In I got It!
Ivrit – made in Germany
Hebrew has borrowed many expressions from the German language
N. Lieberman 01/11/2009 10:00
Many expressions in Ivrit find their source in expressions borrowed from the German language, the language spoken by many immigrants to the Holy Land in the 19th and 20th centuries ce.
These expressions, which have become entrenched in Ivrit, have often simply been translated word-for-word from German. In most cases, the words themselves are genuinely Ivrit, but the permutations in which they are combined are derived from German and so the result is to alter the meaning from that which one would usually expect from the original words in combination. Many of the expressions made their way into Ivrit by way of the Yiddish language, the language of the Jews throughout most of the diaspora.
Some examples of such expressions;
the name of the childhood illness ‘chicken pox’ (literally ‘wind pox’),
nurse (lit. ‘sister’),
I have no idea (lit. ‘I have no concept’),
he missed the boat (lit. ‘he missed the train’),
he doesn’t want to… (lit. ‘he has no desire’),
off the cuff (lit. ‘edge saying’)
if you’re going to do it, then do it properly (lit. ‘if already, then already’, taken from the Yiddish ‘oib azoi iz azoi’),
I am calling you to order (‘Ordnungsruf’),
comparatively (lit. ‘in a relative way’),
hospital (lit. ‘house of sick people’),
to the fullest extent (lit. ‘in the complete understanding of the word’),
okay (lit. ‘in order’),
to a reasonable extent (lit. ‘with a limited guarantee’)
serrated cutting wheel (lit. ‘tooth wheel’)
crocodile tears,
heart beats,
went to waste (lit. ‘went to loss’),
making a mountain out of a molehill (lit. ‘turning a fly into an elephant’),
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,
concussion (lit. ‘brain tremor’),
dynamite (lit. ‘explosive material’),
basic law (lit. ‘foundation law’, Grundgesetz),
store-front (lit. ‘viewing window’)
to sweep under the carpet,
it took the wind out of his sails (lit. ‘the air left him’),
sworn friends (lit. ‘sworn’),
his bark is worse than his bite (lit. ‘the dog barks and doesn’t bite’),
cut out the earth from under his feet (lit. ‘cut off the branch he was sitting on’),
penmanship (lit. ‘pen writing’)
slowly but surely (lit. ‘slowly but certainly’),
to dance to their tune (lit. ‘to dance according to their piper’),
the truth will eventually come out (lit. ‘falsehood has no feet’),
to answer (lit. ‘to give a reply’),
to have one’s words fall on deaf ears (lit. ‘to talk to the wall’),
to publish (lit. ‘to bring into the light’)
cultural war,
braces (lit. ‘iron path’)
terrible beyond belief (lit. ‘underneath all criticism’)
valuable paper
leave me alone (lit. ‘leave me in peace’)
newspaper
at every step of the way (lit. at every step and step),
to be full of hot air (lit. to make air)
health clinic (lit. sick people’s checkout),
he was conned (lit. ‘he bought a cat in a sack’)
to be all thumbs (lit. ‘to have two left hands’),
and many others
The term universally used in ivrit to refer to a kindergarten is an exact translation of those (originally German) words. Even the marks given to grade work originate from those used in German; unsatisfactory, very good, excellent etc..
Apart from those expressions in ivrit that derive from german, there are also words in ivrit which are simply taken from the german without any translation whatsoever and used as if they were genuinely ivrit. Some of these words then become permanently fixed into ivrit, though most of them do not.
A small sample of such words follows;
isolation band
plumber (instillateur)
concrete (biton)
rubber (gummi – the word is ancient-egyptian in origin, ‘kemai’)
screw socket plug (dibel)
wallpaper (tapet)
hem (leist)
stainless-steel (nirosta)
railings (shalter)
faucet (shiver)
spatula (shpachtel)
The german language has also insinuated its way into ivrit in other areas, including the words ‘auto’, ‘tramp’, ‘vinker’, ‘visher’, ‘tort’, ‘shtrudel’, ‘shnitzel’, ‘bis’, ‘boidem’ (an abbreviated form of the german word for attic, ‘dachboden’), ‘tzimmer’, ‘mishmash’, ‘flatfuss’, ‘fan’, ‘kant’, ‘kitsh’, ‘shvang’.
This phenomenon of borrowing words from other languages is one that is common to all languages, particularly between two peoples living in close proximity to one another. The german language was particularly influential in the formation of ivrit because of its similarity to Yiddish, the Jewish language, and also because german was the official language for documentation at the beginning of the New Yishuv period. However, many other languages have also influenced the development of ivrit, including aramaic, english, arabic, and Yiddish.
These expressions, which have become entrenched in Ivrit, have often simply been translated word-for-word from German. In most cases, the words themselves are genuinely Ivrit, but the permutations in which they are combined are derived from German and so the result is to alter the meaning from that which one would usually expect from the original words in combination. Many of the expressions made their way into Ivrit by way of the Yiddish language, the language of the Jews throughout most of the diaspora.
Some examples of such expressions;
the name of the childhood illness ‘chicken pox’ (literally ‘wind pox’),
nurse (lit. ‘sister’),
I have no idea (lit. ‘I have no concept’),
he missed the boat (lit. ‘he missed the train’),
he doesn’t want to… (lit. ‘he has no desire’),
off the cuff (lit. ‘edge saying’)
if you’re going to do it, then do it properly (lit. ‘if already, then already’, taken from the Yiddish ‘oib azoi iz azoi’),
I am calling you to order (‘Ordnungsruf’),
comparatively (lit. ‘in a relative way’),
hospital (lit. ‘house of sick people’),
to the fullest extent (lit. ‘in the complete understanding of the word’),
okay (lit. ‘in order’),
to a reasonable extent (lit. ‘with a limited guarantee’)
serrated cutting wheel (lit. ‘tooth wheel’)
crocodile tears,
heart beats,
went to waste (lit. ‘went to loss’),
making a mountain out of a molehill (lit. ‘turning a fly into an elephant’),
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,
concussion (lit. ‘brain tremor’),
dynamite (lit. ‘explosive material’),
basic law (lit. ‘foundation law’, Grundgesetz),
store-front (lit. ‘viewing window’)
to sweep under the carpet,
it took the wind out of his sails (lit. ‘the air left him’),
sworn friends (lit. ‘sworn’),
his bark is worse than his bite (lit. ‘the dog barks and doesn’t bite’),
cut out the earth from under his feet (lit. ‘cut off the branch he was sitting on’),
penmanship (lit. ‘pen writing’)
slowly but surely (lit. ‘slowly but certainly’),
to dance to their tune (lit. ‘to dance according to their piper’),
the truth will eventually come out (lit. ‘falsehood has no feet’),
to answer (lit. ‘to give a reply’),
to have one’s words fall on deaf ears (lit. ‘to talk to the wall’),
to publish (lit. ‘to bring into the light’)
cultural war,
braces (lit. ‘iron path’)
terrible beyond belief (lit. ‘underneath all criticism’)
valuable paper
leave me alone (lit. ‘leave me in peace’)
newspaper
at every step of the way (lit. at every step and step),
to be full of hot air (lit. to make air)
health clinic (lit. sick people’s checkout),
he was conned (lit. ‘he bought a cat in a sack’)
to be all thumbs (lit. ‘to have two left hands’),
and many others
The term universally used in ivrit to refer to a kindergarten is an exact translation of those (originally German) words. Even the marks given to grade work originate from those used in German; unsatisfactory, very good, excellent etc..
Apart from those expressions in ivrit that derive from german, there are also words in ivrit which are simply taken from the german without any translation whatsoever and used as if they were genuinely ivrit. Some of these words then become permanently fixed into ivrit, though most of them do not.
A small sample of such words follows;
isolation band
plumber (instillateur)
concrete (biton)
rubber (gummi – the word is ancient-egyptian in origin, ‘kemai’)
screw socket plug (dibel)
wallpaper (tapet)
hem (leist)
stainless-steel (nirosta)
railings (shalter)
faucet (shiver)
spatula (shpachtel)
The german language has also insinuated its way into ivrit in other areas, including the words ‘auto’, ‘tramp’, ‘vinker’, ‘visher’, ‘tort’, ‘shtrudel’, ‘shnitzel’, ‘bis’, ‘boidem’ (an abbreviated form of the german word for attic, ‘dachboden’), ‘tzimmer’, ‘mishmash’, ‘flatfuss’, ‘fan’, ‘kant’, ‘kitsh’, ‘shvang’.
This phenomenon of borrowing words from other languages is one that is common to all languages, particularly between two peoples living in close proximity to one another. The german language was particularly influential in the formation of ivrit because of its similarity to Yiddish, the Jewish language, and also because german was the official language for documentation at the beginning of the New Yishuv period. However, many other languages have also influenced the development of ivrit, including aramaic, english, arabic, and Yiddish.
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