Deutsch = Taistch

[RCK]

My wife and I were wondering if there's any explanation as to why the initial D consonant in the word Deutsch ("German") shifted to a T sound in the word Taitsch ("Translate") in Yiddish, but didn't switch into a T sound in other related words (like when referring to German or German itself, the D is pronounced as a D not a T). Any takes on this?

Kol Tuv,

Reuven Chaim Klein

Beitar Illit, Israel

Author of: God versus Gods & Lashon HaKodesh

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[Alexandre Beider]

The d- and t-forms do not have the same age in Yiddish. Those with t- are native and appear regularly since the Middle Ages. The sound survived in the root of the words taytsh 'meaning' and the verb with the sens 'to translate'  and the expression Ivre-taytsh. For the meaning ‘German’, even if Uriel Weinreich (1968) gives in his dictionary only the form daytsh, Harkavy (1928) mentions both daytsh and taytsh. It is clear that the former represents an innovation, under the influence of certain German dialects and the standardized German. In early Ashkenazic sources, both eastern and western, the form with the initial daleth for the meaning 'German' is rather exceptional. If we consider surnames adopted in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century, we find numerous branches of the names Taych and -  in the Litvak area -  Tayts, plus some Daych too (so the form with /d-/ was already present). The surname surely comes from 'German', not from 'meaning'.

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[Andrey Rozenberg]

Sorry for the duplicate - I posted the below email under the wrong gmail account.

Dear Reuven and Sasha,

if I'm not mistaken, the d- form would be the historically expected one for 'deutsch' in High German and it is stated e.g. in Kluge's dictionary that the t-forms (starting from the MHG variant 'tiutsch' well into 19th century 'teutsch' among some NHG writers) are the result of the influence of the Upper German consonant neutralization: see https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Etymological_Dictionary_of_the_German_Language/Annotated/deutsch.

Sasha, what about the German dialects that contributed to Eastern Yiddish? Bohemian German did have the neutralization. Silesian did not, yet still had a t-form for 'deutsch', right?
From your book, Weichreich, Sapir and other sources I compiled the following table of Yiddish words that either differ in their d/t realization from literary MHG or have NHG cognates that differ from MHG. (For the word-final d/t the underlining realization is shown which is evident only in declension in MHG, NHG and big part of Yiddish - the additional factor in those case is that they might have undergone later paradigmatic leveling). It might be interesting to add Silesian to the table (as far as the resources allow).

MHG	NHG	Eastern Yiddish	Translation	Comment
tūren	bedauern	badoyern	regret
bart-	Bart-	bord-	beard
bort-	Bord-	bort-	board (of ship)
bund-	Bund-	bunt-	alliance
tam	Damm	dambe	dam	Y < Rus < Dutch
tampf	Dampf	damf	steam
tihten	dichten	dikhtn	to compose
tolmetscher	Dolmetscher	dolmecher	translator	Y < NHG?
tāhele	Dohle	doyle	jackdaw
tuft	Duft	duft	scent
dulten	dulden	duldn	to tolerate
tump	dumm	dum	stupid	Y < NHG?
vrieund-	Freund-	fraynt-, fraynd-	friend	Y fraynd < NHG?
pfund-	Pfund-	funt-	pound
gelt-	Geld-	gelt-	money
gesund-	gesund-	gezunt-	health
hand-	Hand-	hant-	hand
hund-	Hund-	hunt-	dog
milt-	mild-	mild-	mild
multe	Mulde	multer	trough
abend-	Abend-	ovnt-	evening
schilt-	Schild-	shild-	shield
swert-	Schwert-	shverd-	sword
tiutsch, diutsch	deutsch, teutsch	taych, daych	~German	Y daych < NHG
teich	Deich/Teich	taykh	dike, river, pond
dōn	Ton	ton	sound
topel-	doppelt	topl	double
tūs, dūs	Daus	toyz	deuce, ace
tucken	ducken	tukn	to stoop
tunkel	dunkel	tunkl	dark
tutzen	Dutzend	tuts	dozen
under	unter	unter	under
wind-	Wind-	vint-	wind

(If anyone has additions to the table or notices mistakes, please let me know.)

Best,
Andrey

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