RE: A Yiddish Lesson

[lucy_fisher <lucy_fisher...>]

Just being picky (it's my job). Isn't a rosenblatt a rose petal? and a 
kirshenblatt a cherry petal? And Koenigsberg is a place (now Kaliningrad). And 
a fisher is not a fish in any language!

Lucy Fisher




> ----------
> From:         cyril robinson
> Reply To:     jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> Sent:         Friday, November 14, 2003 1:14 am
> To:   World music from a Jewish slant
> Subject:      Fwd: A Yiddish Lesson
> 
> <<File: ATT498839.txt>>
> Listers-- not entirely relevant to music but even musicians have names. 
> Cyril Robinson
> >X-Sender: ugent (at) saluki-mail(dot)siu(dot)edu
> >X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1.1
> >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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> >Version: 6.0.538 / Virus Database: 333 - Release Date: 11/10/2003
> 
> 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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