2023-08-03
"And if Granny had balls ..."Apparently it was from Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct, years and years ago, that I copied a Yiddish riposte to counterfactual speculation, "Az der bubbe vot gehat baytzim vot zie geven mein zayde." (If my grandma had balls, she'd be my grandpa.)
Zellig Bach, writing on Mendele, remarks that not only is the spelling needlessly Germanized, the actual diction is peculiar. I've run down a version that is probably better on both counts:
.ווען די באָבע זאָל האָבן בייצים, װאָלט זי געװען אַ זײדע
(Ven di bobe zol hobn beytzim, volt zi geven a zeyde.)
(From here, in turn citing Furman, Yidishe Shprikhverter un Rednsartn. Altered because I just find the plosives of בייצים more appropriately combative than the soft sonorants of אייער. According to Bach, my "combative plosive" word was traditionally a euphemism, and my "soft sonorant" word was taboo. But if there's one thing traditions traditionally do, it's change -- just ask טבֿיה דער מילכיקער!)
18:49
