[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 24.003

Victor Bers victor.bers at yale.edu
Mon Dec 22 15:48:11 EST 2014


Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 24.003
December 22, 2014

1) French horn (Michael Meckler)
2) “dizhdik” / “dishdik” (Tomasz Majtczak et al.)
3) “oy” / “av” (Zulema Seligsohn)
4) “oy” / “av” (Tomasz Majtczak)
5) “kitchen counter” (Barry Goldstein)
6) Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle (Amy Kaufman)


1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 7
Subject: French horn

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.001; this response concurs with Moishe-Dovid
Skulski’s in 24.002]

I suspect “French horn” in Yiddish is likely “Waldhorn,” as the Hebrew
“Keren Ya’ar”  is merely a calque on “Waldhorn.”

Michael Meckler


2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 16
Subject: “dizhdik” / “dishdik”

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.002]

The adjective "dizhdik" / "dishdik" (pronounced with "-zh-", regardless of
the possible spelling) seems to be a morphologically adapted variant of
"dushne" ("stuffy, suffocating, sultry"), in which the Slavonic suffix
"-ne" has been replaced by the Yiddish "-dik" (i.e. *"dushdik") and which
exhibits the change of "u" > "i" typical of the Central dialect (i.e.
*"dishdik").

The original Slavonic form was one of the following: Polish "duszny",
Russian "dushnïy", Belarusian "dushnï", Ukrainian "dushnïy" -- all meaning
"stifling, oppressive, stuffy, muggy".

Further to compare are the Yiddish verbs:
(a) "dushen" ("to choke, to suffocate (transitive); to stew") from Polish
"dusić", Russian "dushït’", Belarusian "dushïts’", Ukrainian''dushïtï" --
all "to strangle, to choke, to suffocate (transitive)", Polish also "to
stew"

(b) "dishen" ("to choke, to suffocate (transitive)", but also "to breathe"
in Harkavy 1928, "to puff, to pant" in Mark 1929, Polish-Yiddish dict.),
which seems to go back to Polish "dyszeć" ("to breathe heavily, to puff, to
pant") or Russian "dïshat’" ("to breathe, to respire").

The form "vizhdik" (if not a variant of "dizhdik" / "dishdik") does not
ring any bell.

Tomasz Majtczak

[Moderator’s note: Similar responses received from Dovid Braun and Maurice
Wolfthal, who adds the intransitive “dishen zikh,” “to gasp for breath.”
Zulegma Seligsohn recalls her mother’s use of “se dishet” to refer to humid
and hot weather.]



3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 15
Subject: “oy” / “av”

I would like to respond to Malky and Yonason Felender [24.002] about the
“av” pronunciation at the beginning of Yiddish words.  My parents used that
pronunciation always in words they knew from Russian but used the “oy” in
words strictly derived from German, e.g. “Oysgetseykhnt.”  My father grew
up in Ukraine and my mother in Brest Litovsk and Samara (later Kuibyshev).

Zulema Seligsohn


4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 16
Subject: “oy” / “av”

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.002]

I cannot say anything on the actual dialectal distribution of the two
variants of the prefix, "oyto-" and "avto-", but the fromer has been
accepted as standard in the 'Western' norm (the dictionary by Weinreich
1968 &c.), while the latter -- in the Soviet norm (the two largest
dictionaries being Rokhkind/Shklyar 1940 and the collective Russian-Yiddish
of 1984). The variant "avto-" reflects of course the Russian "avto-", while
the 'Western' "oyto-" is perhaps based on the typical correspondence of
German "au" and Yiddish "oy".

Tomasz Majtczak


5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 16
Subject: “kitchen counter”

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.002]

>From a very early draft of Schaechter's someday-to-be-published E-Y
dictionary:

   counter, n. (kitchen) - di fleyshike/milkhike nank; der kokhtish; der
tubank
   counter, n. (restaurant) - der bufet
   counter, n. (store) - di tsolbank, der tombank

Barry Goldstein


6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 22
Subject: Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle

The Dec. 21 issue of the Boston Globe Magazine had a Yiddish-themed
crossword puzzle. They are defining Ganef as a scoundrel, Schemozzle as a
Yiddish word meaning a free-for-all, and Shamus as a Yiddish or
Yiddish-derived word meaning detective.

Has Ganef always carried the meaning of scoundrel, along with its more
precise meaning of thief? Or has its meaning expanded when used in English?
And, if so, is this a trend I should be worrying about?

I've never heard of the word Schemozzle. Does it actually exist in Yiddish,
or is this a "Yiddish" word that was actually born in English, if such a
thing happens?

Finally, regarding Shamus, is this an English word that may or may not be
derived in whole or in part from a Yiddish word, but where the meanings of
the English word and the Yiddish word are different? And, is there a term
for the phenomenon I just described?

I look forward to the thoughts of all you learned Mendelyaners.

A dank,
Amy Kaufman
Massachusetts, US

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 24.003

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