[Mesorah] Hirhurim: Oh, Oy, Ow

[R Davidovich]

Here is anecdotal evidence, coming from someone with a Lithuanian father
born in Kovno, whose parents were from Kovno and Yanova, another Lithuanian
town.

When growing up, I heard a Yiddish expression, used by the aforementioned
three people and their friends of the same background, "Tu mir a teiveh." I
knew this meant "Do me a favor" in Yiddish.  I had figured out that the "eh"
at the end was a dialect sound for the sound "ah" or "oh". I had no doubt
that the word was the Yiddish language homophone of the Hebrew word that
means the ark Noah built, or the basket that held baby Moses. It was not
until quite a few years later that I realized that the word Teiveh, the word
that I assumed without question was the Yiddish word for "favor", was really
the Hebrew word "Tova" pronounced with the Litvish dialect.

Also, I and everyone I knew in our family and its extended circle of friends
from Lita pronounced my grandfather's name "Shleimah" or "Shleimeh", to me
"Zeida Shleima", or "Zeideh Shleimeh".  Again, it was not until I first saw
my grandfather's Medicare Card that I learned that his name was spelled
"Shlomo."  Again, in my mind the name was the homophone of the Hebrew word
that means "complete" or "total", as in "Torah Shleima" or "Refua Sheleima".
 There was no distinction whatsoever in my ears.  Nobody in this
Lithuanian-born group was or is a Torah Scholar, but their spoken Yiddish?
100% pure.
RD


On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 11:04 AM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> RGS recently ran a post on the four traditional Ashkenazic cholam's
> and their modern kin. Noting the interesting point that the popularity
> of a movement that claims heritage from the Litvishe Yeshivos led to
> the popularity of the Poilishe choilem, not the Litvishe cheilam.
>
> See <http://torahmusings.com/2011/06/the-pronunciation-of-the-cholam-vowel
> >
> "Oh, Oy, Ow".
>
> Which has me wondering... Did Litvaks disambiguate between cheilam and
> tzeirei? And if so, how? And how close is the Litvishe cheilem to the
> Teimani version that sounds similar to my ear?
>
> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha
>
>
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