מענדעלע

To the discussion on the russian word for yiddish I can add, that I have a translation of a novel of Shalom Aleichem into the russian language. This book is edited in 1914 in Moskow. On the frontpage it is said that it is an authorized translation from evrejskii.

On the last pages another book is announced, also translated from evrejskii, a book of Aleksander Abramovitch, a yiddish writer.

Peculiarly also a book is announced which seems to be an anthology of german authors like Werner Sombart, Hermann Bahr, Richard Dehmel, Carl Hauptmann, Heinrich Mann, F.Naumann, Max Nordau, Frank Wedekind, etc. It has an afterword of rabbi Ja.I.Maze and is called Kresjtsjenie Evreevij. This title could be translated to Jewish Epiphany, but I am not sure about it, perhaps no serious distinction is made between yiddish and jewish.

Kees Booy

I think that _kalekh hakn_ is 'pounding lime'. It is what woman used to do before big holidays like Paasover. Yude-Leyb Prager is right (in Mendele vol 6.100) that "the lime for the whitewash was caked and had to be pounded into powder before mixing with water, i.e. _kalekh hakn_". The white wash was always caked, until 80's we use to pounded it every time.

Chicken-breast balls: _kaikhilah_.

At least this is the way it was spoken in our home by my grandmother. She was from Gomel (Belorussia). Many yiddish words were used very often in every day life. Up until I was 7 years old I didn't have any idea that _kaikhilah_, _fendele_, _afungas_ (that time I didn't know it is not one word) are not russian words! :) And I am not from European part of former USSR.

Fira Donin

Chicken (or beef) balls in broth or sour-sweet tomato souse were known in our house as _kuln_ or _kulekhlekh_ (Western Ukraine and Bessarabia). I suspect the etymology is from Ukrainian _kolo_ [circle] and _kulichyki_ [round cookies]. Russian and Ukrainian _kalach_ and Yiddish _koylech_ [round bread] and, perhaps, chalah have the same root.

Iosif Vaisman

Ellen Price took me to task [6.099] for an unclear and Ashkenazocentric post; my apologies. The point I meant to get across was not that Chanukah is the sole property of Ashkenazim (and certainly not, goodness gracious, bar mitzvahs)--only that the _word_ "khanike," although deriving from Hebrew, belongs properly to all Jewish languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, Yahudic, Dzhudezmo, and their cousins. I doubt that the _word_ for the holiday, as used in the Egyptian Jewish community, came about in popular speech through usage of Hebrew itself; rather, it probably arose in the context of another, vernacular Jewish language. (Just as I doubt--if I may beat the point into the ground--that the _word_ "bar-mitsvah" came into Egyptian usage directly through a vernacular use of Hebrew itself.)

I don't mean to deny anything to Hebrew, and I certainly don't want to elevate Yiddish to the detriment of other Jewish languages. It is though too often the case that the vast spectrum of Jewish languages becomes collapsed into Hebrew--a gross oversimplification.

Sholem Berger

Me hot mir gefregt tsi ikh ken nokh a gut-heymish oyfn tsu bagrisn emetsn "khaneke." Efsher ken men mir aroyshelfn?

Ruvn Millman

Ich bin mazkim mit Pawel Dorman (6.099)! Yes I agree! My belief is that we should stop crying and mourning for the "dying" of Yiddish. Genug!

We should talk of its beauty, vegn dem Yidishn geshmakn tam fun undzer shprakh! We should follow the positive attitude and the example of Rokhl Boymvol who, in her book, "Antkegn dem vos ir zogt", instead of crying shows us, the beauty of Yiddish, by creating and producing a book that magnifies the ability, the beauty of it. Dr. Hershl Klepfish says that each of her chapters are: "a gezang tzu di mahyles fun yidish" (_Forverts_; di raykhkayt fun yidishn loshn, 8/96). She, as it seems, from what I read in that article, shows how beautiful and "full of cheyn iz undzer shprakh". I will reproduce some of the text of it, only forgive me if neither my English or the transliteration is correct, as I'm not a meyvn in any of the two: -

"Yidn zenen, vi s'iz bavust, tzeshprehyt yber der gantzer velt, un dos shpiglt zikh breyt op in undzer Yidishn-Loshn.

Der yid iz a gantzer shmelke mit der velt. Tzendliker idiomatishe oysdrukn mit der vort: velt!. Oyf trit un shrit vert dermont: di velt, un yedes mol in an ander zyn un mit an ander tam. On der velt kon di Yidishe shprakh mamesh. kayn trot nit makhn. tut nor a kuk:

A guter iz - gut vy di velt, A kluger iz - klug vi di velt, A sheyner iz - sheyn vi di velt, A erudirter (a voyl-kenevdiker), veyst a velt...."

"Ir zet dokh az fun Yiddish halt ikh a velt! Eynike zogn az ikh bren a velt, un eynike_ az ikh veys nisht oyf velkher velt ikh bin......"

"Faran mentshn vos far zey iz eng di velt. Faran oykh azelkhe, vos lakhn fun der velt, zey makhn fun alts hoyzek oyf vos di velt shteyt........"

Nu, mendelistn other mendelyaner, ver ken iberteitkhhn azelkhe oysdrukn! Iz den nit beser me zol banitzn di tzayt in bavayzn vi vikhtik, vi sheyn un geshmak undzer shprakh iz?

Mir kenen nisht farzorgn di gantze velt, ober mir kenen, un darfn, batonen di raykhkayt fun undzer Yidish, un nisht baveynen a keseyderdikn geveyn fun umkum. Beser shafn, mit yedn eynems feyikahyt, eyder lozn davke, az undzer shprakh zol oysgehyn!

Freydl Cielak Mexico City

P.S. I am only sorry that in the _Forverts_ there was no more explanation concerning the book, it only said that Rokhl Boymvol is in Israel. Could maybe somebody know more about it? or anybody in Israel? I will appreciate any information.

My wife and I exchange "ikh hob dikh lib" with one or more of our kids virtually every day. Our five-year-old just came over and said it to me. So there.

Which reminds me.... how would you say "I'm going to tell on you" in Yiddish? My kids, who are definitely at that age, use "ikh gey zogn oyf dir" [actually ikh gay zugn af dir phonetically], which obviously is translated from English and grates horribly, but I'm not sure what to tell them instead.

(I won't even begin to get into the problems of "get" having so many more meanings than "krign", so that "krign" is being used inappropriately about 80% of the time. "Krign krigt me fun an ander mentsh" is my standard refrain. Grrr.)

David Sherman Toronto