Query: Origin of Yiddish diminutive plural: -lakh/-lekh

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

 

I've been asked about the origin of the Yiddish plural diminutive suffix -lakh/-lekh. The l- part seems clear, but where does the -akh/-ekh part come from?

 

I thought it would be easy to track this down but have not been able to do so. I'd be very grateful for any assistance.

 

Gerald Cohen

 

 

 

[aqa...@facsl.com]

Gerald,

 

It has been explained to me that the -l/-el is the normal Yiddish diminutive and the -akh/-ekh/-yakh was originally the Russian plural prepositional case ending. Thus the original German Maid becomes Maidel/Meydel and the plural Maidlakh/Meydlakh.

 

Avraham

 

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[Alexis Manaster Ramer]

?זאת בדיחה

 ואיך אתה מסביר  שאותה סיומת מופיעה

גם בניבים אשכנזיים של מערב

?גרמניה בימי בינים וגם בניבים של השפה הגרמנײַת עצמה

[Marion Aptroot]

For a scholarly approach (with plenty of examples from 16th century Yiddish): Erika Timm, Historische jiddische Semantik. Die Bibelübersetzungssprache als Faktor der Auseinanderentwicklung des jiddischen und des deutschen Wortschatzes. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag 2005, Chapter 27, "Die Diminutivplurale" [The plural forms of the diminutivs], p. 109-113.

The origin is Germanic. Timm also explains why the -ikh/-ekh/-akh diminutive plural suffix could become the standard form in Yiddish, not in German.

Marion

[Andrey Rozenberg]

A small addition:

make a look at the Bavarian Sprachatlas:
http://sprachatlas.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de
Map "Nomen -> Diminutivendung in Hündchen" (Red labels denote plural endings.)
The (contemporary) area with "-lich" covers part of Unterfranken.

In a 1997 paper Dr Manaster Ramer cited his paper in preparation "The origin of the Yiddish -l-ekh diminutive plural", but I couldn't find it.
Dr Manaster Ramer, could you, please, provide a reference, if these data were published?

 

I've been asked about the origin of the Yiddish plural diminutive suffix -lakh/-lekh. The l- part seems clear, but where does the -akh/-ekh part come from?

 

I thought it would be easy to track this down but have not been able to do so. I'd be very grateful for any assistance.

 

Gerald Cohen

 

 

 

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-- 
Andrey Rozenberg

Ruhr University Bochum
Department of Animal Ecology,
Evolution and Biodiversity,
Universitätsstraße 150
D-44801 Bochum, Germany

[Lipman]

Now that's what I call a teaser! (Otherwise, I know it's hard to imagine that WY has -ikh even with the palatal ç, or that German (not even Yiddish) dialects may have ɕ or ʃ here, eg Rhenish Franconian.)

Phillip Minden

[Tamas Biro]

Why on earth adding a foreign Plur. Prep. case ending -- let alone in a
language without morphologically overt cases, and let alone without the
smallest sign of the use of the prepositional case????? Tamas

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