The Vortsman's email in-box has lately been as sparse as integrity on Wall Street, leading to two possible conclusions: either knowledge of Yiddish has become so widespread that his function has been downsized -- and you know what that means, these days -- or that his pseudo-expertise has led to outsourcing that function to scholars of greater note. Same potential result, either way.
However, bravely ignoring ominous signs, a coupla emails and a telephone call have provided enough grist for this mill to keep grinding monthly (or weakly).
An email asked for the meaning/English equivalent of
folg mir a gayng. After putting off the reply to this month's column, and informing the heavily
galitsyaner inquirer that it's also pronounced
gang, I enjoyed the nostalgic memories of my youth, when fellow-staffers at Camp Kinderland would break up when someone would utter the literal MIS-translation: "Obey me a walk."
Our mirthful error was in confusing the command form of the verb
folgn, to obey, with the same form of
nokhfolgn, to follow (after). Thus, the phrase could be literally translated, correctly, as "Follow me on my path." The actual meaning, as Weinreich's dictionary notes, is "it's quite a long way."
(Weinreich also corrects the emailer -- and me -- by giving the Yiddish phrase as
folg miKH a gang. The differences between
mir and
mikh,
dir and
dikh may be discussed in the future...or not.)
Then there was the query that asserted assurance that there was no Yiddish equivalent for "Shut up!" -- implying that
mameloshn is too genteel for that.
veys ikh vos -- baloney!
Here are only some of the many variants that The Vortsman has had directed at his own gentle soul:
farmakh s'moyl...farmakh s'pisk...farhak s'moyl (pisk)...her shoyn oyf plaplen...etc.
farmakh is to close, as a door;
farhak is to slam, as a door;
s'moyl is a contraction of
dos moyl, the (your) mouth;
s'pisk is a contraction of
dos pisk, the (your) snout; and, finally, which I shall now do on this subject:
her shoyn oyf plaplen means: finish jabbering, already.
A phone call from a long time Yiddishkayt stalwart wondered what might be the Yiddish equivalent of the common English slang expression for an average person: Joe Blow. Joe Blow in Yiddish is
khaym yankl, names often given as Hyam, Yonkel, used disparagingly; or
meyshe pipik, lit., Moses Bellybutton, in the Galician dialect; or
abi ver, anybody, somewhat more eruditely.
I'm informed that a Very Well-Known, Popular Author in matters Yiddish opined that
moyshe kapoyer is the equivalent of Joe Blow, a person who is, as he wrote, "ass-backwards." How wrong can a best-seller get?
moyshe (meyshe) kapoyer, despite the proper name (see above) is not, in Yiddish folk-speech, a person -- but a thing that is topsy-turvy. I could go on about the derivation of the term and the further errors of The Author on this topic...but I gotta go check my email: maybe there are more queries for next month...or a pink slip.
_ _ _ _ _
Please help us fill The Vortsman's email in-box with questions, nothing would make him happier. Send him an
email and ask the meaning of a favorite, or confusing, word or phrase.