V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Asked my 96-year-old dad how he'd spell it (Yiddish was his first language).  He said he knew how to spell it in Hebrew, but had to think about how he'd write it.  The reality is that the word is more often spoken (yelled) than written.  In fact, I mostly heard the word growing up in the context of my dad screaming as he chased me:  "I'll potch your tukhas [the spelling my dad finally settled on] 'til it's beet red!"  Which he then proceeded to do.  A "potch" is a slap with the palm of the hand, while a "khmall" is done with the back of the hand.  Then there's the "khnip," which is a painful pinch and twist.  All words I learned from my dad.  To be fair, he only threatened the khmall and the khnip. His own mother favored the khnip.

There's no way tukhas could be spelled without the "h," because the middle of the word has a very pronounced back-of-throat sound.

It's interesting that Pynchon misspells two words in this chapter:  tokus and sahha.  Is there a connection?  Or maybe young Pynchon wasn't as meticulous with his research.  Or he was trying to suggest that Rachel is alienated from her Jewish roots.  Or he's trying for a visual alliteration between tokus and tekel.

Laura   




-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Feb 9, 2011 10:39 AM
>To: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>Cc: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"
>
>She has learned, it seems, from olde Yiddish users--maybe in the Catskills?
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
>To: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>Cc: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Sent: Wed, February 9, 2011 2:18:11 AM
>Subject: Re: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"
>
>Mark and Michael - are we to infer something about Rachel's background
>from her use of this spelling?  Does this jibe with the description of
>her coming "from the Five Towns on the south shore of Long Island...?"
>
>On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 10:09 PM, Michael Bailey
><michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  Mark Kohut wrote:
>>> Looking up 'tokus' , we can see it is an older usage, @1910-15 it sez.....
>>> evidently largely overtaken by different spellings..........
>>>
>>
>> hehe, at least one family friend who used to say that...
>> 2 come to think of it...
>> so instead of saying, "by the same token", we used to (and sometimes
>> still do) say, "by the same tokus"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "the life of a person is worth more than the history of a country" -
>> Carlos Fuentes (_The Old Gringo_)
>>
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Richard Ryan
>New York and the World
>~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>The remedy for unpredictability, for the chaotic uncertainty
>of the future, is contained in the faculty to make and keep promises.
>    -- Hannah Arendt
>
>
>
> 
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