Comments on: Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENY http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:14:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Charles Nydorf http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-153464 Charles Nydorf Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:12:50 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-153464 Let me take a stab at explaining the phonological evolution of 'sheeny.' To begin with the stressed vowel,the standard Yiddish form of the adjective for beautiful is 'sheyn'. In all West Yiddish dialects and in two out of three East Yiddish the word has the dipthong /ei/. (The exception is Central Yiddish, where the diphthong is /ai/. In popular London English /ei/ is shifted to /ai/. Speakers of London English would have had trouble pronouncing Yiddish 'sheyn' with an /ei/ and so substituted an /i:/ sound yielding the stressed vowel in 'sheeny'. The unstressed vowel in 'sheeny' is easier to explain. It is an English version of the Yiddish adjectival suffixes /e/ or /er/. Let me take a stab at explaining the phonological evolution of ’sheeny.’ To begin with the stressed vowel,the standard Yiddish form of the adjective for beautiful is ’sheyn’. In all West Yiddish dialects and in two out of three East Yiddish the word has the dipthong /ei/. (The exception is Central Yiddish, where the diphthong is /ai/. In popular London English /ei/ is shifted to /ai/. Speakers of London English would have had trouble pronouncing Yiddish ’sheyn’ with an /ei/ and so substituted an /i:/ sound yielding the stressed vowel in ’sheeny’.
The unstressed vowel in ’sheeny’ is easier to explain. It is an English version of the Yiddish adjectival suffixes /e/ or /er/.

]]> By: Sheeny Curse http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-152945 Sheeny Curse Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:17:42 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-152945 [...] Curse Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENYAn old hypothesis (my reference goes back to 1889) traces Sheeny to the Hebrew curse misah (or mise) [...] [...] Curse Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENYAn old hypothesis (my reference goes back to 1889) traces Sheeny to the Hebrew curse misah (or mise) [...]

]]> By: Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENY http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-152844 Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENY Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:04:08 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-152844 [...] and bodily functions, or some law prohibited them from doing so. The sexual revolution emancipa click for more var _wh = ((document.location.protocol=='https:') ? "https://sec1.woopra.com" : [...] [...] and bodily functions, or some law prohibited them from doing so. The sexual revolution emancipa click for more var _wh = ((document.location.protocol==’https:’) ? “https://sec1.woopra.com” : [...]

]]> By: Faselhase http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-152813 Faselhase Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:57:16 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-152813 A very interesting article. However, "zhid" (Żyd) isn't an offensive word in Polish. It's a standard term, like "Jew" in English. A very interesting article. However, “zhid” (Żyd) isn’t an offensive word in Polish. It’s a standard term, like “Jew” in English.

]]> By: John Cowan http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-152811 John Cowan Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:17:30 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-152811 Almost certainly that was <i>the</i> Nathan Süsskind, Professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at the City College of New York until his retirement in 1974. Though he was indeed an American, he was not so by birth; he was born in what is now Slovakia and was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1907, and died in New York City in 1994. He was also the director of the Institute for Yiddish Lexicology, and (though a native speaker of Eastern Yiddish) a world authority on Western Yiddish. If Süsskind says that the WY for 'beautiful' was <i>sheen</i>, it probably was. The EY is <i>shayn</i>. In the phrase <i>shayner yid</i>, however, it refers not to personal appearance but to moral rectitude: "a <i>shayner yid</i> is a Jew of whom other Jews are proud" (Leo Rosten). Almost certainly that was the Nathan Süsskind, Professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at the City College of New York until his retirement in 1974. Though he was indeed an American, he was not so by birth; he was born in what is now Slovakia and was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1907, and died in New York City in 1994. He was also the director of the Institute for Yiddish Lexicology, and (though a native speaker of Eastern Yiddish) a world authority on Western Yiddish.

If Süsskind says that the WY for ‘beautiful’ was sheen, it probably was. The EY is shayn. In the phrase shayner yid, however, it refers not to personal appearance but to moral rectitude: “a shayner yid is a Jew of whom other Jews are proud” (Leo Rosten).

]]> By: J P Maher http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/sheeny/comment-page-1/#comment-152809 J P Maher Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:36:14 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=5088#comment-152809 There is support for Professor Liberman’s connection of sheeny and schoen ‘beautiful, nice’. But the connection is not by way of irony, e.g. “Curly” for the bald one of The Three Stooges. As for phonetics, Yiddish, Austrian and Bavarian German “shane” were more heard on the streets of New York than standard German schoen. And millions of gentiles knew the Yiddish hit song “Bei mir bist du shane”, which made the cross-over from Yiddish musical theater to mainstream US and even made the German and Russian “hit parade”. See Sholom Secunda in Wikipedia for a good run-down. As for semantic development, metonymy would be a good place to look. Hawkers and talkers can be named for their characteristic noises. “Nicely-Nicely” is the name of a character in Damon Runyon. Shoe-shine boys call out their service: “shine!”, hence the white racist word for blacks. In Brendan Behan’s book “Borstal Boy” the nickname hung on a reform school (Borstal) mate was “Chew-Lips”, the cry of the London flower market hawker: “Tulips!”. “Shane” would be an excellent hawker’s cry, praising their product: “shane!”. (I use the real English pronoun “they” here, as opposed to the PC “his or her’.) There is support for Professor Liberman’s connection of sheeny and schoen ‘beautiful, nice’. But the connection is not by way of irony, e.g. “Curly” for the bald one of The Three Stooges. As for phonetics, Yiddish, Austrian and Bavarian German “shane” were more heard on the streets of New York than standard German schoen. And millions of gentiles knew the Yiddish hit song “Bei mir bist du shane”, which made the cross-over from Yiddish musical theater to mainstream US and even made the German and Russian “hit parade”. See Sholom Secunda in Wikipedia for a good run-down. As for semantic development, metonymy would be a good place to look. Hawkers and talkers can be named for their characteristic noises. “Nicely-Nicely” is the name of a character in Damon Runyon. Shoe-shine boys call out their service: “shine!”, hence the white racist word for blacks. In Brendan Behan’s book “Borstal Boy” the nickname hung on a reform school (Borstal) mate was “Chew-Lips”, the cry of the London flower market hawker: “Tulips!”. “Shane” would be an excellent hawker’s cry, praising their product: “shane!”. (I use the real English pronoun “they” here, as opposed to the PC “his or her’.)

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