The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #45455   Message #677122
Posted By: Mark Cohen
26-Mar-02 - 11:12 PM
Thread Name: Help: Meaning of 'Donna donna' in Yiddish
Subject: RE: Help: Meaning of 'Donna donna' in Yiddish
Wilfried, I don't know German, so it's a little difficult for me to understand your page in detail. My knowledge of Yiddish and Hebrew is also very limited, so I'm not the best person to ask for advice. In general, however, your observation is correct: Hebrew words which were taken into Yiddish changed their pronunciation to conform to Yiddish/German phonology and stress, though the Hebrew spelling remained intact. (The same thing happens in most languages, as is well known by people who live in Des Moines, or along the Rio Grande!)

It might be helpful if you followed Liland's suggestion and used standard symbols (in parentheses, perhaps) to indicate the pronunciation. I'm also not clear on what these words are: are they German words that have been derived from Hebrew indirectly, via borrowing from Yiddish?

I know we're getting a little far afield from folk music here, but I'm finding the discussion interesting.

Aloha,
Mark

PS, Liland, you're absolutely right about pasach vs. patach. The inconsistency was my fault!