Discussion in 'עברית (Hebrew)' started by wild_flowers, Mar 9, 2013.

  1. wild_flowers New Member

    Dear native speakers, if tateleh is in yiddish what one would affectionately call a small child, sibling... what are some hebrew words with similar meaning? Are there some arabic or spanish influenced words with similar meaning and if so are they only used in mizrahit, sephardic communities or have they become colloquialisms? Todah rabah
  2. origumi Senior Member

    For some reason such pet words for children are not common in Modern Hebrew. Tateleh means an obedient child - an Hebrew equivalent can be ילד טוב ירושלים yeled tov yerushalaim = a good child Jerusalem. פספוס fasfus, borrowed from Arabic, also exists. From Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) we have the suffix -ico for pet names such as Moshe -> Moshico, while other Ladino words are totally out of use, e.g. ermanica (little sister). The Hebrew / Aramaic words for little child דרדק dardaq, זאטוט zaatut, קטינא qtina and some other are practically obsolete.

    Instead of these, we use native Hebrew words such as חמוד, מתוק, and more. There's also the suffix -ush or -kush which makes whatever name it's appended to more amiable.
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2013
  3. Tararam Senior Member

    I'm still called Tateleh by my grandmother. She also uses "Mame", which I don't understand since it means "mother" in yiddish.
    As origumi said, in Modern Hebrew we use suffixes very often: X-ush/ X-chuk/ X-y/ X-ale...
    Danielchuk, Danielush...

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