A caller who grew up in New Jersey remembers hearing a neighbor use the expression Hak mir nisht ken tshaynik whenever she wanted to shush someone. He’s sure the phrase is Yiddish, but he’s never been able to figure out the literal meaning.
We solve the mystery for him. Hint: It has to do with teakettles. You’ll find more details about this colorful expression in Michael Wex’s book Born to Kvetch on Michael’s web site.
It seems so strange to me that the word “tshaynik” means “teakettle” in Yiddish, because in Russian the word for “teakettle” is pronounced exacltly the same way - “tshaynik” (?????? in cyrillic alphabet)!
Do these words in Yiddish and Russian have anything in common?
Also I’d love to say that I enjoy your show very much! And I appreciate the opportunity to listen to your shows via podcast. Thank you for your great job!
Yes! Certain dialects of Yiddish are heavily influenced by languages such as Russian. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this originated in Russian and was borrowed into Yiddish.
6:31PM Jun-14-08
Carolyn Campbell
Guest
4
I can’t believe you actually did this on your show. I have been thinking about asking you about this phrase for months now. When I was little, my mother and grandmother used to say it all the time, but being a little girl and not fluent in Yiddish, I thought they were telling me “Don’t knock me into China.” I still use that phrase with my own children — Don’t knock me into China — to mean “don’t bother me right now.”
If you hear that phrase in the future, well, you’ll know it’s source.
Daria and Carolyn, thanks for the kind words! We love when this kind of thing happens. And I would second Grant’s suggestion check out Michael Wex’s site. His books are a great introduction to Yiddish.
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