CD, but I need the written words, any way. I
can get them, in Yiddish, in transliterated Yiddish, or in English.

The librarians at my library exhausted every search and can't find the
written words.

Many thanks,
Miriam Stein
______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 18.016

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