Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Yes, a friend of mine who specializes in 15th century German
said that "veh ist mir" is "woe is to me" in 15th century German,
and so in Yiddish. The Oy is Hoy, from Hebrew. 
So it's "Woe, woe is me."
(Which explains why it isn't Woe is I.)
Liz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Crick [mailto:ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk]
> Sent: Tue, September 04, 2001 6:17 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: Yiddish Question
> 
> 
> On Tue  4 Sep 2001 (13:50:17), stoney AT touchwood.net wrote:
> > I have always assumed, on no evidence whatever, that the 'vey'
> > represented German 'weh'='woe'.  Run it by your German professor . . .
> >
>  From a poem I learnt at school:
> 
>  Ein Winzer, der am Tode lag,
>  Rief seine Kinder zu und sprach:
>  'In unserm Weinberg liegt ein Schatz;
>  Grabt nur danach!' - 'An welchem Platz?'
>  Schrie alles laut den Vater an.
>  'Grabt nur!' - O weh! da starb der Mann. (usw)
>                 ^^^^^
>  First stanza from Gottfried August Buerger, /Die Schatzgraeber/.
> 
>  HTH
>  Ben
> -- 
>  Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
>  <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
>  232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
>  http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm
> 
> 
> 
> 
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