Re: Rebbetzin Zamenhof?

At 20:20 09/01/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>i was just reading a book on the history of the hebrew language recently,
>and it said that "it is believed that this ending influenced Zamenhof,
>the creator of Esperanto, to choose the suffix -edzin to denote a
>'married woman'."
>
>The "this ending" it's talking about is the _-tzin_ at the end of the
>Yiddish word _rebbetzin_, meaning "wife of the rabbi".
>
>So, i don't get something....how can you have a suffix for a married
>woman?  What does that mean?  What's it used for?
>
>thanks,
>
>-Stephen (Steg)
>
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>
        Edzin- is not a suffix. In fact, only -in- is the real suffix, the
feminine one (it comes from German languages if I remember well). Edz- is a
root (with the meaning of marriage). So you can have edzo: husband, edzino:
wife, edzigxi: to marry (for a man), edzinigxi: to marry (for a woman),
geedzoj: the husband and the wife, geedzigxi: to marry (for both), etc...
        The suffix -in- comes from German, as I said, and I don't know where the
root edz- comes from. But Hebrew etymology is rare in Esperanto, so I think
the one you got is a pure invention. But don't forget that the freedom of
composition is nearly total in Esperanto, so you can without a problem use
edzin- as a suffix with the meaning "wife of a...", for instance
panistedzino for "wife of a baker", but I find this weird and useless,
except for very precise uses.

        I think the resemblance with -tzin is merely a coincidence, but I can be
wrong.

        So, hope that helped.


                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"R=E9sister ou servir"

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html