LL-L: "Holidays" LOWLANDS-L, 18.DEC.1999 (03) [E]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 18.DEC.1999 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Holidays

Jason,

Further on this topic, you wrote:

> Mandy Patinkin, star of stage and "Chicago Hope", did an album last year
(1998)
> called Mamaloshen. On it, he sings such songs as
> Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, The Hokey Pokey, Take Me Out To The
> Ballgame, God Bless America, and I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...all in
> Yiddish! He offers the term "Nitl" for Christmas. (What a mensch!) Would this
be
> a proper substitute for "geburtstog funem goyishn meshiakh"?

Jason, "geburtstog funem goyishn meshiakh" was never meant to be serious and
should not have been included in the first place.

Indeed, _nitl_ is the proper Yiddish word for 'Christmas'.  I assume it is
derived from Romance _Natal_.

Thus, perhaps Yiddish "A freylikhn nitl un a gut yor".  'New Year' (the holiday)
is _nayyor_ and 'New Year's Eve' _silvester_ (cf. German _Neujahr_ and
_Sylvester_ respectively).

> Bahasa Indonesian: Selemat Natal. Selamah Tahun Baru

It should be "Bahasa Indonesia".

> Chinese (Mandarin): Kung Ho Hsin Hsi
> Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan

Whoever did this didn't know much about romanization.  It should be:

Kung he hsin hsi!
Kung hsi hsin nien ping (better "he") chu sheng tan!

 In the more common Pinyin spelling:

Gonghe xin xi!
Gongxi xin nian bing (= he) zhu shengdan!

On the Chinese Mainland it is more common to say:

Gonghe shengdan he xin xi!

> Westphalian: Ek wunsk Ink gesegnete Wiehnacht und kommt gued in't Niejaohr
> Westphalian Low Saxon (Low German): Gesegnete Chrisdage und kommt gued in't
> Niejaohr.

They are both Westphalian Low Saxon dialects.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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