_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 02.027 29 September 1998 1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager) 2) Yiddish _khnyok_: a progress report (Leonard Prager) 3) inhalt fun _yerushalaimer almanakh_ 26 (1998) [23ter yorgang] 4) Yinglish in India (Leonard Prager) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 September 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Yiddish Matters: a. _khnyok_; an unfamiliar Yinglish; b. _Yerushalaimer almanakh_ 26; c. corrigendum (ed.) Yiddish Matters: a. In this edition of _The Mendele Review_, the editor surveys that expressive Yiddish word, _khnyok_, about which a surprising number of Yiddish-speakers have different, often conflicting, notions. He also describes an encounter with an unfamiliar Yinglish. b. _Yerushalaimer almanakh_ 26 (1998), edited by Yoysef and Dov-Ber Kerler, has now appeared and we are pleased to give the entire Table of Contents below. A rich volume, splendidly illustrated, it is recommended to all _TMR_ readers. Among its offerings is an essay by Dovid Katz in which the Gaon of Vilna helps explain why Yiddish-speakers and their offspring are called _Ashkenazim_. The address of the journal is: c/o Josef Kerler, ed., Sderot Eshkol 12\6 Jerusalem 97764, Israel. The co-editor Dov-Ber Kerler may be reached at dov.kerler@lincoln.ox.ac.uk. By agreement with the editors of _Yerushalaimer almanakh_ and the authors, "Der gzar-hadin" by Tsvi Kanar and "Guter dokter vey-tsu-mir" by Yoysef Kerler will appear in the next issue of _The Mendele Review_ (a joint issue with _Der bavebter yid_, ed. Refoyl Finkl and Sholem Berger). c. corrigendum: The email address of Hugh Denman given in the last (bibliographical) issue of TMR lacked a necessary pintele; it should be: h.denman@ucl.ac.uk. Many thanks to the readers who responded with addenda and corrigenda -- please continue to send these. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 September 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Yiddish _khnyok_: a progress report The word _khnyok_ is easily located in several standard dictionaries, but there are differences of opinion regarding meaning and the etymology is uncertain. Aleksander Harkavi (_Yidish-english-hebreisher verterbukh_, 1928) defines the noun as 'mollycoddle; ish she-eyn bo omets/ish rakh lev ke|isha' and ventures an origin: 'efsher fun rusish _khnika_ 'a baveynte neshome'? [perhaps from Russian XHiKa, 'a whiner; baal bekhi']. Notice that Harkavi says "perhaps" -- an absolutely indispensable word, apparently, in the armory of the intrepid souls who venture to etymologize. Harkavi's etymology makes no effort to account for the vowel /o/. Checking Y.-M. Lifshits' _Yidish-rusish verterbukh_ (1869) we find that the only two entries for the consonant cluster /xnj/ are the two related words _khnikat_ 'khlipn, shlikertsn, ziftsn' and _khnikn_ 'di klog-miter; baveynte neshome'. Harkavi seems to have consulted Lifshits here. Uriel Weinreich (_Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary_, 1968) defines the noun _khnyok_ as 'bigot, philistine; petty / unreasonable conservative' and the adjective _khnyokish_ as 'philistine, unreasonably conservative'. In _Mendele_, vol. 5.163, Eliyahu Juni wrote: "Yiddish doesn't just borrow vocabulary from loshnkoydesh and the sforimakdoyshim. It borrows a universe of discourse from Judaism, from haymishe, farfrimte, farkhnyokte Judaism, from lernen (not learning)." How would one translate "farkhnyokte" here? I would suggest 'old-fashioned'; instead of bearing a negative value such as 'reactionary' or 'ultra-conservative', the word in question is used here to imply that the old-time religion is dafke good. Nokhem Stutshkov (_Der oytser fun der yidisher shprakh_, 1950) provides other uses of the word and fails to mention those of MEYYED, Harkavi and Tsanin (see below). My thanks to Meyer Wolf for locating all the instances of _khnyok_ in Stutshkov: [page/column] [category] [sub-group] p. 404 col. B #umreynikayt [umreyne mentshn] p. 440 col. B #umfeyikayt [yolop, shmoyger 'fool'] p. 655 col. A #guthartsikayt [kvatsh, shmate 'mollycoddle', soft-hearted person'] p. 709 col. B #emune, frumkayt, tsvies [itshe-meyer, tslap, katshelap] p. 113 col. A (arum)khnyoken zikh* = (arum) valgern zikh = batlen) #geyn, forn [*not in _Groyser verterbukh_] The index to Stutshkov lists two principal sense-groups for _khnyok_: 1) an unflattering nickname for a hasid, a synonym of _tslap_; _khnyok_ appears in the same word group as _katshelap_ (which also means 'bungler'), _flyaskedrine_ 'name for an ugly person', and _itshe-meyer_ 'a [Polish] hasid'; 2) in the category of "umreyne mentshn" 'unclean people', we find the same group of words: _khnyok_, _flyaskedrine_, _tslap_, _katshelap_ and many others. Tsanin's not very scientific but often useful _Milon yidish-ivri shalem_ (2 vols., Tel Aviv, 1960) introduces further senses: 'shakhtsan, khaser sovlanut; batlan'. The sense 'batlan' is reinforced by the intransitive verb _opkhnyokn_ defined in _Groyser verterbukh fun der yidisher shprakh_ (vol 4, 1980) as 'a lengere tsayt zayn (zikh oyffirn vi) a khnyok. zikh valgern, opkhnyokn in di kleyne yeshives." [The "kleyne yeshives" caught my eye -- lingering would have been less possible in the larger yeshivas, which presumably had higher standards. --LP] Meyer Wolf [private communication] is undoubtedly right in his suggestion that the word _khnyok_ came into active use early in the Haskala period among maskilim ridiculing hasidim and strictly observant Orthodox Jews. I recently came across an instance of the word _khnyok_ in an essay written by Elye Palushak [Shulamit Aloni's uncle] fifty years ago. Palushak is discussing the beginnings of the Nazi movement ca. 1933: "S'iz geven in mitn fun der daytsher revolutsye, zeyer revolutsye, der revolutsye fun di khnyokes: funem kremer, shtivl-knekht, yunker, fraygelozte ofitsirn, oysgedinte soldatn, bankrotirte ekzistentsn, avanturistn, farbrekher, psevdo-proletariat, lumpn-proletariat un lumpn-inteligents.... Zayne diner: di milyonen mase fun di khnyokes." ('"Kameradn soldatn" oder di revolutsye fun di khnyokes', [_Loshn un lebn_ (London) 4 (1948) 23-26]. In every instance in Yiddish, as noun, adjective or verb, the word has a negative connotation. But while it seems to have attached itself to several quite varied contexts in Yiddish, in modern Hebrew slang the term is fairly focused to mean 'kinui le-adam bazui, hameorer slida' ('term for an abject and repulsive person') (Ben-Amots/Ben-Yehuda, _Milon olami leivrit meduberet_, 1972), 'kinui le-adam ha-meorer khoser ha-aracha ve-slida' ('term for a disreputable and repulsive person') (_Leksikon haslang ha-ivri ve-ha-tsvai_, [1993]). Note that the Hebrew slang lexicons do not indicate an etymon, but the immediate source in Hebrew is doubtless Yiddish. Many young people in Israel, incidentally, do not seem to know the word at all; its dictionary position is no sure guide to its distribution and use. In a private communication, one linguist suggested that "This verb is apparently from Russian _XH61KAT6_. The _-KA_ suffix, like Yiddish _-ke_, is added to onomatopoetic morphemes to make verbs. So khnyok < khni + ok." But since _khnyok_ cannot be traced to a similar word in another language, perhaps we can hypothesize that it was created in Yiddish to exploit the cacophonous effect of its initial (and virtually unique in Yiddish) consonant cluster /xnj/ plus the peculiar effect of suffixal _-ok_. This is no more than an assumption -- one needs to search in the heavy-weight dictionaries, especially those recording dialectal forms. Both elements of the word seem obviously Slavic, but again this does not mean that Yiddish borrowed the word ready-made. Another private communication pointed me to Ukrainian: "I think Harkavi should be looking for a Ukrainian, Polish, Belorussian or even Czech etymology, while on the other hand I suspect he is on the right track in considering the Russian verb _khnykat_ 'snivel' [which is surely distantly cognate with Uk. _khnyupytysya_ 'hang head in dejection' and _khnyura_ 'sullen, morose individual' (both given in Andrusyshen and Krett's _Ukrainian-English Dictionary_, 1955). The -ok suffix also sounds quite Ukrainian to my ears. My suspicion therefore is that we are dealing with a cognate Ukrainian dialect form that the dictionaries at our disposal do not list." Relevant to this view is a communication from Meyer Wolf pointing to what seems to be a variant of _khnyok_, namely _ukhnyok_ which the _Groyser verterbukh_ regards as of Ukrainian origin (vol. 1, 1961, p. 507), citing uses by Mendele and Grade. In Mendele's _Binyomen hashlishi_ [end of ch. 6], a partshik (coachman) addresses Binyomen and Sender as "ukhnyokes" [cited in GV]. "Nor eyder nokh Binyomen hot geendikt dem shmies, hot zikh gelozt hern a shtarker geshrey fun a partshik, vos iz undzere parshoynen ongeforn fun hintn un hot zey shier nit mazik geven mit dem dishel. -- 'ukhnyokes!' hot der partshik geshrign in eyn otem un gemakht oyf zey mit der baytsh, -- 'vos krikht ir, tsu ale shvartse yor, vu di rakes un farshtelt dem veg! hey, hey, yoldn! hey, hey, flokhtn!'" Hillel Hankin freely and skilfully (some would say too freely) renders the above: "Benjamin was only halfway through his dissertation when he was interrupted by the cry of a coachman who nearly ran them both over. 'Looksmartyoutwo!' he shouted in one breath, cracking his whip, which scuttled devilishly in front of them like a crab and blocked their path. 'Heads up, you hayseeds.'" _khnyok_can be found in Khayem Grade's works: 1) "Der ben-horav," _Di mames shabosim_, p. 211: "Der balegole iz shoyn tsereytst. Ale zogn im deyes. A dertsorenter git er a kuk un derzet far zikh a khnyok in shpakuln un mit a bord." 2) p. 213: "Ver hot es im tseshlogn, ot der khnyok in di shpakuln mit der bord?" 3) _Tsemekh atles_, passim. _khnyok_ also appears in Mendele's _di klyatshe_ (1888), at the end of chapter 14 (but not in later deslavicized editions, Meyer Wolf warns us). Not finding _khynok_ in works of other authors, Meyer Wolf wrote [private communication]: "Originally, I took _khnyok_ to be a pan-EY word, but now I think perhaps it started out as a NEY term. I dont have access to a Belorussian dictionary, but I think BR is more likely than Russian or Ukrainian. _khnyok_ does not seem to be used by CY writers, and may not have been current in CY before the 20th century. Of course I don't KNOW any of this, I only suspect it at this point." At my question whether _khnyok_ might not be an apocapated form of the supposed variant _ukhnyok_, Meyer Wold replied: "_khnyok_ could indeed be a decapitated form of _ukhnyok_, but I would like to be sure (1) that _ukhnyok_ indeed means the same thing as _khnyok_ -- I dont know whether that's more than a guess by the GVB; (2) whether _ukhnyok_ derives from _khniken_ or from something else (such as _ukho_ 'ear' and means 'long-eared' or the like)." We note that -ak and -uk endings in Yiddish are pejorative, i.e. _frumak_, _bordak_, _shnayderuk_ [but cf. _shmurak_ 'emerald']. What of -ok? _Groyser verterbukh_ 4:1986 at -ok, writes that this suffix appears in Slavicized [non-Standard] Yiddish, and we are given the example of _b(e)nok_, which in Harkavi is _benok_ 'wanton son' [Hebrew _ben_ + Slavic _-ok_]. _GV_ claims that suffixal -ok is similar to -ak in being a word of _bitl-batayt_ 'sense of scorn'. Not all Yiddish monosyllabic words ending in -ok, of course, are pejorative, e.g. _zok_, _shtok_ (see Stutshkov, _Yidisher gramen-leksikon_, p. 105). Pejorative -ok, however, is found in at least half a dozen monosyllabic words in Yiddish (if _b(e)nok_ is sounded as a monosyllable, then this is due to syncopation). The word expressed euphemistically as _shin mem kuf_ also belongs here. Browsing the pejorative terms with the core sense 'fool' that end in -ok yields _yok_, _bok_, _mok_ (cf. too _baydok_, _bedzhok_); those that end in -ak include _durak_, _ferdak_, _shturmak_ [all these a fraction of the terms given by Stutshkov under # 340 Narishkayt]. _khnyok_ is monosyllabic but because of its initial consonant cluster it seems atypical. One possibility, then: Yiddish borrowed the stem _khny-_ from the Yiddish verb _khniken_ (Stutshkov: p. 557, col A #layd, zorg, troyer [_pkhiken_, _pishtshen_, _khlipen_, _ritshen_, _kvitshen_, _vizgen_, etc.]), which was borrowed from Russian _khnekat_. To this stem was attached the Slavic pejorative suffix -ok, which was also familiar in Yiddish, especially in its similarity to the more widespread -ak and -uk suffixes of despite. In the Shapiro, Spivak and, Shulman _Rusish-yidisher verterbukh_ (Moscow 1984), the only entries with XH are XH6lKaT6 [khnikat] (defined in Yiddish as _pkhiken_, _khniken_, _kanyukn_; _baklogn zikh_) and XHa. Another possibility is that the word was borrowed whole from some Slavic or even Lithuanian dialect. Wolf Moskowitz has assured me that there are many Yiddish words whose etymology is difficult to determine since they were borrowed from dialects -- and this might include Lithuanian as well as Slavic dialects, dictionaries of which (where they exist, and many do) are difficult to get at. Etymologizing should perhaps (that indispensable word again) be left to specialists with rigorous linguistic and every other kind of training. But -- especially in the case of _khnyok_, where the experts are (rightfully) cautious, who but amateurs will dare to speculate? 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 September 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: inhalt fun _yerushalaimer almanakh_ 26 (1998) [23ter yorgang] Avrom sutskever (tel-oviv)/ finf naye lider.................... 7 Dovid volpe (yohanesburg)/ far dir avrom -- sutskevern (lid).. 11 oyf der vakh fun zikorn meyer yelin (kiron)/ oyf heyse shpurn (in kovner geto)...... 12 Tsvi kanar (tel-oviv)/ der gzar-din........................... 22 binem heler [z"l]/ "in varshever geto iz khoydesh nisn"... 26 mishe lev (rekhoyves)/ berekh shlezinger un vagner-mendel..... 31 kiem Mortkhe tsanin (tel-oviv)/ meyse un zayne kets................ 51 Rivke basman (tel-oviv)/ ovntike farbn (naye lider)..........57 hirshe-Dovid meynkes/ (kapelulu, veylz) nakhes fun binyomin.....59 Dovid volpe (yohanesburg)/ der malekh fun mayn mames kholem....73 Yoysef kerler (yerusholaim)/ di velt (naye lider)..............76 yente mash (ashdod)/ der nay-venadnik [hemshekh]...............81 Yoysef kerler (yerusholaim)/ zyame... zyame ...............96 zyame telesin [z"l]/ farvalgerte lider [fun izovn]..............98 Rokhl boymvol (yerusholaim)/ shive.............................101 musye landau (tel-oviv)/ der samovar..........................109 velvl tshernin (kedumim)/ es lekhol dover [et lekol davar] (hayntike un nekhtike lider).........129 Tsvi ayznman (kibuts alonim)/ der fartribener malekh..........134 tomas soksberger (vin)/ yoyne (naye lider)....................138 boris sandler (nyu-york)/ lamed-vovnikes fun mayn zikorn.......142 Yankev beser (tel-oviv)/ mayn mame in khoyshekh fun shank......158 Ofra aligon (tel-oviv)/ der prayz..............................159 alek natas (tel-oviv)/ zelbstmord..............................166 aleksander lizen (lemberg)/ umshterblekhkayt...................169 boris karlov (oksford)/ trayshaft (naye lider).................174 oyfn seyder hayom hirshe-Dovid kats/ (kapelulu, veylz) telegrame tsum manger-ovnt in tel-oviv........................179 Yoysef mlotek (nyu-york)/ av. kahan, der _forverts_ un di yidishe literatur..................182 Yitskhok luden (tel-oviv)/ yidishe literatur lebt un shaft oykh haynt.........................186 Eliezer vizel (nyu-york)/ an oysdruk fun yidisher hofenung un oysdoyer...........................192 Borekh mitshel (oksford)/ yidish bay lyubavitsher un der _algemeyner zhurnal_...............193 fun yene yorn Avrom karpinovitsh (tel-oviv)/ geven, geven amol vilna........196 Shloyme kholavski (kibuts eyn-hashofet)/ vegn der-o nyesvizh..204 Shmuel halkin [z"l]/ der ber ..................................207 Nekhome lifshits (tel-oviv)/ mit halkinen......................209 Yoysef kerler (yerusholaim)/ bay halkins orn..................213 Yirmiyohu druker/ an entfer oyf a "replik" fun eynem a Donyel shaydberg fun 1968...............214 kunst Rokhl vishnitser-bernshteyn/ vi azoy hot zikh antviklt di yidishe kunst-moleray in rusland un poyln....217 Akive fishbin (yerusholaim)/ feliks nusboym -- der moler fun erev khurbm.......................224 mishe lev (rekhoyves)/ dos iz geven amol, amol (a vort vegn mendl gorshman.........................229 literatur un loshn hirshe-Dovid kats/ (kapelulu, veylz) farvos heysn mir ashkenazim................235 Avrom lis (tel-oviv)/ Yankev glatshteyns yidishe vertn.........250 velvl tshernin (kedumim)/ tsvey shlikhey-tsiber: heshl rabinkov un Tsvi preygerzon..........257 Gershn vayner (yerusholaim)/ vegn Mortkhe-tsanins ani maymin...271 bikhervelt Elisheve koyen-tsedek (rekhoyves)/ di andershkkayt fun tsvi kanar.......................276 Avrom grinboym (yerusholaim)/ vikhtike naye zamlung vegn yidishn teater in ratnfarband...280 Avrom karpinovitsh (tel-oviv)/ vilner gubernye amol -- in lebidikn zikorn.................283 Eli beyder (yerusholaim)/ Moyshe shklyar's "moln di amoln".....286 Pinkhes erlikh (rekhoyves)/ Elisheve koyen-tsedeks "farges-mikh-nit" ................289 aleksander lizen (lemberg)/ vilne als elegisher laytmotif......292 mit a shmekhl Eli beyder (yerusholaim)/ "gots velt iz raykh mit lebedike bruem..." ........................295 Miryem shmuelevitsh-hofman (nyu-york)/ "klogen" oder "nisht klogen"...........................298 Yoysef kerler (yerusholaim)/ guter dokter vey-tsu-mir.........302 bio-biblyografye naye bikher ...................25, 56, 72, 75, 128, 133, 137, 165, 173, 180, 181, 191, 195, 203, 206, 279, 285, 288, 301, 304. *** Authors participating in _Yerushalaimer almanakh 26 (alphabetically arranged) Aligon, Ofra Ayznman, Tsvi Basman, Rivke Beser, Yankev Beyder, Eli Boymvol, Rokhl Druker, Yirmiyohu Erlikh, Pinkhes Fishbin, Akive Grinboym, Avrom Halkin, Shmuel Heler, Binem Kanar, Tsvi Karlov, Boris Karpinovitsh, Avrom Kats, Hirshe-Dovid Kerler, Yoysef Kholavski, Shloyme Koyen-Tsedek, Elisheve Landau, Musye Lev, Mishe Lifshits, Nekhame Lis, Avrom Lizen, Aleksander Luden, Yitskhok Mitshel, Borekh Mlotek, Yoysef Mash, Yente Meynkes, Hirshe-Dovid Natas, Aleks Sandler, Boris Shmuelevitsh-Hofman, Miryem Soksberger, Tomas Sutskever, Avrom Telesin, Zyame Tsanin, Mortkhe Tshernin, Velvl Vayner, Gershn Vishnitser-Bernshteyn, Rokhl Vizel, Eliezer Volpe Dovid Yelin, Meyer 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 September 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Yinglish in India In a curious little volume I came across by chance, I encountered a _Yinglish_ I had never heard of before. The _Yinglish_ I was familiar with was the portmanteau neologism for Yiddish-English. (I long preferred the term _Jewish-English_, but my opposition to _Yinglish_ has long ceased). Yiddish-origin terms like _shlep_, _mavin_ [ < Y. _meyvn_], _klots_, _nash_, _chutspa_ [ Subscribers to _Mendele_ (see below) automatically receive _The Mendele Review_. Send "to subscribe" or change-of-status messages to: listproc@lists.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele mail postpone b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail ack c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele ****Getting back issues**** _The Mendele Review_ archives can be reached at: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele/tmrarc.htm