In den Carmina Burana gibt es die Stelle:
Mandaliet, mandaliet,
min geselle
chumet niet.
wobei mandaliet manchmal auch als zwei Wörter geschrieben wurde.
Ich habe sowohl gehört, dass das Wort nichts bedeutet (so wie lalala), als auch, dass liet Lied bedeutet, mit verschiedenen unplausiblen Vorschlägen für manda.
Weiß hier jemand mehr darüber?
Ich habe die Carmina Burana schon mehrmals gesungen. Uns wurde damals bei einer der Proben von einem Experten erklärt, dass die »Manda« die »Männer« sind (ist auch heute noch in Tirol so), und dass die »Liet« »Leute« sind.
Die »Mandaliet« sind also »Männerleute«, also eine Gruppe von Männern. Der Satz »Mandaliet, Manda Liet, min geselle chumet niet« heißt also wörtlich:
Männerleute, Männer, Leute! Mein Freund kommt nicht.
Die Aussage, dass der Freund nicht kommt, wird also an eine Gruppe von Männern gerichtet
"Mandaliet, mandaliet, min geselle chumet niet." "Hurray, hurray, my lover is coming with promptness."
According to a medieval to modern German language dictionary, covering the XIIth to XIVth century period : Manda = a verb of enthusiasm. Liet = Lied (song). Niet = mit promptheit.
A dictionary (I do not have the reference any more) that I consulted 20 years ago at McGill University, when I was in a choir and amazed by the incomplete or inappropriate translation of the Carmina Burana according to the situation in the cantata : happy moments for youth in summer time. Joyful chorus.
P.-S. : I finally found the reference. « Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch » from Matthias Ritter von Lexer. Manda-liet = Tanzlied : http://woerterbuchnetz.de/Lexer/call_wbgui_py_from_form?sigle=Lexer&mode=Volltextsuche&lemid=LM00272#XLM00272
The word "manda" actually exists still today in German. You can find it still spoken in South Tyrolia. It means "men".
Also, in Bavaria the word "mannerleut" oder stärker eingefärbt "mannaleit" for men, also resembles "manda liet".
In the following, I will refer what I, as a layman, have drawn from Olive Sayce (1967), "Carmina Burana 180 and the mandaliet refrain", in: Oxford German Studies, vol. 2, p. 1-12.
The refrain in question, from Carmina Burana 180, reads:
Manda liet manda liet min geselle chǒmet niet.
It is attached to a Latin poem, which shares the love letter theme with the preceding German one, 179a, Einen brief ich sande / einer vrowen gůt. However, the content of the German refrain of 180 has nothing to do with the Latin poem and "it can only have been fortuitously attached to it" (Sayce; she also notes that the surrounding poems all have refrains, which might have been a reason for attaching one to 180).
The mandaliet refrain resembles that of 180a:
Ich sage dir ih sage dir min geselle chum mit mir.
Now, with regard to the meaning of the mystery word mandaliet, Sayce points out that although menden "rejoice" did exist (see AWB), it was archaic at the time, and no compounds with manda- are attested.
If the word mandaliet doesn't exist, what could it mean? Well, nothing, says Sayce:
It is certainly an invented nonce-word of the type very common in refrains. It is simply there to provide (a) the requisite number of beats demanded by the metre, (b) the rhyme. That the second element should take the form of a real word for the sake of the rhyme, though meaningless in the context in which it occurs, is also a device of common occurrence.
Sayce also argues that the refrain was taken from a dance song (which I find quite plausible; after the solo part, the crowd would join in on the mandaliets). So although Wackernagel's interpretation of mandaliet as "dance-song" (recorded by Lexer) may have been wrong on a linguistic level, he might have been right about what the refrain is conveying.
If you want to check out the manuscript of Carmina Burana 180, take a look at MDZ, or go here for a transcription. You may also enjoy listening to the song "Mandaliet" by the band Dunkelschön, from their album Katharsis (2009).
We once sang the lyrics in the boy scouts and I was told that "Manda liet" means Great sorrow. The modern German word for sorrow is Leid. I can see how this is related to Liet. So that would be Liet=Leid=Sorrow. However, there is no modern german word that closely resembles manda. Maybe it could be related to Menge (amount, lot). In any case Great sorrow makes sence in the context.
My German professor in college speculated that "manda liet" was an archaic expression that, in modern German, could be "man da liegt" or "man liegt da" ("one lies there (or here)"). Man da liegt; mein Freund kommt nicht.
