Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 15.055
April 11, 2006
1) Yiddish Syntax (Moshe Taube)
2) Yiddish Syntax (Morrie Feller)
3) Fagin (Leizer Gillig)
4) Fagin (Zachary Baker)
5) Fagin (Elye Palevsky)
6) Fagin (Michael and Lilian Falk)
7) Fagin (Si Prussin)
8) vilde katshke (Alina Polonskaya)
9) farfl (Martin Jacobs)
1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 4
Subject: Yiddish Syntax
A detailed study of some of the auxiliaries mentioned is to be found in:
Klaus Eggensperger, "Modale Nebenverben im Jiddischen: Eine
korpusgestuetzte Untersuchung zu soln und wolt," Osnabrabrck:
Universittsverlag Rasch, 1995.
best,
M. Taube
2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 4
Subject: Yiddish Syntax
About Jacob Rabinowitz's query about Yiddish syntax: in addition to the
moderator's excellent addendum, we should also add "Yiddish Grammar" by
Dovid Katz.
Morrie Feller
3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 4
Subject: Fagin
"Fagin" most definitely can be and in fact is a Jewish/Yiddish surname.
However, a more properly transliterated version would be Feygin, whether or
not Dickens based his naming of the character Fagin on this fact, Ashkenazi
Jews whose origins were from Russian Poland had settled in London in the
early 19th century. So, one could presume that it would have been possible
for a Jew in London in Dickens's time to have had the surname "Fagin."
Many Russian-Jewish surnames end in "-in." In an older version of Russian
(which still pops up occasionally), -in is an ending to a name that
signifies possession after nouns with feminine declensions.
Many Jews were known locally by their parents' first names (e.g. Motl Peyse
dem Khazns). Frequently, they were named after their mothers. Eventually
these names became the family surname.
Thus, the name Feygin would mean "belonging to Feyge" (Feyge being the
person's mother).
Many other similarly derived "matronymic" Jewish surnames exist: Dvorin,
Dvorkin, Chanin, Freydin, Mirkin, Beylin (Irving Berlin's real name),
Sheindlin (Judge Judy), Perlin, Sorkin, Rivkin, Rivlin, Estrin, Guttin, to
name a few.
Similarly, matronymic surnames ending in "s" include
Surkis, Dvorkis, Beylis, Perlis.
This does not deny the fact that "Fagin" is also a common Irish surname,
and there were probably more Irish Fagins than Jewish ones in 19th-century
London.
Leizer Gillig
4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 4
Subject: Fagin
While Charles Dickens may not have been aware of it, the surname Feygin was
certainly a Jewish surname, a matronymic based on the woman's name Feygl.
The name Feygin is documented in Alexander Beider's Dictionary of Jewish
Surnames from the Russian Empire and his Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from
the Kingdom of Poland (spelled Fejgin in both of these sources).
Search a research library catalogue under the spelling Feigin and you will
find any number of authors of Jewish origin. One of them, Samuel Isaac
Feigin (Shmuel Yitskhok Feygin), a Hebrew and Yiddish author, is also
listed in bio-bibliographical lexicons of Yiddish literature.
And those with retentive memories may recall that when Menahem Begin became
Prime Minister of Israel in 1977, Time magazine pointed out to its readers
that his name "rhymes with Fagin." H'mmm...
Zachary Baker
5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 28
Subject: Fagin
It's been pointed out by others that Fagin is an anagram for "ganif." The
Yiddish word became part of British underworld argot. Elye Palevsky
6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 5
Subject: Fagin
In Mendele 15.053 Goldie Morgentaler said "Fagin is an Anglo-Saxon name; it
is not Jewish." Although she asserts that this opinion is shared by other
Dickens specialists, we beg to disagree. The surname Fagin does not occur
in P.H. Reaney's Dictionary of British Surnames (1958). On the other
hand, Fejgin is indeed a well-known Jewish surname, a matronymic derived
from the very common Yiddish feminine given name Fejge. The surname Fejgin
is listed in Alexander Beider's "Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the
Russian Empire" (1993), as well as in his "Dictionary of Jewish Surnames
from the Kingdom of Poland" (1996). The surname was common enough that it
clearly occurred among the Jewish immigrants in Dickens' London. Fifteen
Jews with the surname 'Feigin' are listed in the 'Poor Jews' Temporary
Shelter Database' (London 1896 to 1914).
We think that Dickens chose that name because he was aware that it was a
Jewish name and because of its unpleasant connotations with the slang words
'fag,' 'fagger,' 'faggery' and 'fagging,' especially as the word 'fagger'
denoted 'a little boy put in at a window to rob the house' (1811 Dictionary
of the Vulgar Tongue').
Michael and Lilian Falk
7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 7
Subject: Fagin
Dickens may or may not have chosen Fagin on the basis of its being a
Jewish surname known to him, but it certainly was not an uncommon east
European Jewish surname from 1804 on, when the inhabitants of the Russian
empire were required to adopt surnames. My source is Avrum Priblude (1900
-1978), the eminent authority on east European Jewish surnames, who
collected and made available a list of over 7000 such surnames, together
with their origins. He published the results of his studies in 80
articles, submitted to various Yiddish newspapers from all over the world.
In the U.S.A., his articles were published in the Morning Freiheit. A brief
summary of his work is contained in the 60 page pamphlet supplement to the
1987(6) issue of Sovetish Heymland, "Tsu der geshikhte fun yidishe
familye-nemen." In his chapter on matriarchal surnames, he describes
several classes. One uses the Russian genitive suffix together with a
women's given name. Thus, from Perl, we have Perlin; from Golde, Goldin;
from Malke, Malkin; from Sore, Sorkin; from Rokhl,Rochlin; from Rivke,
Rivkin; from Beile, Beilin; from Dvoyre, Dworkin; from Mirke, Mirkin; from
Sheyndl,Shandlin; and from Feyge, Fagin.
Si Prussin
8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: March 27
Subject: vilde katshke
A gutn! Dos bin ikh vider Alina Polonskaya fun Moskve. A sakh mentshn hobn
mir geentfert oyf mayn frage vegn der vilder katshke un ikh meyn s'iz
interesant tsu farsakhaklen vos ikh hob itst. Yidishe verter hot mir
geshikt di khaverte Miryem-Khaye Seigel fun Nyu York. Ober ikh hob nit
gekent farshteyn farvos iz do a "goose" un nit keyn "duck," vayzt oys az
s'iz poshet a parodye oyf Frankie Laine's lid "Cry of the Wild Goose"
(1950). A dank dem khaver Pinkhes Mikheikin Pascal fun Kanade. Ven me
farglaykht di tsvey lider, kayklt men zikh fun gelekhter! Un "holyatshke"
iz a krenk, meyn ikh, vayl s'iz do af rusish a vort " bolyachke" un s'iz do
a vort "hoyle" in yidish. A sheynem dank far alemens hilf !
Artist/Band: Laine Frankie
Lyrics for Song: Cry of the Wild Goose
Lyrics for Album: The Best of Frankie Laine
My heart knows what the wild goose knows,
I must go where the wild goose goes.
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest?
Tonight I heard the wild goose cry,
Wingin' north in the lonely sky.
Tried to sleep, it weren't no use,
'Cause I am a brother to the old wild goose,
(Oh, my heart knows what the wild goose knows,)
(And I must go where the wild goose goes.)
(Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?)
(A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest?)
Woman was kind and true to me.
She thinks she loves me, the more fool she.
She's got a love that ain't no use,
To love a brother of the old wild goose.
(My heart knows what the wild goose knows,)
(And I must go where the wild goose goes.)
(Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?)
(A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest?)
(Oh, you wild goose.)
The cabin is warm and the snow is deep,
I got a woman who lies asleep.
She'll wake at tomorrow's dawn,
She'll find, poor critter, that her man is gone.
(Oh, you wild goose.)
My heart knows what the wild goose knows,
I must go where the wild goose goes.
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest?
Let me fly, let me fly, let me fly away.
Spring is comin' and the ice will break,
I can't linger for a woman's sake.
She'll see a shadow pass overhead.
She'll find my feathers beside my bed.
(My heart knows what the wild goose knows,)
(And I must go where the wild goose goes.)
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest?
(Wild goose, wild goose, wild goose, wild goose.)
Dos geshrey fun der vilder katshke
(fun Mickey Katzes zamlung "Greatest
Schticks")
Ikh vil geyn vu di katshke geyt
Un I wanna drey vi a katshke dreyt
Wild goose, brekh a fus, geshtopte haldz
A maykhl in baykhl un a geln shmalts (gallon shmalts)
Yesterday I went to the butcher shop
To buy a chicken and a couple of chops
The butcher said, " we got katshke today "
Di katshke heard him and he gave a geshrey
I wanna go where the wild goose goose
Cause I know more than the wild goose knows
Mayn kop tsekvetsht un mayn pipik tsedrikt
Before too long I'll be opgeflikt
No feathers...
And the butcher said that it weighs ten pounds
" It's a beautiful katshke, lady,
A magnificent gandz
Six dollars, a metsiye, hey lady you'll buy it "
Di katshke cried " rakhmones! I don't want a levaye "
Ay, ay, ay....
Ikh muz geyn vu di wild goose muz
Before der shoykhet khapt arop mayn nuz
Vild goose, brekh a fus, khap a kholatshke
Bald I'm gonna ley vi a teyte katshke
Let me fly avek....Squawk!
Oy, s'iz shoyn farfaln
It ain't no use
Der butcher er farkoyft mikh
And I'm a cooked goose
I've got to be brave
Oh, her balebatish
Goodbye little chickens, don't forget to say kaddish.
And I can't go where the wild goose goes
Cause I must go where the shoykhet goes
I'll be opgezaltst, I'll be in a top
A make afn butcher, zol im shtinken fun kop
9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 4
Subject: farfl
Italians do indeed call bow-tie pasta "farfalle", and the word does seem
close to "farfl", but Ignaz Bernstein ("Juedische Sprichwoerter
undRedensarten", the Yiddish-German edition, Warsaw 1908, reprinted 1969,
Hildesheim, Germany) states that the word is possibly from the German
"Wuerfel", a die or cube. Bernstein's farfl were "viereckig," square, not
the little spheres I remember.
More on the origin of the word "farfl":
1. "Farfalle" in Italian also means "butterflies." Now since it seems
more likely that bow-tie pasta would get its name from the shape of the
insect than that the insect would be named after the pasta, I assume that
the meaning "butterflies" is primary. (Compare the parallel case of
"vermicelli," primarily "little worms" and secondarily a string-like
pasta.) If so, it is unlikely that "farfalle" comes from the Yiddish
"farfl," which does not seem ever to have meant "butterflies."
2. Bernstein's conjecture that "farfl" may derive from the German
"Wuerfel", a cube, is apparently wrong. The New Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary derives the English "farfel" as coming by way of Yiddish from
Middle High German "varvelen," "noodles" or "noodle soup". A check of
Lexer's pocket dictionary of MHG shows that such a word did exist, with the
meaning of a soup containing grated dough and whisked eggs. It would appear
then that "farfalle" and "farfl" are etymologically unrelated words, whose
resemblance is coincidental.
Martin Jacobs
______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 15.055
Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose
one of these two:
Messages for posting on Mendele
Personal and other messages to the shamosim