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 |
 YOU SAID YIDDISH ? ? |
A FEW YIDDISH WORDS ABSOLUTLY ESSENTIAL WHEN YOU DON'T SPEAK FRENCH AND YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND YOUR COUSIN DURING YOUR VISIT IN PARIS |
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The Yiddish is the language spoken by eastern Jews or ASHKENAZIM. Yiddish is made of 70% of old German, 20% of Hebrew, and 10% remaining of Polish, Russian, old French etc... Yiddish is written with Hebrew letters (OYSES) : aleph, beyt ....The phonetic transcription is difficult and even more so when your native language is French. PRONUNCIATION: Try your best or else ask your parents or your grand parents. For the KH you pronounce it like the Spanish jota or the German hard CH. |
| OY VAY !!! | Oh la la !!! taking your head in your hands at the same time !!! |
| A YIDDISHE MAME: | The best known of the Jewish songs. National anthem of the Yiddishland. |
| BAGEL: | Small soft twisted bread strewn with poppy seeds. |
| BAR MITSVAH: (for the boys) BAT MITSVAH (for the girls) | Religious coming of age. It happens at 13 years for the boys and 12 years for the girls. |
| BRAKHA or BROOKHA: | Blessing. |
| BRITH: or BRISS | The covenant, the circumcision at the age of 8 days. And there is a big party. |
| DIBBOUK: | From a Hebrew word : To stick. Unsatisfied spirit of a departed person, which stick up, which invests a living being. |
| DRECK: | Bad word. This is shit. |
| FRESSEN | To eat a lot, like a dog, like a pig ( a khazer ) . |
| GANIF: | A gangster. Some of them are less than 3 years old. Never forget the birthday of your Ganif ! Hello Esther and David from Toronto this is the way we use this word in Paris ! |
| GOLEM: | Clay giant created and animated by Rabbi LOEW of PRAGA. Frankenstein and Pinocchio are Golems too. |
| GOY: GOYIM ( Pl ) | A gentile. |
| GREBSEN: | To burp, or to speak a lot, to patter in the Yiddish from Paris. |
| KADDISH: | Ultimate deed of faith on the grave of a departed person. It requires 10 men at least ( a MINIAN ) to recite it. |
| KASHER: | Proper to eat according to the Jewish religious laws. There is a lot to say about it but Kasher DOESN'T mean than the food has been blessed by a Rabbi. |
| KHAMETS: | Food with flour or yeast forbidden during the Jewish Passover. |
| KHANUKAH: | At this time the Jews led by the MACCABEES ( the hammers ) defeated the Greek invader. Celebration of the return of light and freedom at Christmas time. |
| KHANUKIAH: | Candlestick with 8+1 branches for KHANUKAH. |
| KHASSENE: | The wedding . And a Jewish wedding it is really a good time. |
| KHASSID: | Religious man , who has received the divine grace. |
| KHAZER: | It may be a pig or pork but one is not allowed to touch it. |
| KHOUTSPAH: | Gall, cheek, effrontery . |
| KIDDUSH: | Prayer over the wine. |
| KIPA: | Skullcap that Jewish people must wear when entering a Synagogue or when praying. |
| KLEZMER: Pl : Klezmorim | Strolling Jewish musicians. |
| KOL NIDRAY: | Prayer sung at the beginning of Yom Kippur. The melody is very ancient and beautiful and has inspired many musicians: Max Bruch, Arnold Schoenberg, Ernst Bloch, Maurice Ravel .... |
| KURVA: | A whore, a bad turn. |
| LADINO: | Ashkenazim speak Yiddish and Sephardim Ladino. Ladino is made up of 80% of the old Spanish spoken before 1492 and the other 20%of Hebrew and languages spoken in countries having access to the Mediterranean sea. Ladino like Yiddish is written with Hebrew letters. This shows the attachment of the Jewish people to their letters ( OYSES ) |
| LEKHAYIM : | Cheers ! To life ! To your health ! |
| Mamalooshen: | Mother tongue. |
| MAYDEL: | A girl. |
| MAYDALA: | A young girl and she is always so beautiful and so cute !! |
| MAZEL TOV !! | Good Luck !!For a wedding, a birth, a brith, a good news, an inauguration . . . |
| MEKHAYA: | A real happiness. In MEKHAYA like in LEKHAYM there is KHAY and KHAY is life !! |
| MENORAH: | The 7 branches candlestick, symbol of Judaism and its philosophy. |
| MENSCH. | A man, a real one. |
| MESHUGGA: | A fool ,someone who is crazy. |
| METSIAH | A bargain, a good find. |
| MEZUZAH: | Small case containing a tiny scroll with verses from the Bible, that Jews place to the right side of their house's entrance door. |
| MISHPUKHA: | The family. A third-degree cousin also belongs to the Mishpukha |
| PESSAKH: | Literally the "passage" in Hebrew . Passover, the Jewish Easter. |
| PURIM: | Jewish holiday celebrated at the very beginning of spring. Celebration of the victory of the beautiful queen Esther upon the bad and ugly Hamman. We eat three cornered cakes, we play dice, and we dress up in fancy clothes. |
| ROSH HASHANA | The "head" , the beginning of the Jewish year in September or October. |
| SEPHARDIC: | Jews whose ancestors where expelled from Spain in 1492 and who scattered around the Mediterranean sea or through Portugal to Bordeaux in France and up to Holland. |
| SHABBES: |
The day Saturday. The Rest which lasts from Friday night to Saturday night. On Friday night one wishes each other : A GIT SHABBES !! ( A good Shabbess ) |
| SHALOM ALEKHEM | Peace on you ,good day, hello, how are you. |
| SHICKER: | Drunk. If you can't read those lines you are really a SHICKER . |
| SHIKSA: | A non-Jewish woman, who may nevertheless be very attractive. |
| SHLEMIEL: | A loser. a jerk. |
| SHLEMAZEL | A Shlemiel who has no MAZEL: no luck. |
| SHMALTZ: | The fat, the sweet, the seductive. |
| SHMATA: | A rag, this word is used when talking about clothes, "haute couture", women's or men's fashion. A Shmatolog makes Shmatas (Parisian slang ) . |
| SHMOCK: | A prick. A stupid man. French people use the word CON ( i. e. the female sex ) to express the same thing. |
| SHNAPS: | A glass of alcohol. |
| SHNORER: | A Schlemazel who cadges you off. |
| SHTAYTLE. | It was a small Jewish village in Poland, in Ukraine, in Byelorussia, or elsewhere ... |
 orPITCHI POY or PITSHE POY | A small shtaytle, but really small: DZIGAN and SCHUMACHER (two humorists) would say: PITSHE POY ES IZ GROYSS A ZOY VI A FLOY - Pitshe Poy it's big as a flee. At Pitshe Poy merry go rounds are free. |
| TOOKHIS: | The bottom, the back side, the bum, the ass. For example: a chayn tookhiss. |
| TSOORIS: | From a Hebrew word which means narrow: Troubles. And life is full of TSOORISS: with the children, the wife, the gescheft (business). OY VAY ! ! |
| YENTA: | Gossip. Example: Marcel Proust. |
| YOM KIPPUR: | Ten days after Rosh Hashanah. The day of atonement. On Kippur for 24 hours at least you don't eat, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't approach from your wife, you don't wash, you don't wear any leather, you don't play cards nor gamble on the stock exchange and you go to the Shul (the Synagogue ) and when the day falls down you listen to the sound of the SHOFER, the ram's horn. |
If you wish to know more about YIDDISH, you can read :
Every Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions by Arthur
Naiman at Ballantine Books . New York 1982
The Joys of Yiddish
by Leo Rosten
Penguin Books 1968.>