THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Yinglish, Shminglish—Cohen
By JOSEPH COHEN
ten, even a mention is
enough mazel to start the
mezuma rolling. What's
more, people are entitled to
know these days whether
they're getting glitzy chaz-
zerei or real tam."
DS: "What chutzpa! Feh!
You make me sound like a
gonif, a bonditt. Genug! I
may not be such a
feinschmecker as you'd pre-
fer, but then Yiddish is a
plain, earthy language, and
that's my shtik. Yinglish is
earthy, too."
JC: " `Yinglish! That's a
terrible word."
"I didn't invent it. It
stands for hybridism. It's
a hybrid itself. It's here to
stay. Leo Rosten uses it
all the time. He's the ma-
ven. Go read 'Hooray for
Yiddish!"
JC: "I have read it. Why
should I tell people to read
you too?"
DS: "Because we're very
different. Rosten's book is
more like a real lexicon. -But
he's too pious. He'll give you
the Yiddish word for a bod-
ily function but not its lit-
eral English equivalent.
He'll give you a euphemism
and warn you first that it's
obscene. When I want to say
. . .
JC: "Hold your horses.
This interview is going into
a family newspaper."
DS: "Well, everybody
knows those words any-
way. Besides they're a lot
funnier than the
euphemisms. They come
across graphically as.
well as audibly. That's
another way I'm different
from Rosten. They're no
pictures in his book. I'm
illustrated."
JC: "I'll say you are! Some
of Freedman's cartoons are
nice schnecken. Others are a
little more provocative.
Funny, but provocative.
Like those two full page car-
toons of a nude male and-
female -called 'Yiddish
Anatomy Lesson' with all
the vulgar terms for the
body pointed out. It had me
in stitches, but to some
people it's likely to be
shtikle shanda. There, you
are sort of a lexicon that has
, crossed the Rubicon. You
lay it on pretty heavily with
the sex and the bodily func-
tions in general. I wouldn't
be too surprised if a few
people got annoyed."
JC: "Shalom."
DS: "Shalom. Does that
mean you are coming or go-
ing?"
JC: "I'll ask the questions.
If I leave now, you'll know."
DS: "I'm arumgeflick al-
ready! Plucked, fleeced."
JC: "No, you're not. We
haven't even started yet.
Nu, what do you have to say
for yourself? A few months
ago it was Arthur Naiman's
"Every Goy's Guide to
Common Jewish Expres-
sions."Narrishkeit! Are you
more narrishkeit?
DS: "Am I more nar-
rishkeit? Show a little
rachmones, already.Alevay,
my appearance is a met-
sieh."
JC: "What makes it such
a welcome discovery? Even
your name is a putdown.
Dictionary - Shmictionary!
By your own admission,
under the entry Shm, you
recognize that Shmictio-
nary is deprecating. Are you
a paskudnik?"
DS: "Am I a paskudnik?
No, I'm not-disgusting!
What's more, I'm not
ongeblozzen either. I
wasn't intended as a for-
mal lexicon though my
sub-title is A Yiddish and
Yinglish Dictionary. But
Daniel Webster I'm not. I
don't have a tzaddik in my
kishkas. If you are going
to hok a tchynik, I'm leav-
ing:,
JC: "So, who's banging on
a teakettle? I'm not nagging
you. I don't expect you to be
a Daniel Webster, but you
are up to your pupik in
words and pictures. Who
were the gaonim who as-
sembled them for you?"
DS: "Paul Hoffman did
the compiling, and the il-
lustrations are by Matt
Freedman. If you read the
acknowledgements you'll
see they had a lot of help
from their mishpcieheh. I'm
Hoffman and Freedman's
second book. They collabo-
rated in 1980 on one called
"How Many Zen Buddhists
Does It Take to Screw in a
Light Bulb?" I'm published
by Quill and you can schlep
me home for $6.95. A real
bargain!"
JC: "Well, yes and no."
DS: "Forshtinkener cri-
tics. You're all
farblondjhet, wandering
around, making tsores for
people. All you know how
to do is kvetch. I've yet to
DS: "I told you, already.
see a critic kvell, unless
it's over a book of his That's the way Yiddish is.
Gevalt! You can't please
own."
JC: "Hold on! Not all cri- everybody! Loz im gayn! I
tics are geshvollen or far- didn't set out to be a kochlef-
misht. On the contrary, I'm, fel. I'm not a busybody. I'm
trying to help. What are you not trying to schnor laughs.
making such a tsimmes. But I won't be lokshen
over? I haven't said any- either! Nobody's going to
make a kugel out of me.
thing bad about you."
Yiddish is lusty and the
brashest words are the ones
DS: "Kayn Aynhoreh!"
JC: "I'm not casting an that come to be the best
known. The goyim have
evil eye on you!"
DS: "Maybe not, but known and used these
you implied I'm nothing words now for a long time.
but narrishkeit. Nar- You want geshvollen, go in-
rishkeit, indeed! Now I'm terview Rosten. He'll give
oysgamitched!"
you a megilla a mile long.
JC: "Worn out already? I'm right to the point. That's
I've hardly asked you any- another way we're diffe-
thing yet. You think inter- rent!"
JC: "Any other ways?"
views don't sell books? Lis-
eviews New Dictionary
DS: "Yes. We both in-
clude a lot of jokes, but
where he gives you com-
mentary, I give you pas-
sages from books and
magazines demonstrat-
ing the way a word is
used. I have quotations
from many authors and
other , well-known per-
sonalities, folks like Saul
Bellow, Chaim Potok,
William Styron and John
Updike."
JC: "Is there anything
else that makes you distinc-
tive?"
DS: "Yes. I've got five
DS: "Well, it's about time
pages of bibliography list-
ing the books, short stories, you said something nice
magazines, newspapers and about me. Are you going to
movies my definitions and give me a good writeup,
verbal illustrations come faigele?"
from."
JC: "All I can say is that it
JC: "It sounds a bissel un- won't be geferlech. But
gepachkit."
you'll just have to be on
DS: "It is not cluttered shpilkes until the interview
up! Don't utz me, is published to find out what
neshomeleh."
it says."
JC: "I'm not your
DS: "Oy vai! Suet gornisht
sweetheart! But I do like
helfen!"
you."
Friday, October 1, 1983 21
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