RE: lyrics question: iz + geven

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

Jennifer,

True, but the original passage was

>zayn fon iber mir iz libshaft geven 'his banner over me was love'

and you are correct about the "zayn" that begins the passage being the
possessive pronoun. However, the "iz" that is the fifth word is the
third person singular form of the verb which is known by its infinitive
"zayn" (as in "zu zayn", to be). If that is the "zayn" that Kevin is
referring to when he asks

>can anyone help me understand what it means to use a form of "zayn" >followed
by "geven"?  e.g., in the klezmatics song "honikzaft",

then his question is valid (as is, hopefully, my answer)

>From my college German (which is where I get most of my Yiddish), "iz
>geveyn" would be analagous to the German "ist gewesen", which is a form
>of the past tense of "to be". So (in the third person), "iz" translates
>to "is" and "iz geveyn" translates to "was".

>If I am mistaken, would somebody more knowledgable in pure Yiddish
>please correct me.

Dick Rosenberg (closet linguist)

Dick

>----------
>From:  Jennifer R. Goodman[SMTP:jenifer (at) unix(dot)tamu(dot)edu]
>Sent:  Monday, March 30, 1998 11:24 AM
>To:    World music from a Jewish slant.
>Subject:       Re: lyrics question: iz + geven
>
>Kevin -
>
>"Zayn" in the passage you quote is not part of the verb,
>it's the possessive pronoun (or adjective?) "His." "Zayn
>fon" is "his banner."
>
>Jenny Goodman
>
>