Hi there! My friend is dating, looking for her besheret! She said she finds herself using the expressions - groyse metzia and geschichte a lot. Hopefully she will find her besheret soon and give us all some nachas! What are some Yiddish words/expressions do you use and cant live without?
@russellcollier8202 I'm not super familiar with all the curse words 😆 But I did see Lign in drerd un bakn beygl and a bunch more here you can check out! Funny! jewishunpacked.com/our-favorite-over-the-top-yiddish-curses/
I am not Jewish, but I know a ton of these words and appreciate learning new ones. Yiddish words really just are fun to say and have the punch that English words lack. They sum up in one word what takes so many to say in English. I love it. Schlep is one of my favorites. It perfectly sums up the tiring, tedious work of brining everything to the beach for the kids. Thank you!
One could see this kind of presentation as trivializing what is really a wonderfully expressive language that has been used to write some really great novels and short stories. I've always wanted to learn Yiddish, but my mother sent me to Hebrew school instead of the Shule where Yiddish was taught because in her mind, the latter were Communists. Now, finally, I'm taking Yiddish courses via Zoom from both YIVO and Workers Circle. Registration for my sixth course will open soon. Even at 86 it's not too late to learn Yiddish.
It's amazing how many of these words and phrases I knew already. I want to learn some Yiddish. My grandparents passed away a long time ago, but it would make them happy, I think. I miss them a lot.
As a New Yorker and also growing up around my Jewish sister in law I knew a great amount of these words. It hard to be New Yorker and not know some Yiddish ❤❤❤
My Yiddishe Mama spoke mostly English but when I would visit her at the nursing home we would speak Yiddish so that the staff would not understand. She also read her Yiddish books and newspapers.
Today, I follow the Jewish messiah, but when I was 18 years old, I was going to college near Washington Square in Manhattan…and this is where I began to hear many of these words. This took me back to that wonderful innocent time of my life. Mazel tov.
I loved ur video with 40 Yiddish words. I would be so happy if u did another one. My grandmother is from Poland and speaks many languages and uses Yiddish words frequently. I would love to learn more from u! Thanks for making this video❤
I. Learned. Yiddish. From. My. Bubba. And. Zaida. A lot of Yiddish. Was. Learned. When. I. Heard. My. Parents.say. night. Kliener. Kinder.. Not. In. Front. Of. The. Children. Thank. You. From. An. Late. Bubba. Zie. Gezunt❤❤
"Ich bin auch ein Mensch." I'm a latin american who's got a smattering of german. I visited Buenos Aires sometimes, I bumped across with Yiddish speaking communities there and was able to hold a basic conversation at a slow pace.
Yiddish was the language of all my Grandparents one set of Grandparents came from the Pale of Settlement on my father's side and Estonia on my mother's side.My parents only spoke Yiddish when they didn't want us kinder to be part of the conversation.
This is really interesting. I am from vienna with some jewish descent in my family tree and I‘ve noticed that we use most of these words too. Approximately 50% of the phrases you used are common german words.
If you enjoyed this, read The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten. It's 56 years old, but worth tracking down at your library or an out of print book seller.
Thank you for your blog! It's exciting to know that most of the words you mentioned exist in Ukrainian language, especially in west-Ukrainian dialects, and we use it. Some suffixes are definitely of Ukrainian origin... There are so many wonderful connections.
As someone who is from Berlin, i know most of these words by heart and I use them on a daily bases, although I'm only half German and half Palestinian. You can also have chuzpe ;-)
I am from the Netherlanda. Very interesting, most of the words I knew because in Amsterdam (Dutch) there used to be a lot of Jewish people and so these words made it into our language. The expressions are literally almost German so I good also understand them well. Love Jiddish!!!❤
Bravo Tamar Really interesting! I started learning Yiddish. Thanks to German ( I chose as my " zweite fremde sprache" at school in France) , but also Serbian and Slovenian, I can yet understand some words even if the Slavica words in Yiddish are (if I'm not mistaken) mostly from russian and polish (?) My older sister Branka (who Is psychoanalyst in Paris) has been learning Hebrew for about six years and offered me the Yiddish-french dictionnary (by Niborski and Vaisbrot). And I am about to receive by post : "Yiddish phrasebook" by Vera Szabo.. Dank, zay gezount! Do vidzenia!
They are currently three sub categories of Yiddish. They are like the northern,Lithuania,Belarus and russia, the middle Poland , Hungary and the south Ukraine and Romanian
I love this episode. I know all these words, but never knew how to spell them. My grandparents spoke only yiddish. If I had lived near them long enough I would be able to speak yiddish. Now I only know words. But that is still GREAT!
Schmaltz in german is essentially grease from a pig or goose. It is spread on bread and you add salt. I remeber eating it as a kid. It has some real fatty flavour
OH MY GOD this is so interesting. I'm sure plenty of people have pointed this out, but Yiddish has so many parallels will German. German immigrant culture in north america has some of the exact same words that we keep using. Even after generations of being naturalized. Here are some of my favourite examples. Schmaltz (north german). a spread made with goose fat, caramelized onions, apples. Dreck. Muck or filth (i.e. don't get "dreckich" when you play outside) Waschlappe. A wash cloth or cleaning rag. Sometimes shortened to a word that sounds like the Yiddish schmatte. Schmooze. A very social person or the act of socializing. Thanks for the cool insight!
In Yiddish, shmalts literally just means fat or grease but it usually refers to rendered chicken fat, used in place of butter in "milkhedik" meals, since religious Jews do not eat milk products and meat in the same meal. I remember as a child having to eat mashed potatoes with shmalts (they are so much more delicious with a big chunk of butter on the top!). But I did love the side-product of producing shmalts, called "gribenes" which are onions and small pieces of chicken skin cooked to a crisp and then drained out of the shmalts. -- Waschlappe, OTOH, is only German; the word is unknown in Yiddish where we talk of a "vashtukh" or "vashtikh". -- Shmooze comes from the Yiddish verb "shmuesn" to chatter, discuss. My mother (mis?)used it to mean to get lost in your thoughts; if instead of doing some chore I would be caught reading or watching TV she would say"stop shmoozing an get to work!" I am surprised to hear that this us used in American German. A Yiddish influence?
Schmalz yep that's Schmalz, I'll give mashed potatoes with Schmalz a try but rather fry them in it. Any decent Schmalz needs some Grieben in it. Waschtuch sounds like a dialekt expression but is easily understandable. Schmus is something unproductive or silly. This was the German perspective @@shimke43
I can definitely hear some German in those words!! I have said/heard of a clumsy person being called a “klutz” and where I’m from we will use “schmooze” like you are networking with other people, can be used as the person is being a suck-up, or brown noser. Like you are trying to climb the social or corporate ladder. So it’s not used all the time in a negative way. You are a good teacher! From what you are saying, is Yiddish it’s own complete language or is it just special words and phrases? Like they would speak German but use their own special words for certain things? Did you say in the last video that a German speaker could probably understand the gist of Yiddish? Have a great week!!!❤😊
Thank you so much! ❤ How cool that you heard klutz and use schmooze :) Great explanation about the schmooze, sounds like we use it in a similar way! It's a complete language, but one that is a mixture of german (~60-80%), hebrew and aramaic (~20%) and several other languages - slavic/latin. So most of these words are originally German and some are originally Hebrew. Confusing 😅
My personal opinion is that a German speaker might be able to understand a very simple, everyday Yiddish bcs so many works are similar on that level. But once you leave the kitchen table it would quickly become difficult because of all the Yiddish works which come from various places throughout the wantderings of Ashkenazic Jews - Greek, French, Polish, Russian side by side with a majoirty of words of German origin -- altho even these are not necessarily the same as used in German, for example German heute; Yiddish haynt (from medieval German hi-naht as I recall); German versuchen 'to try (to do something)' Yiddish farzukhn 'to try (taste)', Many of the most common words in Yiddish are slavic and would be unintelligible to someone who only spoke German, such as 'grandpa', (pron bobbeh), grandmother, 'aunt', (pron tatteh) father, '[bath]tub', 'floor', 'ceiling', 'duck', 'soup', 'vegetables', there are perhaps fewer but still a large number of common words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin such as 'saturday', ' friend, ' - a common greeting, 'expert', 'gift, present, '' - cemetery, etc etc. OTOH, when we travelled through Germany, my father was able to make himself understood by conscientiously replacing all these words with their German equivalents which he picked up bit by bit as we travelled, --- Real Yiddish is its own language. As the speaker said, a lot of American Jews who do not speak the language still throw a lot of Yiddish words into their everyday English. Sometimes called "Yinglish"
My great grandmother from Galicia called me a schmekel beiser occasionally and chased my with frying pan. We used all your expressions but pronounced them a little differently. 🤣🤣
Shul does not mean school, it is yiddish for a synagogue. The word for school is Schule just like in German. The word Schmooze, despite being used in German, actually originates in Yiddish. It has its ultimate origins in the Hebrew ‘Shemuah’, which is a rumor. Also, more generally, it is unfair to call these “German” words as they are being used in Yiddish, a different language, and most of them have a different pronunciation from the standard German pronunciation.
How‘s that unfair exactly? Yiddish is said to be a mix of German, Polish and Hebrew. The lady points out the Hebrew-originating words as well. Most languages have loan words. Japanese for instance has „Shi-di-pureia“ for CD Player. Pointing out that‘s an English word is not „unfair“.
Thanks for sharing, very informative. So many of these I have heard and used myself, and I'm not Jewish. A lot of Yiddish has become part of American English!
Interesting that many of these expressions and words didn''t change much in centuries. If you know Yiddish you can easily understand modern German and vice versa.
I love this. Can you do a video about Hebrew accents as well? Some people will say Sholeim, Shaloim and Shulaim. How to recognise what accent that they speak?
Thank you so much! 😘 A lot of the accents has to do with descent/country of origin, as there are Jews can be from all over 😄 For example- Israel/US/Russia/Arabic country etc... Also what is their native tongue, that also influences their accent. Do plan to do more videos on the Hebrew language - History/ expressions. ( I have one recent one about slang expressions ). Stay tuned 🤗
@@tamarmeisels4637 thank you so much for the explanation. What I love about this is despite wherever they are, whatever background they have, they still belong to the same one big family. Can’t wait for the next videos.
Yiddish sounds so fun! Thanks so much for sharing. I hear many of these phrases from a lot of people. Is it common/okay for these phrases to be spoken outside of Jewish homes and communities?
Thanks 😊 Ya some people commented having heard these phrases in different communities and homes. I think its very cool how similar expressions get around in different languages. 😎
They are both similar to German, so I think it would be helpful to know Dutch(as opposed to not 😊). I just read that some very nice specific dialects of Dutch are even closer to Yiddish so in that case even more so.. interesting!
Going back to the word Schmooze, although it originally came from Hebrew it may have been absorbed into modern German like about 120 to 130 words which were originally Hebrew but have been brought via Yiddish into modern German.Die Ganove for instance in Hebrew Gannav means thief so in German Die Ganove means an opportunist type of thief. A second example is Die Mischpoke which comes from the Hebrew word Meshpachah and meant family so Die Mischpoke is just another word for family in German.A third and final example is Die Lockheim which is a Germanised form of Hebrew Le'chayim which mens to life as a famous Jewish toast.In Yiddish it is Le'chayim or its variant Lo'chayim which naturally leads to a Germanised form Lockheim or the occasional variant Lochheim.In modern German Die Lockheim refers to any social event where a Toast is called such as Bar Mitzvahs or weddings.
Okay, so, what if I DON'T want to go back and look at what you said before? Just by that you gotta know I've got a basic understanding of how to communicate in the Jewish manner.....:D I love ya hun. 😚 And remember; Just because you put wheels on your grandmother doesn't make her a wagon. 😜
Das ist echt faszinierend. Ich bin aus Südwest Deutschland (Saarland) und unser Dialekt ist ziemlich nah dran von der Aussprache her. Auch sind viele Redewendungen gleich. Isch bin ach e Mensch; Jeder Mensch hat sei eischenes Pä[e]cksche. Have a nice day.😊
Pfälsisch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JeEiuW9wTL0.html Pennsylfaanisch Deitsch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-14_Id_jRFNk.html Forverts Yiddish Project. דאָס לאַנד איז דיין לאַנד Dos Land iz dayn Land. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GnP8zWcy1ZA.html
My father swore in yiddish but would never translate. His sisters, my aunts would not tell us either (his family was irish immigrants but owned a Deli in Miami where he worked while in High school)
I can't find this anywhere, but in my childhood, we used the word (forgive the spelling) "ungakacht" meaning all piled on and messy. Does anyone recognize this word? Thanks
I always thought “schmaltz” was “chicken fat;” and “dreck” of course is “shit,” as used by adults to describe something really bad, or as in “shtick dreck” for someONE really really bad .
There are so many original German expressions in Jiddisch. schluf - schlaf Schlep - schleppen schnorren Tacheles Ich bin a deitsch frau en kan red a bissel off Jiddisch. A dank! Sei gesund!
Meshugene literally means crazy from Hebrew Meshuga which has also found its way into modern German via Yiddish of course ,in German it's Die Meschugge so it has been Germanised but you can still see the origins of the word quite clearly.
So from my understanding, the "-elle" suffix indicates either endearment or smallness. My Yiddish speaking family members always add Elle to everything and it becomes a nickname. 😊
I know all of these but the pronunciation is quite different. Mine must be more Litvischer and these Galitizer. For example I would say Ay vay izt meehir not just oy vey. But the name Meisels sounds Litvischer. Meizel and Moyzel from Moyz for mouse. Add "as" or "s" on the end seems more Litvischer.
Kvetch reminds me of Polish "kwękwać", and of course in Poland there is a lot of mixed Polish/Slav culture. In Polish szmelc is something pf poor quality and literally szmata is a rag so same and nudny means borning but also nudzić means annoying someone. We of course don't do kosher but there are many things so common in Poland that's hard to figure out if the Pokish culture influenced it or Jewish. We have tons of bakeries and most of them will sell yeast /sour dough breads and sweet buns and one of them is chałka - hall, also pączki doughnuts but ours are deep fried in lard. Your expression about God laughing is literally an idiom in Poland and in Polish everyone is carrying their cross (of course reffering to Jesus) and other very common expressions : Gość w dom, Bóg w dom - thats very old even before Christianity but was adopted as in you have to treat any guest as if it was Gos himself in your house so be kind and humble and gracious.
Denise Felix I'm Caribbean,Dutch Jewish Descendant Only Thing Paternal Jewish Grandfather Passed away When I Was 2yrs Just Remember Bald Man In Black Sleeping In Box In Livingroom❤
Drek looks like a French croissant but I heard also a Yiddish phrase: Drek mit fefer! This literally means "Shit with pepper". We use it when something goes wrong. Instead of saying just "Shit!" you can say: Drek mit fefer! Or as opinion about the new movie you didn't like. - How was it? - Ah... Drek mit fefer. Also these words could be useful: yótsmach - simp, loser, písher - greenborn, halamídnik - a slob man out of luck, shliómil - ninny.
What is a Spilshell? I’m told I am Spilshell on a boat … a know it all and I am always talking. I have the impression that I am a pain in the ass but lovable.
Hebrew is our ancient language, the bible is originally in Hebrew. Yiddish is a mixture of languages mainly German and Hebrew. Spoken by Ashkenazi Jews in the last 1000 years.
