מענדעלע

Velvl Winocur asked about Yiddish and Swiss.

There is unfortunately not a simple answer, but a two-part one.

(1) Swiss Yiddish and Swiss German sound somewhat alike because Swiss Yiddish is spoken with a Swiss German "accent". This means that the precise way various sounds are made is like in Swiss German. This is a recent development.

(2) Deeper down, Swiss Yiddish and Swiss German are no more related than Lithuanian Yiddish is to Swiss German or Swiss Yiddish to Berlin German. Like all Yiddish dialects, Swiss German can only be related to early medieval German and although there is a controversy as to which dialect of medieval German Yiddish is related to, Swiss is not a candidate. This is proven by such facts as Swiss Yiddish having the diphthongs in words like hoyz, moyz where Swiss German has monophthongs and a host of other facts about consonants and vowels as well as about the endings of words (morphology), the vocabulary itself, and so on. These characteristics unlike the accent mentioned above are centuries-old.

At some point we might want to talk about how we know that the accent is recent and the other things old--if people are interested.

NB. In fact, we know from historical sources, that the Jews who speak Swiss Yiddish are recent arrivals in Switzeland from S. Germany. I dont think anybody knows what happened to the presumably quite different form of Yididsh which was spoken in Switzerland in the Middle Ages. I am not a historian and may be wrong, but I THINK the medieval Swiss Yiddish was spoken in the cities, whilst the modern Swiss Yiddish is only attested in a few villages. But again even the medieval Siwss Yiddish, of which only a little is known, was an import from somewhere else in Germany and not directly related to Swiss German.

A Manaster Ramer

While searching for some information previously dispensed on Mendele, I came across the following:

"Mendele: Yiddish literature and language "Contents of Vol.1 No. 1 "May 15, 1991

"Oyfn rekhtn fus (Noyekh Miller)

"At last Mendele is ready to go public. We have as of today a total of 22 subscribers (list on demand) and a very good roster it is. And while we're neither in Czernowitz or Vilna we may be in the start of something that none of us might have thought possible 10 years ago. Let us hope so.

"A word about my role. I'm the shammes. That means that everybody can (and should) offer advice, criticism, help. The only thing I ask is that you contribute regularly and often....."

The postings that first day were from Mikhl Herzog (answering some questions for N. Eshelman about deciphering Yiddish documents) and Ellen Prince asking for translations from native speakers). We are fortunate that both Mikhl and Ellen are still stars in our firmament.

And to Noyekh, our renewed gratitude and deep respect. Zolst lebn un zayn gezunt un leyenen un shraybn, o guter fraynt!

Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida

Yesterday I logged on to the Science Daily and read the following headline: "Polish Dumpling-Like Particls Has Potential in Drug Delivery," and when I read the article below it, I felt that I had to share it with my Mendelyaner friends. Following are the first two sentences of the article: "Chemists at Washington University in St. Louis have created synthetic polymer particles that are as cute a dumplings. They're call knedels (k-ned-l), after a popular Polish dumpling filled either with meat or sweets."

Yiddish has entered the world of chemistry, and am I delighted! The article was of particular interest to me and I had hoped I would learned who it was in the laboratory working with these new particles that had the good sense to give give them a yiddish title. That information was not disclosed. The particles are described as follows: "They're like golf ball molecules..." and "This advance moves us along in our goal of making knedels potential drug and gene-carrying systems. It makes the particle a lot more versatle and the rubbery core should allow a higher loading capacity. We've gotten lots of interest in the knedels, for their potential, they're novelty and their name."

Isn't that a "kick," Mendleyaners? I love it!

Sylvia Schleimer

[Moderator's note: Knedels were created by Bruce Thurmond, Tomasz Kowalewski, and Karen Wooley and described in several papers in 1996 and 1997. Tomasz Kowalewski, who apparently suggested the name, perhaps referred to Polish knedels and may have not been aware of the Yiddish "link". For true Yiddish in chemistry see paper by Henryk Eisenberg of the Weizmann Institute published in the European Journal of Biochemistry in 1990 (vol. 187, pp. 7-22). The title of the paper: "Thermodynamics and the structure of biological macromolecules. Rozhinkes mit mandeln." - i.v.]

Dear Mendele

My Booba and Mother also used Yakhne pejoratively- it often seemed to mean a woman who gossiped about other people. They would say ' zee iz a greisse yakhne', and it would be a warning to avoid the woman. My Booba came from Minske Gebernye ( the Minsk district of Russia], in 1898 to the East End of London, and lived in London and Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex all the rest of her life. So it would be a word that came from 'der heim'. Bronx users would have also brought it there from their shtetlach.

Norma Brewer

I read somewhere, long ago, that Yente and Yakhne are both Yiddish corruptions of beautiful Spanish names: Juanita and Johanna, respectively.

Whether this is correct I have no idea, but it seems not altogether impossible.

Burton M. (Berel) Leiser

1. Joachim Neugroschel (8.005) asks for more about the Yiddish name _Feygl_. I'm quite certain that it's derived from the German _Voeglein_, a regional variant of _Veilchen_ 'violet'. In Yiddish, it has been mistakenly assumed to have something to do with a _foygl_ 'bird', but note that Yiddish _feygl_ is a plural form and as such is not a likely candidate for a girl's name.

_Feygele_, in addition to being the regular diminutive of the l-stem _foygl_, obviously has other connotations as well--a male homosexual. It was the subject of some discussion on Mendele several years ago. One of our subscribers, Meyshe Yaynkl Sweet, has written an interesting article on the subject and may be willing to say more about it.

2. Since the subject of the names _Yakhne_ and _Yentl_ (and its derivative _Yente_) keeps coming up, Iet me repeat the following:

_Yakhne_ is a woman's name, unfortunately stereotyped, pejoratively and, like the pedigreed name _Yentl_ (< _gentile_ 'high born'), rarely bestowed in modern times. Harkavi, in his Appendix of Names, suggests a connection between _Yakhne_ and _Yokheved_. Perhaps, but more to the point is its probable derivation from Middle High German _jachant_ 'hyacinth', 'jacinth' (< Latin _jacintus_ < Greek _huakinthos_). The derivation of Yiddish feminine names from the names of flowers is common. To wit: See above, _Feygl_.

3. Sorry, David Sherman, even though you're from Toronto, I have to say that Yakhne has nothing to do with _yakh_, the stereotypically Polish Yiddish variant of _ikh_ 'I' (Warsaw and elsewhere--I don't have the map at hand).

Mikhl Herzog

By way of confirmation of Mikhl Herzog's posting about the derivation of Yakhne, the newly published book "Russian-Jewish Given Names (Their Origin and Variants)" by Boris Feldblyum (Avotaynu, 1998) lists Yakhne (and Yakhe) among the kinnuim of the root name Iojkheved (Russian Iokhaved), {Exodus 6:20}. It also hesitantly derives Fejge from the German Voglein.

The long awaited book brought (at least to me) a great deal of disappointment, especially on the backdrop of the brilliant series of Alexander Beider's dictionaries of Jewish surnames by the same publisher. It is based on the older Russian text with an abstruse and untranslatable title - "Sbornik dlya soglasovaniya raznovidnostey imyon: bibleyskikh, natsional'nykh, talmudicheskikh i drugikh, upotreblyaemykh evreyami v Rossii" (Collection to reconcile variations of names: Biblical, ethnic, talmudic, adopted and others - as used by the Jews of Russia), Zhitomir, 1911, compiled by Iser I.Kulisher - Uchyonnyy Evrey pri Volynskom Gubernatore (Learned Jew in the Office of the Volhynian Gubernator).

In the introduction the author states that "it (the book) is limited in its discussion of Yiddish onomastics" and implies that its interest to ordinary people may be in "choosing a newborn baby's name or making a genealogical connection with an ancestor". It may indeed be helpful for genealogical research, but other claims are hard to substantiate: 1)more names are missed, than listed - although an advertising annonce boasted it to contain some 6,000 names, and this may very well be true, but the vast majority of them are variants of the same Yiddish names as used in a phonetically distorted form by all varieties of surrounding gentiles, to the 2) exclusion of the original Yiddish name and dialectal variants. Basically, it provides all examples of bureaucratic distortions and misspellings, found in numerous documents in Russian. This may interest a genealogist, but obviously not the parent "choosing a newborn baby's name". Some examples:

One can find the name Aba (as is usually written in Russian), but not Abe or Obe; Shaya, but not Shaye; Brajndel' and Brajndlya, but no Brajndl; Rakhil', Rukhlya, and Rokhl, but no Rukhl; Ruvim, Ruven, Ruvin, and Ruven', but no Ruvn or Rivn; Zlata, but no Zlate or Zlote; Fajvel', but no Fajvl or Favl; Avraam and Abrumchik (!), but not Avreml' or Avreyml; of course, there is no Shike, Shikl, Izya, Olter, Bume, Sunye, Tsolik, Shopse, Kolmen, Khane, Khontse, Shunye, Lyusik (masculine), Nyome, Zolmen, Monye, El'yuhi, El'yui, Dushe (masculine), Molke, Nokhmen, Mekhl, etc., etc. But there are Burakh, Burukh, Movsha, Moshka, Itska, Itsko, Mordko, even Gleb and Vasiliy (!). Feminine name Khona is ascribed to the "Baltic area, present day Latvia", Berl - limited to Volhynia, Nakhmen is said to represent a local variant of Nakhmon in Lithuania. Nyuma is given as a kinnui of Veniamin (Benyomin, Benyumin), when it seems to be more often Naum (Nokhem, Nukhem). In the glossary section there is the following sentence to exemplify the word "vernacular": "In the context of Russia - Jewish name Zelik - instead of AVRAAM, SOLOMON, RUVIM - is a vernacular name".

Hence, in the conclusion, the book records whoever attempts at articulating Jewish names, but the Jews proper. The author could gather more names (and correctly spelled ones) if he consulted his own grandma, rather than the enumerated archives. The theoretical part is quite interesting, but can be found elsewhere.

Shaya Mitelman.

tayere fraynt

vi ir veyst, vet der veltrat far yidisher kultur adurkhfirn a veltkonferents far yidish fun 8tn-11tn yuni, 1998 in yisroyl.

vi a vitse-forzitser funem veltrat, un vi an abonent funem internets, hob ikh shoyn aroysgeshikt meldungen vegn dem iber a tsol internets reshimes, arayngerekhnt mendele. mir hobn oykh aroysgeshikt meldungen in der yidisher, hebreisher un englisher prese.

in tsugreytung far der konferents, bin ikh nominirt gevorn ontsufirn mit der komitet fun rezolutsyes. tsvishn di oyfgabn, iz tsutsushteln rezolutsyes in foroys, far diskusye iber farshidene temes in shaykhes mit problem oyf der yidisher gas (prese, teater, dertsiyung...). un farshteyt zikh, beys di sesyes, akhutsn arumredn in-foroys tsugeshtelte rezolutsyes, veln mir oyfn ort tsushteln naye.

vos ikh vil fun aykh:

di mendele-mishpokhe iz eyne fun di vikhtikste un greste (1500+ mitglider) 'klubn' (mir hobn tegelekhe internets-trefungen, 'leksyes', diskusyes, ...). tsvishn undsere mitglider gefinen zikh di vikhtikste yidish keners, profesorn, shraybers un kinstler... un azoy vayter.

vende ikh zikh, deriber tsu aykh far eytses oder 'rezolutsyes', vos kenen arumgeredt vern do oyf dem forum fun mendel un oykh tsugeshtelt vern beys di sesyes.

vos ikh vel ton:

1) ikh zog tsu, formel un bekhovedik tsutsushteln di rezolutsyes 2) di ershte rezolutsye mayne vet zayn TSU SHAFN AN OYSFIR KOMISYE vos vet arbetn oyf adurkhtsufirn un mekayim zayn di rezolutsye 'mitsves'.

etlekhe bayshpiln:

1) di konferents onteylnemers veln oysklaybn an oysfir komisye vemens arbet vet zayn nokhfolgn dem oysfirn fun di ongenumene rezolutsyes fun dem konferents. dos vet zayn a nayes, vayl in di frierdike yorn zaynen ongenumen gevorn a sakh rezolutsyes, ober keyner hot zey nit oysgefirt, oder nokhgefolgt dem oysfir protses.

2) organizirn a masn manifestatsye farn kneset in yerushalayim tsu protestirn vayterdike diskriminatsyes kegn yidish un dem ignorirn dem kneset gezets.

nokh morgn.

a dank far ayer hilf un interes.

- Leybl Botvinik, vitse forzitser, veltrat far yidisher kultur

It was hard to fail to notice two materials published side by side in the recent Forward (May 15, 1998, p.3). One article tells us that the Israeli pop-star Dana International won the Eurovision song contest. Now Israel is invited to host the competition in 1999. Despite some strong protests from various quarters, the Israeli government is looking favorably into staging the event, that will cost $10,000,000 (that is ten million dollars). Tourism Minister Moshe Katsav is quoted saying: "I think it's very necessary to have the Eurovision here". For his good attitude Mr. Katsav earned few kisses from Dana International at the reception in the Knesset in her honor.

The story from another article is a bit different. The Forward Association contributed $10,000 (that's three zeros short of the number in the previous paragraph) to support the International Conference of Yiddish Culture in Israel this summer, because the Israeli government refused to allocate the money it had promised for the conference earlier.

No, I am not that naive. I fully recognize the difference in the relative significance of the Yiddish culture on the one hand and the art of Mr/Ms Dana International and her coleagues on the other. I also realize that $10 million is a large sum, and the Israeli government should tighten the belt to save enough for next year. $10 thousand taken from the Yiddish conference would not of course solve all the problems, but perhaps can help a lot. Maybe there is some other simple explanation, e.g. that support of Yiddish is handled by the Education and Culture Ministry which happened to be more stingy than the Tourism Ministry.

I have been taught that non-constructive criticism is worthless, so I suggest a very practical idea. If Mr. Katsav agrees to divert just 10% of the Eurovision budget (which would not hurt Dana International too much) to support Yiddish culture in Israel, I would personally lead a brigade of Mendele volunteers to kiss Mr. Katsav (and other cabinet members if necessary) on both cheeks. True, I am no pop-star, but a kiss from a computational biologist is also worth something. Isn't it?

Iosif Vaisman