Here is a break-down of common phrases and their probable origins
What’s doing? (vos machst du)
I don’t have what to do (ein li ma laasote)
staying by them for shabbos (atzel )
I don’t have where to go (ein l’an lalechet)
mother -instead of saying 'my mom' (simply, Ima)
I have also water and also soda (gam v’gam)
I won you (nitzachti otach)
do you want a coffee?
I want this blog to be more interactive- so here is your time to write down more phrases and if you can think of their origins!
I think you're confusing "frum" with "native Hebrew speaker". Most of the time when I hear any of these, it is from people who learned Hebrew as their first language. A few specific comments:
ReplyDelete"Mother" - Are you referring to when people are addressing their mom directly, or referring to their mom in third person? Or are you referring to the use of the word "mother" as opposed to the shorter "mom"?
"I won you", "I don't have what to do" - I can picture my Israeli cousins using these exact sentences. I've also heard Americans say אין לי משהו לעשות, the analogous translation from English to Hebrew.
"I have also water and also soda" - English has a similar construct using "both X and Y". Others include "either..or" and "neither..nor", which are done in Hebrew with "או...או" and "לא...לא".
"Staying by someone" as opposed to "staying at someone" is a good call :)
noooo I'm not only talking about native Hebrew speakers! People who don't know hebrew (including me) use some of these phrases. yeah and the 'o...o' translates to 'do you want or water or juice' and by the mother line i meant when people are referring to their mother, there isnt a concept of the word 'mom' at all.
ReplyDeleteStaying by them for shabbos
ReplyDelete"I don't have where to go" is a literal translation from the Yiddish איך האב ניט וואו צו גייען the hebrew אין לאן ללכת = there isn't where to go (literally)
About the Mom thing, generally speaking, Frum people call their mothers Mommy and Mom is considered to be the "English" or "Goyish" way of calling your mother. So when a Frum person is talking about their mother they're going to say 'my mother' and not 'my mom' because Mom isn't part of the lingo at all.
ReplyDeleteNoa, this is really fun. If I think of any other ones I'll let you know
I was at the store. איך איז געווען בייַ די קראָם.
ReplyDeleteBy the stor comes from the Yiddish bei di krom. Definitely Frumese!
another one! "Is there place in the refrigerator?"
ReplyDeletecomes from the yiddish words 'ort' which means both room and place