April 2011
11 posts
Bakn - באקן
Bakn - באקן \BAK-en\ Verb:To bake (transitive, and intransitive with the addition of the reflexive particle zikh []). Pronunciation: Click here or here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
German equivalents: backen, braten, glühen, härten.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle High German “backen, bachen,” from Old High German...
Sheydn - שיידן
Sheydn - שיידן \SHEYD-en\ Verb:To separate. Synonyms: dervaytern (דערווייטערן), opteyln (אפטיילן), separirn (סעפארירן), tseteyln (צעטיילן), zundern (זונדערן).
German equivalents: scheiden, spalten, teilen, trennen.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle High German “scheiden,” from Old High German “skeidan, sceidan,” itself from from Proto-Germanic *skaiþanan and...
Vos zol ikh zayn?
For those interested, I have copied below the text and translation of a song related to baking and the vexing question facing people my age of what to do with our lives… For something slightly more Peysekh-related, see the text and translation of the Fir Kashyes from last year’s dispatch. Also, I’m sure some of you have seen this before, but it’s too cute to resist...
Vayn - וויין
Vayn - וויין \VAYN\ Noun \ Masculine \ Pl. Vaynen:
Wine. Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
German equivalent: der Wein.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle and Old High German “wīn,” from Proto-Germanic *wīnan, which itself ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *woyn(i)yos-, *wóih₁nom. Because this root goes so...
Haynt
For those interested, Haynt (“Today”) was a Yiddish-language newspaper published in Warsaw, Poland, between the years 1908 and 1939. Its last editor, Chaim Finkelstein, published a history of the paper entitled Haynt: A Tsaytung bay Yidn (היינט: א צייטונג ביי יידן) - Haynt: A Newspaper among Jews in 1978. It was subsequently translated into English by chapter and is available in...
Veykh - ווייך
Veykh - ווייך \VEYKH\ Adjective:Soft, tender. Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
Synonyms: lind (לינד), tsart (צארט), tsartfilik (צארטפיליק), tsertlekh (צערטלעך), tsiderdik (צידערדיק).
German equivalents: flau, nachgebend, ungehärtet, weich.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle High German “weich,” from Old High...
Di Tzeitung
For those interested, Di Tzeitung (די צייטונג) is a Yiddish newspaper coming out of the Hasidic communities of Brooklyn, NY, which is published both in print and online (fascinatingly) at the paper’s website. Its Yiddish is something of a mix of Yiddish and English transliterated into Hebrew characters, as is the case with many Hasidim’s speech today. For those not from the...
