Michael Wex - Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Wont Do)

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Book:
Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Wont Do)
Author:
Michael Wex
Publisher:
St. Martins Publishing Group
Genre:
Books / Detective and thriller
Year:
2007
Rating:
3 / 5
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A cross between Henry Beards Latin for All Occasions and Ben Schotts Schotts Original Miscellany, JUST SAY NU is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable readers to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish wordsshoyn, nu, epes, takeh,and nebakhwhat they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesnt have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying. Readers will learn how to shmooze their way through such activities as meeting and greeting; eating and drinking; praising and finding fault; maintaining personal hygiene; going to the doctor; driving; parenting; getting horoscopes; committing crimes; going to singles bars; having sex; talking politics and talking trash.
Now that Stephen Colbert, a Catholic from South Carolina and host of the Colbert Report, is using Yiddish to wish viewers a bright and happy Chanukah, people have finally started to realize that theres nothing in the world that cant be improved by translating it into Yiddish. Wexs JUST SAY NU is the book thats going to show them how.

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Table of Contents

This book owes its existence, along with much of its contents, to people whom I have yet to meet: readers of Born to Kvetch who e-mailed me with questions about Yiddish idioms and ways of speech not covered (or not covered in enough detail for them) in that book. Much of what follows are answers to those questions.

One reader, Cliff Gevirtz, thought it would be a good idea if I were to put together a guide for people whod like to use a bit of Yiddish in their day-to-day lives. Alison Lazarus passed his suggestion along to Ethan Friedman, who passed it on to me. I owe Ethan a tremendous debt of gratitude for his editorial work on this volume; his enthusiasm and understanding are apparent on every page.

George Witte stepped in at a crucial moment and made sure that this project came to fruition.

This book could not have seen the light of day without Nichole Argyres, who succeeded Ethan at St. Martins. Kylah McNeill took care of many of the details. Id also like to thank Stefanie Lindskog.

My agent, Gareth Esersky, was instrumental in the development of this project, which has kept her plenty busy since it started. Carol Manns help has also been invaluable.

My wife, Marilla, managed to endure months on end of hearing little, if any, English at home, while Sabina, my daughter, remains an endless source of love and delight, one that grows taller with each passing day.

Born to Kvetch
Shlepping the Exile
The Adventures of Micah Mushmelon, Boy Talmudist

Basic Yiddish Grammar

Readers who already know some Yiddish should feel free to skip this section; readers who think they know some Yiddish have probably done so already. If you dont fall into either of these categories, please look at this outline of grammar as a bonus rather than a chore; think of it as an aid to adapting the phrases and expressions presented in this book to differing circumstances and conditions. The information contained in the next few pages will show you how to turn singular to plural, present to past, first person to third, and so on. While you can use and enjoy Just Say Nu without knowing any of this stuff, youll be able to make wider and more effective use of the Yiddish that s in it if you take a few minutes to learn these basic principles of grammar. Whatever you might want to do with Yiddish, youll be able to do a lot more of it once youre able to conjugate a verb and put a sentence together.

NOUNS AND ARTICLES

Yiddish nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. While things that are obviously masculine or feminine tend to belong to the expected gender, theres really no way of knowing what gender a noun belongs to without being fluent in the language. One of the main clues, though, are the articlesthe words that mean the that go with the nouns. These are not only dividedaccording to gender, but also according to what their nouns are doing in the sentence. Genders for all nouns in the book are indicated in the glossary.

The three basic articles are

Masculine: DER
Feminine: DEE
Neuter: DOOS

Der man is the man; dee froy, the woman; doos kint, the child.

This is whats called the nominative case: the noun is either the subject of the sentence or its subjective completion (older readers may recall this as the predicate nominative). In a sentence like The girl became a woman, both girl and woman are in the nominative case; in The boy stayed a boy, both boys are nominative.

The next case, the accusative, denotes the direct object, the person or thing that receives the action of the verb directly. In He eats the turkey, the turkey is the direct object; its in the accusative case. In One hand washes the other, the other (hand) is the direct object.

Accusative forms of the definite article:

Masculine: DAIM
Feminine: DEE
Neuter: DOOS

The dative case is the indirect object, the indirect recipient of the action of the verb. In The boy throws the ball to his mother, his mother is the indirect object; in The boy throws his mother the ball, shes the indirect object again. All Yiddish prepositions also take the dative case.

Dative forms of the definite article:

Masculine: DAIM
Feminine: DER
Neuter: DAIM

There is only one plural article, DEE, which covers all genders and cases.

SUMMARY OF ARTICLES

SINGULAR:

PLURAL:

DEE in all genders and cases.

Almost all nouns remain unchanged regardless of their case; the few exceptions arent worth going into here. The only changes you need to worry about with nouns are the plurals, which are given in brackets in the glossary.

ADJECTIVES

Endings change according to gender, number, and case.

Masculine
Nominative	-er	DER GROYSER MAN, the big man
Accusative	-n	DAIM GROYSN MAN
Dative	-n	DAIM GROYSN MAN
Feminine
Nominative	-eh	DEE GROYSEH FROY, the big woman
Accusative	-eh	DEE GROYSEH FROY
Dative	-er	DER GROYSER FROY
Neuter
Nominative:	-eh	DOOS GROYSEH KINT, the big child
Accusative:	-eh	DOOS GROYSEH KINT
Dative:	-n	DAIM GROYSN KINT

The plural ending is -eh in all genders and cases: DEE GROYSEH MENER, DEE GROYSEH FROYEN, DEE GROYSEH KINDER

PRONOUNS

Yiddish also has an impersonal pronoun MEN which is often cut down to MEH - photo 3

Yiddish also has an impersonal pronoun: MEN , which is often cut down to MEH when it comes before a verb. It means one or any random person; its like the you thats used in Englishwhen anybody, not necessarily the person to whom youre talking, is meant. You cant believe everything you read, would be Meh ken nisht glaybm alts voos meh laint.

VERBS

Regular verbs are conjugated as follows:

KIKN (to look)	ENDINGS	MEANING
Sing.	1. KIK	I look
2. KIKST	- st	you look
3. KIKT	-t	he/she/it looks
Plu.	1. KIKN	-n	we look
2. KIKT	-t	you (plural) look
3. KIKN	-n	they look
Imperative
Sing. KIK	[you] look!
Plu. KIKT	[you (plural)] look!
Past Tense: IKH HOB GEKIKT	I looked, I have looked

All past tenses are formed by combining a verbs past participle with the proper auxiliary verb. The two Yiddish auxiliaries are hobm, to have, and zein, to be. Past participles for all verbs used in this book are given in the glossary.

IRREGULAR BUT IMPORTANT VERBS

ZEIN ( to be )

Singular	Imperative	Past tense
1. BIN	IKH BIN GEVAIN
2. BIST	ZEI
3. IZ

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