# "El" in Hebrew and Yiddish **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526 "2023-01-02T11:25:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/21 "2023-01-02T18:13:56Z")
Already covered in the post below. > [@orcenio](#): > > Either way, it might be safe to say that Yiddish and Modern German both get their features [from Old High-German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:West_Germanic_languages_(simplified).svg) (the closest mutually shared precursor that I can find at a casual search). ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/22 "2023-01-02T18:38:50Z")
No disagreement there. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/23 "2023-01-02T19:49:21Z")
Actually, Yiddish comes from the German of the middle Middle Ages, not the early Middle Ages-- from a German more comparable to Chaucer’s English, than to the English of Beowulf. Also, Yiddish speaking communities usually gave children Yiddish names, not Hebrew names. Lots of Yiddish names are derived from Hebrew names, and some are so close, they are essentially just variants in pronunciation. But a few are fairly different. There are quite a number of Yiddish names that nonetheless, do end in “el,” because the Hebrew name did, but a Hebrew name with “el” is stressed on that syllable, while a Yiddish name usually is not. I can’t tell you how a first-language Yiddish speaker hears the “el” in Yiddish names, but you can further form a diminutive by adding an “e” to the end. I get called “Rivkele” sometimes. And a boy named “ye-CHEZ-kel,” the Yiddish version of “ye-chez-KEL,” (Ezekiel) might get called Yechezkele. There are other things he might get called as a diminutive, but no one seems to think it’s a slight to the almighty to say Yechezkele. And it’s more common in Orthodox families than any other. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/24 "2023-01-02T20:39:30Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I can’t tell you how a first-language Yiddish speaker hears the “el” in Yiddish names, but you can further form a diminutive by adding an “e” to the end. I get called “Rivkele” sometimes. And a boy named “ye-CHEZ-kel,” the Yiddish version of “ye-chez-KEL,” (Ezekiel) might get called Yechezkele. That’s what I learned when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/25 "2023-01-02T22:02:54Z")
My WAG is that the Yiddish -el was a reduced form of the suffix -lein. My Swiss friend was named Kleisli and he told me that that was the Swiss form for little Klaus. The -li suffix is fairly common in Swiss German similar to the -l suffix in Austrian. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/26 "2023-01-02T22:13:42Z")
The link I posted earlier agrees with you for both modern German and Yiddish ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/27 "2023-01-03T00:06:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What would one call little Samuel, or Rachael? As in English, common names have accepted dimunitives. Little Samuel would be “Shmulik”, while little Rachel would be “Racheli”. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/28 "2023-01-03T00:22:41Z")
It does get me wondering … is there possibly any validity to the OP’s thought after all? I can imagine the “el” ish suffix being used some in the common parent German and it becoming attractive as a children’s name modifier partly due to an appreciated double meaning play to those who also knew Hebrew, my little baby from God? ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/29 "2023-01-03T12:28:43Z")
I see no reason why -el couldn’t hold multiple meanings. The added significance of it being a homonym to a Hebrew word, very well could’ve impacted it’s usage in Yiddish (a language that drew heavily from Hebrew). If the OP can make such a connection, surely Yiddish speakers (who were very familiar with Hebrew) could’ve drew similar connections too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/30 "2023-01-03T23:36:22Z")
And there is a long tradition of puns in Hebrew names… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/31 "2023-01-03T23:57:58Z")
Examples? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/32 "2023-01-04T01:21:42Z")
Start in the beginning … > **[Wordplay in Genesis](https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/scholars-study/wordplay-in-genesis/)** > > It is no secret to students of the Bible that the ancient Hebrews loved plays on words. And nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are there ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2023, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/33 "2023-01-07T02:26:32Z")
There’s also the fact that for more than a millennium, women were not taught Hebrew, and once Yiddish & Ladino replaced Aramaic as the “Jewish” languages, women spoke either Yiddish/Ladino only, or Yiddish/Ladino, and maybe the surrouding vernacular (Polish, Russian, Magyar, French, Galician, whatever). Yes, mentioning Ladino is a digression, since diminutives in Ladino isn’t really relevant-- but not all Jews in the diaspora spoke Yiddish, and yet were **not** speaking Hebrew, and I want to account for them. Then, there is the fact that whatever ideal we might wish, women did nearly all the childcare. In Jewish culture, men actually stepped in and spent a lot of time with their sons once they (the sons) were about 8 or 9, compared to the surrounding gentiles, but it hardly amounted to parity. Anyway, the result of which was that the parent most often bestowing a diminutive _did not know Hebrew._ (Nor Aramaic, in which “El” also means God.) At least for the period beginning the European disapora, until the very beginnings of Zionism, about a generation after the founding of Reform Judaism. So, from about 700CE to 1900CE, to use round figures. So it might actually be irrelevant to talk about the coincidence of “el” the diminutive vs. “El” the deity, since those bestowing diminutives _may not have been aware of it._ ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2023, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/34 "2023-01-07T02:45:56Z")
OTOH, there was a certain amount of crypto-Hebrew naming going on in locales where Jews weren’t allowed to give Hebrew/biblical names. For example, Einstein and Eisenstein stood in as a secret rendering of Isaac. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/35 "2023-01-09T04:11:44Z")
Did I miss the mention of Jor-El and Kal-El? ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/36 "2023-01-09T11:04:53Z")
And who can forget Mon-El? So Hebrew and Yiddish and Kryptonian. Shirley, this is no coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/37 "2023-01-09T13:31:49Z")
It can’t be. And I’ve asked you not to call me, surely. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/38 "2023-01-09T15:21:35Z")
It should be noted that Yiddish and German are somewhere between being different languages and being dialects of one language. This is actually fairly common among the languages of the world. After all, what happens when two varieties of a language drift apart because one is spoken by one group of people and the other is spoken by another group of people isn’t that they each change enough to become clearly different dialects and then suddenly they turn into different languages in one blinding flash. There is no clear distinction between being different dialects and different languages. Yiddish and German are examples of this lack of distinction. Speakers of one of them can sort of understand the other with some difficulty. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/39 "2023-01-09T17:19:19Z")
“El” as a syllable meaning “God” comes from a Semitic root, “-el” as a diminutive suffix has a Germanic, i.e. Indo-European, origin. Both have had influence on Yiddish, but there’s surely no etymological connection between the two. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526/40 "2023-01-09T19:24:36Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There is no clear distinction between being different dialects and different languages. Yiddish and German are examples of this lack of distinction. Speakers of one of them can sort of understand the other with some difficulty. This Northwestern German native speaker understands Yiddish better than some Southern German, Austrian or Swiss dialects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/el-in-hebrew-and-yiddish/977526.md?page=3)