The feminine singular forms of the adjectives “brave” and “strong” in Hebrew are גבורה (gibborah) and חזקה (hazakah), respectively.

Yiddish gikh is cognate with New High German jäh (=abrupt, precipitous). Both of them stem from common Middle High German roots; see here (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jäh) for more details on the etymology of the latter (and thus the former, too).

The word for newborn with which I’m familiar is kimpetkind. Nefesh is generally used for “soul” or “creature,” as in Hebrew, the language from which it derives.

Tatele, mamele, and bobele certainly are authentic Yiddish diminutives, but when they started being used as endearments for young children, as opposed to for fathers, mothers, and grandmothers, respectively, is unclear to me. My searches in dictionaries and other sources have, unfortunately, turned up empty. It may be, as you say, that these usages only began after the War (in America or Israel); I honestly do not know. My own instinct would be to say that they preceded that point, since I’m not sure what about American or Israeli linguistic culture would prompt the development of these usages, but, again, I can’t say for certain, and the existing evidence (from silence) seems to be against this. Either way, it is a great question which deserves to be studied by someone more experienced than me.

Probably the same way you pronounce it outside a Jewish bakery. As far as I know, there is no official Jewish bakery etiquette that requires that you pronounce the word in a particular way. So, if you’re used to saying khale, say khale. If you’re used to hallah, say that. If khallah or khalloh, those work, too. I think anything goes, as long as the clerk serving you understands your meaning. Worst comes to worst, you clarify by means of a description…

The simple answer to your question is yes. See Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation, and Migrations(Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 2001), 424, who lists Sheyl (or, in your spelling, Shail) as the Northeastern (=Lithuanian) Yiddish pronunciation of Hebrew Sha’ul (pronounced Shoyel in Central and Southeastern Yiddish).

YWOTW is currently on hiatus due to looming deadlines, but we will be back soon!

My version of Weinreich does not define moyl as having anything to do with animals in particular, just: “mouth; (gun) muzzle; orifice.” I still think pisk is the word reserved for animal mouths.

The pronunciation of the two words is in fact similar, though, depending on the speaker, there may be a bit of an extra vowel added in for the person who does the bris: moy-el. The word for “mouth” has a syllabic l at the end.

Sounds like a good interpretation to me! Especially because makhn piskes means “to make faces.” Seems likepisk could stand in for the whole face in certain Yiddish expressions via synecdoche.