My Favorite Untranslatable Yiddish Words & Curses
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2014
- Rose Bergman - retired teacher and daughter of Holocaust survivors - shares Yiddish phrases that she feels can't be translated, including a pair of Yiddish curses.
To learn more about the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, visit: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell...
The full curse, at least according to my mother, is ”You should make like an onion, with your head in the ground and your feet in the air.” Of course, she may have embellished it, but isn’t Yiddish cursing the art of embellishing the miseries of life? IMO it’s the absolute best language for cursing.
Hot azoy!! Excellent comment!
Yiddish is truly a beautiful, colorful language, without any "curse words" - this includes "shmuck" which really means "that what reacts without brains".
Actually, schmuck is a German and Yiddish word. It means "jewelry or "jewels."
What Jonathan Blank said - and when they say "jewels" in that context it means a man's "family jewels", and they don't mean rubies...
@@jonathanblank2347 it is a schmock,i presume😂
My paternal grandmother was Amish and her family moved from Ohio to Canada. I lived with them when I was very young and she spoke Amish German around the house. I figured out later in life, this might be why I can sometimes understand Yiddish.
I had the reverse, ran into a fellow from the community while in Lancaster County. He was surprised to hear I understood him, although I had to avoid Yiddish only words, and he understood me, just as well. We had roughly 50 percent mutual intelligibility. Although our conversation used the most common phrases of our respective dialects.
That's so cool. I have wondered if Yiddish speakers and Old Order Amish could find a certain camaraderie
@@Odo55 Pennsylvania Dutch, the Pennsylvania Amish dialect, is a derivative of Swiss German. There are many similarities, so you be able to understand it.
There naturally are differences, such as vir for mir (we) - standard German.
Plus, eliminate the Jewish words and Hebrew. Then, you'll understand it mostly.
@@morehn Wait, no. Standard German uses wir, but both Swiss German and Yiddish uses mir. And there are other similarities, like the word Zibele for onion mentioned above (depending on which Swiss German dialect Pennsylvania Dutch was derived from), or Yiddish "epes", which is usually spelt "öppis" in Swiss German, but Ös are generally Es in Yiddish, just like Üs become EEs in Yiddish.
what has Yiddish got to do with Amish?
My maternal grandfather had the best curse. I can't say it in yiddish but the rhe translation is, " you should live in a house with a thousand rooms, but not one bathroom!'
I thank God for growing up in Brooklyn and all the cultures and Yiddish was spoken by my first boss. Learned a few good words from him. Use it down here in Sarasota FL and people look at you funny.
LOL, can confirm that it doesn't get better the further north you go. I'm Jewish and from Hillsborough County (FL) and using Yiddish here definitely turns some heads.
Was it Leo Rosten who said, "OY isn't a word; it's a vocabulary"?
No language is as expressive as Yiddish.
Sometimes when the old ladies in the neighborhood would go at each other one would scream at the other with blood curdling vituperation 'a chalera' - which was wishing the other would contract cholera.
Such an expressive language!
"You should grow like an onion with your head in the ground" Interesting, that line is used in Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof.
Norman Jewison wasn't Jewish😱
From the memoirs of Shalom Aleichem “
@@mikewallin6049 From old French Jouet, Jouot, Juet, etc. brought to England during the Norman Invasion. The modern version is definitely misleading.
It's a very common curse, my bubbeh used it all the time.
A Jewish co-worker once told me a Yiddish curse or maybe an insult. I will type it phonetically here: "Yay cockin effen yom". It's been near 50 yrs ago but I'm sure he told me it meant"Go take a s**t in the ocean" translation? Not sure, maybe " Go drown yourself "? The Yiddish words he taught me have stuck with me a long time. 😊
Takkeh comes from the Polish "Tak", which in Yiddish would be something like "indeed" and in a question as "really?"
"You should inherit a mansion with a thousand rooms, and be found dead in every one." 😆
I love this.... ❤️❤️❤️💯
Girl, you are referring to problems only English speaking listeners have. I'm from Europe, speaking German and Polish (understanding Yiddish and sometimes praying in Hebrew ).
Zajt gegrist fun a chochem fun ma nishtone. Micheal
My fathers family was polish so believe me I understand
Voos herzech, voos machtzeh, voos teesteh?
Actually, the translation for "takeh" is either "really!" or "really?".
And I don't mean "efshaw!"
If you can't say something nice, say it in Yiddish...
Take could come from polish: tak means so, like that.
It does come from polish and means indeed
I know the onion one. Another family favorite is ‘may you be like a chandelier. Hanging by day and burning by night.’
There's a lot of them, like, translates as: does it hurt when you're crazy? There's books of Yiddish curses. And a great shirt, if you don't have anything nice to say, say it in Yiddish. (I was at college, on campus when they built the Yiddish book Center there, my family donated books. Imho it's Horrible location, or a great one if you're looking for US locations w/ greatest populations of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel & anti-free speech. It's a shonda. You couldn't pay me to go back.
I would translate"Taki" - is that so? Or sure?
טאַקע
definition from the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary is:
(as an adverb:) really, indeed; exactly
(as a question:) really? no kidding?
@@YiddishBookCenter What about epis? Are taka and epis related? I somehow remember my parents and grandparents using them similarly.
@@jkryanspark "Epes" means "something".
Takeh means "really"
It would be helpful if there were subtles
How to pronounce bashert in yiddish
Charming woman.😁
“ Taka Mine “
Taki.....is : exactly
Really,..... could be it also
Nu?
Nu...
nu ja
Taki in English is really
Shmelke Vaser I
“Takeh” means “actually”.
takeh means really
Takeh means Indeed
@@Mk-vd9qs depends on punctuation. You're both right.
I was taught that the word "taki?" means "really?" in English.
Exactly.
טאקע
= Really
It does. Subtle translation difference based on the punctuation and usage.
Like nu.
Nu?
Nu.
Nu!
Nu...
Nu nu.
My European birn taught my wife the onion vurse!
Who are you get out of here.. Hatsoof. Go do t'suva.. Sheygetz 😂
@Brian Salomon I heard a rabbi say it and thought it sounded so cool. 😂 I didn't know what it meant lmaoo.