Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.006 May 26 , 2005 1) Eardrum (Lyuba Dukker) 2) Eardrum (Elyea Palevsky) 3) Eardrum (Bob Rothstein) 4) preyglen ayngemakhts (Leizer Gillig) 5) kak zey bkheyrem (Leizer Gillig) 6) kak zey bkheyrem (Robert M. Shapiro) 7) mohver (Sema Chaimovitz Menora) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 25, 2005 Subject: Re: eardrum The Yiddish for eardrum is poyk heytl. Lyuba Dukker 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: Re: eardrum bay undz in der heym (eltern fun vilne) hobn mir gezogt pereponke(s). makh shtiler di radyo, se platsn bay mir di pereponkes! Elye Palevsky 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: Re: eardrum Shapiro's Russian-Yiddish dictionary gives _poykhaytl_ (literally, 'drum membrane'), a calque from Russian _barabannaia pereponka_. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: Re: preglen ayngemakhts Not that Mendele is here to exchange recipes, but as a cultural note, in the Bobover hasidic community in Brooklyn, the custom was that on Shmini Atzeres all of the esroygim of the community were collected by the small boys in shul (sometimes without the knowledge of the owner of the esrog) and the rebitsn would "preygl ayngemakhts", which were enjoyed beginning with Tu b'Shvat (which was never called "Tu" but was called Khamshosor - or in Galitzyanish; khamshoosa, and distributed each Shabes morning at Kidush.I have no idea how to do it, but am told by balebostes that making esrog-ayngemakhts is quite a tedious process. And on the subject of "ayngemakhts", I have heard people sing a rather mournful tune (sounds almost like the Yom Kippur davenen) with the lyrics: lekekh, un bronfn, un ayngemakhts... la la la la la la la.... does anyone have any idea what this song is about? (Other than honeycake, whisky, and preserves? The people who were singing it couldn't tell me anything other than that it was a custom to sing toward the end of a wedding, when men were called up to dance the "mitzva tants" with the kale.) Leizer Gillig LGillig@timeequities.com 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: Re: kak zey bkheyrem Having learned my Yiddish in a hasidic k'hile that was very makpid (meticulous) in its turns of phrase (to the extent that if someone asked directions to a location that was at the bottom of a hill, they would be told "geyt do aroyf" (vayl a yid tor nisht arop geyn, nor allemol aroyf geyn) ...I never heard the rather earthy-sounding expression "kak zey bkheyrem" which would mean to (excuse me) shit them into excommunication - we used "leyg zey areyn in kheyrem"... but kheyrem is a horrible fate for a religious person to endure, and certainly "kakn" would be an appropriate verb to use in placing someone into kheyrem. kheyrem means that a person could not do business with anyone in the community, no one would marry his children, no one would have _anything_ to do with him, at least not in a positive way. In general it is not used anymore, even in very religious circles. Leizer Gillig LGillig@timeequities.com 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: Re: kak zey bkheyrem The expression is probably "Kh'ob zey bekheyrem", literally "I have them under a ban". Kheyrem or Herem is Hebrew for a ban of excommunication, of total shunning from and by the community. Robert M. Shapiro 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 26, 2005 Subject: mohver A group of people meet in a local senior center and converse in Yiddish. The Yiddish is far from grammatical and most of the speakers do not read or write Yiddish. The word "mohver", meaning a type of large building according to the speaker, was a word none of the other participants recognized. The "moh..." had a kometz aleph sound, although the speaker wasn't even sure how it was spelled. Is anyone on Mendele familiar with this word? A sheynem dank Sema Chaimovitz Menora cybersavta@aol.com ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.006 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these three: Messages for posting on Mendele Personal and other messages to the shamosim Technical problems