Yiddish vs. Yinglish?

[davemarc]

I sent the following query to the website for The Yiddish Voice, "A
Yiddish-language radio show serving Boston's Yiddish-speaking community."

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Greetings!  I'm a participant on a mailing list about the author Thomas
Pynchon.  In his new novel, Mason & Dixon (p. 280, in case you're
wondering), there 's a satirical sequence in which George Washington,
complaining, says "It's making me just mee-shugginah."  

At the list, there's a minor controversy over just how correct this brand
of Yinglish is.  I can believe that it's not "by the book," but I think
it's a common usage as far as the vernacular's concerned.  

Would anyone over there care to share an opinion about this?

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Here's the response.

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It would make more sense to say "it's making me meshuge", since meshuge
is the adjective.  I believe "mee-shugginah" is a home-spun transliteration
of "meshugene", as we transliterate Yiddish according to the
well-established
and well-worked out YIVO transcription method.  Meshugene would be the
noun "(female) crazy person".  Meshugener is the noun "(male) crazy
person".
However, here the part of speech clearly intended is that of an adjective,
or else it would have been, "it's making me _a_ meshugene(r)".  I would
agree that it's common to say "meshugene" where one means "meshuge"
among those who don't know Yiddish.  It's also common to use a female
variant by mistake among the same group, although I don't think that is
what's going on in this case.  And of course Yiddish can and will be
spelled
any which way by those who aren't aware of, or ignore, the prevailing
transcription standards.

So, is this a mistake?  It depends what you think the joke is.  What's
funnier: (1) that George Washington, a non-Jew and the
first US president, would immitate Yinglish, or (2) that he would
utter a phrase of Yiddish "vi an alte yidene" (as well as any
old Jewish lady)?  If you think (2), then I think you'd
have to conclude that this is a mistake.  I find (2) funnier, so
I conclude this is a mistake.

Hope this helps,

Mark David
Host and Producer, The Yiddish Voice (WUNR AM 1600, Boston)

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Please note that Mark David's URL is 
http://world.std.com/~yv/