RE: Yiddish terms

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Paul,

And what does "barab" by itself mean?   You can't assume that
barab is "baraban".   This is bad linguistics.  It also sounds 
that you have convinced yourself that this is unequivical. 

Try to find an etymological dictionary, along with an Indo-European, 
Roumanian, Slavic and Hungarian dictionaries and look up all these words
plus "barab".   There are also several naming dictionaries that could 
be most helpful.


Reyzl

----------
From:  Paul M. Gifford[SMTP:PGIFFORD (at) flint(dot)umich(dot)edu]
Sent:  Tuesday, March 31, 1998 7:36 AM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  RE: Yiddish terms

Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net> said:
> 
> Bill Barabash wrote:
> 
> >I was told that my surname "Barabash" means "drummer".  Maybe it's
> >a regional thing;  my father's father grew up in the Bessarabian
> >shtetl Benderi.
> 
> I think you got 'barabash' mixed up with 'baraban', which means a small
> drum.   (The instrumentalist of that is called a 'barabantshik'.)  I 
> don't speak Russian, but I have a copy of a Russian-Yiddish children's 
> story and there is a poem about a 'barabash' with a picture of a large 
> squash.  Can't find it now to confirm my memory.   Also don't have time 
> to check this with a Slavicist.  Hope you will.  
> 
Maybe so, but the -ash ending is used in Romanian:  flueras(h), 
"[fipple] flute player"; trimbitzash, "trumpeter"; and Hungarian,
primas, "first violin,"; kontras; cimbalmos; etc.  Bendery is close 
to the Romanian-speaking area and perhaps it was a term in that area.

Paul Gifford