Does everyone know that punim means face in Yiddish? I guess so. This is in a Steven Weber post about the economic stimulus, and is further evidence that Yiddish, the gift of my people, has fully entered the American vocabulary. We have laid our gifts at the feet of the Americans, so that they will elevate us socioeconomically and let us marry their daughters and sons.
And lo, this too came to pass. Yet still we had dual loyalty to a state practicing apartheid and slaughtering Palestinian children. It doesn't add up, bubeleh.
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I mention the sacrifice of Yiddish culture in "Hello Again," from Charles Jacobs.
I would have had no idea what 'punim' meant. I remember getting a dictionary of foreign terms/phrases and was surprised at just how many Yiddish terms were deragatory or describing someone as in a putdown.
Ah the blood libel again. And "my people" who exactly would that be.
"my people" are the doting souls around him who pat him on the head and witness the disintegration of his "beautiful mind."
Not exactly sure how they explain his presence at their dinner tables…the Madness of Prince Philip??
Perhaps it is true of all groups in power that, to achieve and maintain their status, so many different relationships must be taken into account that, with at least some of them, flat-out deceit, the kind in which we fool ourselves, at some level, becomes inevitable.
Seeing and hearing Yiddish so often annoys me. I really don't care about Yiddish, and there is no reason that I should have to go look up Yiddish words so that I can understand an article that is otherwise meant for an English-speaking audience. Yiddish doesn't even sound good when thrown into an English sentence.
Furthermore, no one elected Jews to change the culture and language or run our lives. When did that election take place?
Yiddish is great — whatcha thinking, Todd? You don't have to know what the words mean — you understand the intent simply by how the words sound.
Tops latin, in my books.
Does spelling the word 'punim' rather than 'panim' make it yiddish as opposed to hebrew? His use of it is unsyntactical anyway: it is already a plural, without an 's' on the end of it.
I love Todd paraphrasing that great American antisemite who helped fund the German Nazi Party, Henry Ford.
Todd is just upset because he gets called putz everyday by his superiors at work.
He'll get even with them someday. Someday when he's reincarnated as an asteroid…he's going to FIX those damn JOOOOOS but good. haha!
Suzanne, Yiddish and English are two separate languages, and there is absoultely no reason to constantly inject Yiddish into English writing or conversation. Outside of hyper-ethnic Jews who wants to hear or read it? Very few people. Joke all you want, but that is a fact.
Sam, I would never understand what punim, kerfluffel or the many other Yiddish words mean by the way they sound. If people wish to speak Yiddish, that's fine with me. But I think Yiddish should be left out of writing where it could cloud meaning, or where the audience expects English.
BTW, what's the consensus of Yiddish? Is it a language or a dialect of German. I vote for dialect, but some clain that Yiddish is a language in its own right. I don't know. My guess is that the same people who would vote for language would also give the same designation to something like the Gullah dialect of English, which I do not believe is a language.
Okay, Chris, I'll bite. What did Henry Ford have to say about Yiddish?
oh Todd, grow up. The English language is rich precisely because it is constantly evolving. I don't hear you complaining about Italian expressions or Spanish ones. Heck we even have some Arabic ones, like JIHAD!
You're just a whiner who feels enslaved by Jews. I pity your emasculation.
I am probably the only Yiddish-fluent member of this forum. Except for chutzpah, I hardly ever use Yiddish when I speak English.
I am simply too frustrated with the idiomatic misuses associated with Yinglish — especially the Hollywood variant.
I am especially disgusted with ignorance of some of people that pass themselves off as experts in Yiddish.
Relevant blog entries are:
ahh…the megalomania of a self-proclaimed Sephardic (at least that's how he passed himself off as in another lifetime)–who despises Ashkenazim–yet is more fluent than they in their mother tongue.
A self-proclaimed Jew who wrote a violent and scathing post about Palestinians in 1985 ((I'll copy it here if anyone requests it)–and then apparently did a 180 and chose a new target to unleash his venom upon.
People like this are abusive. Likely violent. His wife might be crazy, but pity her for what she must surely endure behind closed doors.
This is not a good human being.
"oh Todd, grow up. The English language is rich precisely because it is constantly evolving. I don't hear you complaining about Italian expressions or Spanish ones. Heck we even have some Arabic ones, like JIHAD!"
"Jihad" doesn't have an Anglo-Saxon or Latinate equivalent, so it is a useful addition to English.
Although I do not use the word "chutzpah" (I prefer phrases like "insufferable arrogance"), it also has no English equivalent and I can see why one would use it.
On the other hand, if "punim" simply means "face," then there is no point in using it in an English sentence.
Yiddish is actually based on Middle High German, with both Slavic and Hebrew influence. It is certainly a very interesting and expressive language.
Machen nicht eine shanda fur die Goyim, Suzanne!
(is that right?)
kinda like German, but weird, with extra words… ;)
Suzanne,
I understand why some writers and reporters needlessly inject Yiddish into English, and find it annoying. The same type of person is likely to want America tied to Israel. Spanish is a similarly politicized language at the moment, as I am sure you understand. Italian isn't.
David F., was bedeudet das wort "shanda"?
shanda is pretty close to "shame"
"shanda fur die Goyim" is a classic Yiddish phrase that means something like "a shame before the (non-Jewish) nations."
In other words, it is something a Jew does that could make Jews collectively look bad to non-Jews. It's based on the very old (and wise) understanding that when Jews were a distinct and isolated minority, the good or bad behaviour of a single Jew would affect the gentiles' attitude towards the whole community.
I don't know Yiddish, so I defer to Martillo if he has more to say.
Deferring to Martillo is like deferring to the village lunatic.
C'mon, SOG, you don't really dislike Martillo, do you? I think he's been pretty decent considering the amount of abuse you hurl his way. Surely you have to admire that?
Your use of shanda makes sense to me, David.
Todd, the reason why writers and others inject Yiddishisms into English is to annoy you.
Word got out to ZOG that 5 minutes of your life are sliced off every time someone says something in Yiddish.
The JOOOOOS are trying to kill you, Todd.
Now be a mensch and put a smile on that granite face. :-)
Do I detect a sense of humor Suzanne?
Punim is Hebrew, not Yiddish. 15% of Yiddish words derive from Hebrew including this one. As Rowan says above "punims" shows Weber's ignorance of the language. I hope he writes better scripts than he does Hebrew.
"shanda fur die Goyim"
David is correct. Common goys would say, "Don't air your dirty laundry in public."
David's also correct on Yiddish being largely a spin-off from Hoch Deutsche. I used to live by lots of
old jews who spoke in Yiddish when I was around. I nearly always understand what they were saying
because I had studied the German language in college.
C'mon, SOG, you don't really dislike Martillo, do you? I think he's been pretty decent considering the amount of abuse you hurl his way. Surely you have to admire that?
Posted by: Todd | February 18, 2009 at 09:47 PM
As much as you admire Hitler's charm while entertaining.
I understand he was also quite charming when informed of the progress of the Final Solution.
"so that they will elevate us socioeconomically and let us marry their daughters and sons."
I don't feel that I need the seal of approval of elite wasp families. Marriages between jews and WASPs should not be considered a milestone for American jewry. Jewish parents should not strive to have their children marry elitist WASPs. Personally, I have no desire to infest these WASP families and I dont need their seal of approval to determine my self worth. I am not actively seeking a spouse from a WASP family, jewish men and women are just as good as WASPs. If your self worth was determined by which rich WASP you married, you must be pretty pathetic.
Janey, check out how many famous jews, from Hollywood thru MSM media and the DC belt married shicksa trophy wives. I agree they are pathetic. For an on-going picture, watch Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. For old indicia, watch old cinema TV sitcoms, written and produced by jews.
Watch for the obvious jew character, usually the male, and played by a jew. I can't think of many in reverse, only The Nanny comes to mind with its slight twist. Also watch the TV sitcoms with their
consistent and hopefully funny jew characters other than the main couple, in the form of ugly regulars. They are always there.