meshugginah posts

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Well, one of the things that makes ME just meshuga is when folks quote conversations 
between others w/out attributing the remarks clearly.  In this post, Matt W.
 cites an exchange between Jules and me w/ no attributions. 
 Eeps--gives me the fantods!  For the sake of clarity, I've indicated
 the sources of the remarks.  It's not hard  to insert attributions, gang.

john m
*******************
Matt quotes Siegel:

>>> >Almost unerring. I note in the New York Review of Books review
>>> >that he he says something like "makes me meshugginah." Should be
>>> >meshuga (crazy), not meshugginah (crazy person).

Then Mascaro:
>
>>> Well, maybe we're s'posed to get the sense that old Cunnel Washington
>>>  just wasn't quite up to speed on his Yiddish studies?  Or maybe was
>>> getting a
>>> little--buzzed?
>
>>(3) there's no mistake.
>>>  Conceding little knowledge of Yiddish, I seem to recall hearing
>>>  *meshugginah* used as an adjective  lots of times.  Is it never used
>>>  this way, correctly I mean?

Then Siegel
>
>>It is never used this way correctly.
<snip>

>>I actually studied Yiddish when I was 12 years old and my parents
>>spoke it fluently. I never heard a native speaker of Yiddish use
>>meshugginah as an adjective. Times do change and languages with them
>>but I doubt that this usage would be considered anything more than an
>>ignorant error.

Final word from Matt:
>
>I doublechecked with native speakers and one language teacher.  It
>is not an ignorant error, although it is commonly "corrected".