Fwd: A Yiddish Lesson

[cyril robinson <lunar...>]

Listers-- not entirely relevant to music but even musicians have names. 
Cyril Robinson
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>Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 16:58:15 -0600
>To: Cyril Robinson <lunar (at) siu(dot)edu>
>From: Don Ugent <ugent (at) siu(dot)edu>
>Subject: A Yiddish Lesson
>
>
>Subject: For all those Jews wondering where their last names come from and a
>bissel yiddish too
>
>IF THE NAME IS JEWISH ... . . .
>DON'T MISS THE POEM AT THE END . . .
>"YIDDISH~~~THE SECRET CODE"
>How Jews got their Names....
>Other than aristocrats and wealthy people Jews did not get surnames in
>Eastern Europe until the Napoleon years of the early 19th century. Most of
>the Jews from countries captured by Napoleon, Russia, Poland, and Germany
>were ordered to get surnames for tax purposes.
>
>After Napoleon's defeat, many Jews dropped these names and returned to "son
>of" names such as: MENDELSOHN, JACOBSON, LEVINSON, etc.
>
>During the so called Emancipation, Jews were once more ordered to take
>surnames. In Austria The Emperor Joseph made Jews take last names in the
>late 1700s, Poland in 1821 and Russia in 1844. It's probable that some of
>our families have had last names for 175 years or less.
>
>In France and the Anglo Saxon countries surnames went back to the 16th
>century. Also Sephardic Jews had surnames stretching back centuries.
>Spain prior to Ferdinand and Isabella was a golden spot for Jews. They were
>expelled by Isabella in the same year that Columbus left for America.
>
>The earliest American Jews were Sephardic.
>
>In general there were Five types of names
>(people had to pay for their choice of names; the poor had assigned names):
>
>1-- Names that were descriptive of the head of household:
>Examples:
>HOCH (tall) ,
>KLEIN (small),
>COHEN (rabbi ),
>BURGER (village dweller),
>SHEIN (good looking),
>LEVI (temple singer),
>GROSS (large),
>SCHWARTZ (dark or black),
>WEISS (white),
>KURTZ (short)
>
>2 -- Names describing occupations:
>Examples:
>HOLTZ (wood)
>HOLTZKOCKER (wood chopper),
>GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith),
>SCHNEIDER (tailor),
>KREIGSMAN (warrior),
>MALAMED (teacher)
>EISEN (iron),
>FISCHER (fish)
>
>3-- Names from city of residence:
>Examples:
>BERLIN,
>FRANKFURTER,
>DANZIGER,
>OPPENHEIMER,
>DEUTSCH (German)
>POLLACK (Polish),
>BRESLAU,
>MANNHEIM,
>CRACOW,
>WARSHAW
>
>4 -- Bought names:Examples:
>GLUCK (luck),
>ROSEN (roses),
>ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf),
>ROSENBERG (rose mountain),
>ROTHMAN (red man),
>DIAMOND,
>KOENIG (king),
>KOENIGSBERG (king's mountain),
>SPIELMAN (spiel is to play),
>LIEBER (lover),
>BERG (mountain),
>WASSERMAN (water dweller),
>KERSHENBLATT (church paper),
>STEIN (glass).
>
>5-- Assigned names (usually undesirable):
>Examples:
>PLOTZ (to die),
>KLUTZ (clumsy),
>BILLIG (cheap)
>DREK (shit)
>
>Original Birth Names of Jewish Performers:
>Woody Allen --- Alan Stewart Koenigsberg
>June Allyson --- Ella Geisman
>Lauren Bacall --- Betty Joan Perske
>Jack Benny --- Benjamin Kubelsky
>Irving Berlin --- Israel Baline
>Milton Berle --- Milton Berlinger
>Joey Bishop ---Joseph Gottlieb
>Karen Black --- Karen Blanche Ziegler
>Victor Borge --- Borge Rosenbaum
>Fanny Brice --- Fanny Borach
>Mel Brooks --- Melvin Kaminsky
>George Burns --- Nathan Birnbaum
>Eddie Cantor --- Edward Israel Iskowitz
>Jeff Chandler --- Ira Grossel
>Lee J. Cobb --- Amos Jacob
>Tony Curtis --- Bernard Schwartz
>Rodney Dangerfield --- Jacob Cohen
>Kirk Douglas --- Issue Danielovich Demsky
>Melvyn Douglas --- Melvyn Hesselberg
>Bob Dylan --- Bobby Zimmerman
>Paulette Goddard --- Marion Levy
>Lee Grant --- Lyova Geisman
>Elliot Gould --- Elliot Goldstein
>Judy Holliday --- Judith Tuvim
>Al Jolson --- Asa Yoelson
>Danny Kaye --- David Daniel Kaminsky
>Michael Landon --- Michael Orowitz
>Steve Lawrence --- Sidney Leibowitz
>Jerry Lewis --- Joseph Levitch
>Peter Lorre --- Lazlo Lowenstein
>Elaine May --- Elaine Berlin
>Yves Montand --- Ivo Levy
>Mike Nichols --- Michael Peschkowsky
>Joan Rivers --- Joan Molinsky
>Edward G. Robinson -- Emanuel Goldenberg
>Jane Seymour --- Joyce Penelope Frankenburg
>Simone Signoret --- Simone-Henriette Kaminker
>Beverly Sills --- Belle Silverman
>Sophie Tucker --- Sophia Kalish
>Gene Wilder --- Gerald Silberman
>YIDDISH ~~~THE SECRET
>CODE
>
>
>
>Yiddish was the secret code, therefore I don't farshtaist,
>A bisseleh maybe here and there, the rest has gone to waste.
>Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist,
>My Bubbeh spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsemisht.
>
>So och un vai as I should say, or even oy vai iz mir,
>Though my pisk is lacking Yiddish, it's familiar to my ear.
>And I'm no Chaim Yonkel , in fact I was shtick naches,
>But, when it comes to Yiddish though, I'm talking out my tuchas.
>
>Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better
>(Though it's really nishtkefelecht when one needs to write a letter)
>But, when it comes to characters, there's really no contention,
>No other linguist can compete with honorable mentshen:
>
>They have nebbishes and nebechels and others without mazel,
>Then, too, schmendriks and schlemiels, and let's not forget schlemazel.
>These words are so precise and descriptive to the listener,
>So much better than "a pill " is to call someone 'farbissener'.
>
>Or - that a brazen woman would be better called chaleria,
>And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria.
>I'm not haken dir a tsheinik and I hope I'm not a kvetch,
>But isn't mieskeit kinder, than to call someone a wretch?
>
>Mitten derinnen, I hear Bubbeh say, "It's nechtiker tog, don't fear,
>To me you're still a maven, zol zein shah, don't fill my ear.
>A leben ahf dein keppele, I don't mean to interrupt,
>But you are speaking narishkeit.....And A gezunt auf dein kup!"
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>GLOSSARY
>Farshtaist = (Do You?) Understand
>Bisseleh = A little
>Tsemisht = Confused or mixed up
>Och un vai = Alas and alack
>Oi vai iz mir = Woe is me
>Pisk = mouth
>Naches = Joy, Gratification
>Shandeh far di kinder = A pity/shame for the children
>Nishtkefelecht = Not so terrible
>Nebbishes = A nobody or simpleton
>Nebechels = A pititful person or playing the role of being one
>Schlemiel = Clumsy bungler, an inept person, butter-fingered; dopey person
>Schmendrik = Nincompoop; an inept or indifferent person; same as chlemiel
>Schlemazel = Luckless person. Unlucky person; one with perpetual bad luck
>(it is said that the shlemiel spills the soup on the Shlimazel!)
>Farbissener = Embittered; bitter person
>Chaleria = Evil woman. Probably derived from cholera.
>Farklempt = Too emotional to talk. Ready to cry.
>Haken dir a tsheinik = Don't get on your nerves
>(Lit., Don't bang your teapot!)
>Kvetch = Whine, complain; whiner, a complainer
>Mieskeit = Ugly
>Mitten derinnen = All of a sudden, suddenly
>Nechtiker tog! = He's (it's) gone! Forget it! Nonsense!
>(Lit., a night's day)
>Zol zein shah! = Be quiet. Shut up!!
>Leben ahf dein keppele = Words of praise like; Well said! Well done!
>(Lit., A long life upon your head.)
>Narishkeit = Nonsense
>
>
>
>The Good Jewish Boychic From Brooklyn
>YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
>
>
>
>
>
>---
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Cyril D. Robinson
520 N. Michaels St.
Carbondale, IL 62901
Tel: 618-549-0028
FAX: 618-453-6733
Archivist: Jewish Music Archives
Radio host: Cyril's Cabaret WDBX 9l.l FM
http://www.chipublib.org/008subject/001artmusic/jewish/jewishmain.html


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