[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 24.002

[Victor Bers]

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 24.002
December 15, 2014

1) Shabash (Alexis Manaster Ramer)
2) Homer in Yiddish (Maurice Wolfthal)
3) Dizhdig/vizhdig (Aaron Elman)
4) Adam Biro (Lucette Pilce)
5) French Horn (Moishe-Dovid Skulski)
6) About words in Yiddish that begin with “oy” (Malky and Yonason Felendler)
7) “Kitchen countertop” (Malky and Yonason Felendler)
8) Malkhes-broyt (Laurence Libin)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 7
Subject: Shabash

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.001 and Vol. 23, passim]

Moyshe Valdman makes good points but nevertheless it appears that Persian
shabash referring to money given to musicians at a wedding was borrowed via
some Turkic language into Yiddish where over time it became confused with
shabes.  Unfortunately the recent Yiddish French and yiddish English
dictionaries list shabash as a word of modern Yiddish which plainly is
false.

I don't have the energy to write all this up but if someone were interested
in helping it might make an interesting story.

Alexis Manaster Ramer


2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 7
Subject: Homer in Yiddish

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.001]

Golde (Golda) Patz, who was murdered in Ponar in 1941, had written a
children's illustrated version of the Odyssey and the Iliad that was
published in Berlin in 1924.

Maurice Wolfthal


3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 8
Subject: Dizhdig/vizhdig

My grandmother who came to the USA from Siedlce Gobernia in Russia/Poland
used the term “dizhdig” or “vizhdig” to describe atmospheric conditions
which “were heavy on the chest”/ ”made it difficult to breathe
comfortably”.  I cannot find either word in any of the three
Yiddish/English dictionaries I have.  Can anyone tell me the actual meaning
and derivation of the term(s)?

Aaron Elman


4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 8
Subject: Adam Biro

http://www.bm-limoges.fr/espace-auteur/biro/auteur-liens.html

Link answering Marjorie Hirshan’s questions about Biro [see Vol. 24.001].
Alas all in French as are Biro’s books! But, Marjorie, I believe Bernice
Buckstone could help you with the translation.

With best regards,

Lucette Pilce


5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 8
Subject: French horn

[See Vol. 24.001]

As the German term for French Horn is Waldhorn, I think it is safe to
assume that the Yidish will be the same.

Moishe-Dovid Skulski


6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 9
Subject: About words in Yiddish that begin with "אוי" [oy]

There are many words in Yiddish that in English begin with "au" and in
Yiddish is generally therefore “oy” as in the following words: "oyto,”
“oytomatish,” “oytonomye.” There seems to be a dialect however which
instead of using ”oy” the use of “av” [pasekh-alef + tsvey vovn] is used
instead. In Harkavy's dictionary, all the above words are found as that
dialect, and are therefore spelled as follows: "avto,” “avtomatish,”
"avtonomye.” I wanted to know who can help me with the dialectics-in which
neighborhoods/regions was it more acceptable to use this dialect? Is it
perhaps more acceptable in the Lithuanian areas? Who knows enough about
this to perhaps guide me in these questions I have?

Malky and Yonason Felendler


7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 13
Subject: “Kitchen countertop”

Does anyone have any source of how to say kitchen countertop in Yiddish? I
haven't found a word in any of my dictionaries, and I've made extensive
searches outside of the dictionaries too. Would anyone perhaps know?

Malky and Yonason Felendler

[The moderators suggest “tombank.”]


8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 14
Subject: Malkhes-broyt

In my grandfather Louis Sugerman's novel "Der Getlicher Ben-Tziyon"
(c.1948), in connection with Purim preparations in late 19th-century
Ukraine he mentions “Malkhes-broyt" (lechem malkhut), apparently a form of
baked goods. I have been unable to find any description of this bread. Can
you help, or suggest where I might look?

Many thanks,
Laurence Libin


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End of Mendele Vol. 24.002

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