Western Yiddish berkhes or barkhes, its origin and offshoots in Scandinavian languages

Authors

• Bertil Maler University of Stockholm

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.69358

Keywords:

Yiddish language, Danish language, Swedish language, Hebrew language, Linguistics, Translating, Language

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the bread term mentioned in the heading has displaced and superseded in Western Yiddish the universal word for “Sabbath bread” khale, over which the benediction for bread is commonly though not necessarily pronounced.  It is likewise a universally accepted theory among serous scholars that the term berkhes, the older form, is connected with the Hebrew word for ‘benediction’, among Ashkenazim pronounced brokhe, plural brokhes.  The nature of the connection is not clear, however, and the reason is twofold. First, neither of the two forms brokhe, brokhes seem to correspond very well to berkhes. There may have been metathesis of the r, but what about the e of the stressed syllable? A qamets cannot turn into an e without a plausible reason. No such reason can be discerned.