There are some
great sites listed below that will help you translate from English to various
languages, including Eastern Europe's languages and also various languages to
English.
These are great sites to find out what a word --- or a line on an old paper or a
photograph means. Good luck!
To view a map showing
language spread around Europe/Russia at the end of the century
http://www.ethnologue.com/country_index.asp
Russian was the language of the administration throughout the Empire at the
late 19th century.
"In Their Words - A
Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Documents"
authored by William Hoffman and Jonathan Shea, is an excellent resource.
Ordering information - the most direct way to get info on the books - is to go
straight to this Website at www.langline.com
or you can order from my link to amazon.com located on the left side bar
"The
Ethnologue" - a catalogue of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228
countries. The Ethnologue Name Index lists over 39,000 language
names, dialect names, and alternate names. The Ethnologue Language
Family Index organizes languages according to language families http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/
"Translation Guide
to Nineteenth Century Polish Language Civil Registration Documents"
(Birth, Marriage & Death Records) - authored by Judith Franzin - a book by the Jewish Genealogical
Society.
A good source for translating Polish/Jewish acts in 19th. Century
Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents. It covers births, marriages
and deaths with differences noted for pre-1826 and post 1826 documents.
She has published a 2nd. edition. There is a Library of Congress Catalog
Card (no.89-84516) and ISBN 0-9613512-1-7.
Your local library can probably get a copy on an inter-library loan so
that you can decide for yourself whether you have enough need to purchase
one for yourself or for your own JGS group. From a posting by Stan
Finkelstein
Here's a weird one,
a site that analyzes prose and guesses at the gender of the author.
Strangely enough, it really works. I tried it with a bunch of documents ,
and it guessed correctly in every instance. If you have a document (works
only in English, I believe) you might want to determine if a male or a
female wrote it. Try it yourself right here - it's very believable.
http://snipurl.com/gender_genie
Afgan Language -
there is no specific language. The country has two major languages
-- Pashto and the local Persian dialect known as Dari.
Dictionary of Many
Languages (Aussie, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finish and many
more) - a Dictionary for Addict Spell Check made freely available to all users
of Addictive Software's Addict Spell Check and Thesaurus - version 3 and higher http://www.addictivesoftware.com
Ladino Language - also
known as Judeo-Spanish, dates back to the
Spanish Expulsion of 1492, when it became a specifically Jewish language.
Several dialects are still spoken in the Balkans. Ladino is a mixture of
many languages and is coined from the Spanish word ladinar, which means
to translate the Torah from Hebrew into Spanish.
http://home.earthlink.net/~benven/ladino.html
Language -
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Grammar/Style and quotations - http://www.refdesk.com
Language Guides - The
Yamada WWW Language guides - a definitive guide to language resources on the
World Wide Web. In the Guides, you will find pointers to: The Yamada Font
Archive; links to the annotated list of language-related news groups and links
to language related mailing lists. They contain information on 115
languages and there are 112 fonts for 40 languages - all offered by the
University of Oregon at
http://babel.uoregon.edu/YLC/guides.html
Languages of the World
- links to language page sites -
the
ultimate source of authentic and reliable information about the Languages of the
world on the net. The links in this directory will guide you to the official
sites of the languages that you are looking for.
http://www.123world.com/languages/index.html
Rashi -
the greatest Jewish commentator, Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, was an
outstanding community leader and decisor who schooled his two daughters
because he had no sons. A video, featuring Leonard Nimoy as the
voice of Rashi and distributed by Destiny Films is available at www.sisuent.com
Spelling - "Each
program (and website) has whatever conventions its authors gave it. In
Windows there is a 'Character Map' which will allow you to enter unusual
characters in a document-that usually will allow your home genealogy
program to take things like a u mit umlaut.
But speaking as someone who has done that, I don't recommend it. I put the
Bru(e)ckheimers who lived in Germany in my program with the umlauted u,
and those in the US and elsewhere are entered as they spell their
names-either with or without an e after the u. However, when I search for
someone I have to search with and without the umlaut and with and without
the e as the Find utility doesn't know about it. So, finally, I pulled out
the umlauts and made notes in the appropriate people's files.
A hundred or more years ago, many names were spelled variously at various
times and in various places, even without the 'unusual' foreign letters.
If you enter the information as you find it, you will end up with many
difficulties finding people (do I search for Smith, Smyth, Smythe...etc.?)
So you need your own conventions!" From a posting on JewishGen by Sally
Bruckheimer on 1/27/04
P.S. The character map is
found in the program list under Accessories/System Tools. Of course, it
may need to be installed from the Windows CD.
Translating
AIM - a translating
program can be downloaded from PC World's download site for free. It
requires Windows 9.x. After choosing the languages that you wish to
converse in, you click an arrow to determine what you're transferring from and
to. The program supports English, French, German, Italian, Russian and
Spanish
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,16322,tk,hsx,00.asp
Babelfish Translator -
a resource where you can immediately translate (up to 150 words) from French,
German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish to English and vice versus http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi
and
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
This site lets you translate up to 150 words from English (or translate from any
of these languages to English) Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. This tool is a handy resource for your research,
enabling you to read text on foreign language sites, for example. Try
typing a sentence of your own and translating to another language. Now
copy and paste the translation into the main window and translate it back to
English. I personally translated my 'Welcome' page into Spanish ... and it
worked it seconds!
Babylon -
Babylon-Pro is a dictionary tool that instantly delivers a
world of information to users’ fingertips. Babylon provides translation,
conversion and relevant information about any word or value that you click on.
With a single click online or offline, this tool allows users to access
information from thousands of glossaries and dictionaries, convert currencies,
measurements, and time zones, and--through a text-to-speech system--hear the
proper pronunciations of words (you must download and install the Babylon
'Say-it' plug-in from the Babylon Web site to enable the speech capabilities).
Babylon also translates to English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese,
Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, and Swedish. A free Demo web site is offered at
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2279-10112948.html
Free Translation - an
easy-to-use site for rapid translations where you can get the 'gist' of foreign
language text and web pages http://www.freetranslation.com/
From Language to Language
- this site offers a lot and includes Turkish, German, Russian,
Spanish, French and Italian translating to English
http://www.langtolang.com/
Genealogy.net Translation
Service - at this site
trans@genealogienetz.de you can request a
translation be made in these supported languages at no charge:
CZEch, ENGlish, DUTch, FREnch, GERman and POLish.
The site requests that you use the three-letter abbreviation as indicated in
bold face and your request should have a maximum length of 40 lines. The
translations are done by a volunteer team, so before you use their services, I
would suggest you read their instructions carefully which are spelled out in
both German and English. And as with any request to help you in your
research, please make sure you send a 'Thank You' note.
A New Feature
Site ... now search specific Languages (you name it, Google
offers it and
believe me, you will be amazed) or Countries at this Google site
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hi=en
Lavrentiy Krupnak
(Laurence Krupnak) offers his services in translating Polish, Russian,
Ukrainian, Slovak, Hungarian, Yiddish, German, etc. Translating is done on
a fee basis. Information available at
http://www.apgen.org/localchapters/nationalcapital/index.html
Lingo - multilingual
solutions - at this site you can upload your document and get an instant
price quote on a professional human translation.
http://worldlingo.com/
Memo Ware - even if
you don't have a PDA ( Personal Digital Assistant - a
general term used to encompass electronic organizers and handheld computers) you
can use Memo Ware's document files on my personal computer. Once you have
opened up this web site, you will have many choices - some of them can be also
used with a PC or a MAC. You will be required to download the program you
are interested in and you will find many translation programs including
translating from Dutch to English
http://www.memoware.com
Mendez iTranslator™ a
commercial translating service. The site offers FREE on-line language
translations and also offers a human translator service.
http://itranslatoronline.com/
Multi-Lingual Dictionaries
along with
Translations between European languages and much more can be found at
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Poltran - English to
Polish and Polish to English free translation site http://www.poltran.com
Translating Services -
Genealogy.net offers to do translations for free at
http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/translation.html
You need to send your requests, via email, to trans@genealogienetz.de
The first line should read #SRC>DEST where SRC is the source language and DEST
is the destination language (i.e. German to English). Supported languages
include CZEch, ENGlish, DUTch,
FREnch, GERman, POLish Read the instruction page
thoroughly first. Requests can take up to two or three weeks, depending on
the language involved.
Just in case you didn't think
of it, contact a nearby university or college's foreign language department.
They may offer to write letters and translate letters into English. A
nominal fee is usually charged.
A possible source for
having a document translated is your local college or university -
perhaps a professor or a student would be willing to do a translation. A
Language School may also be of assistance.
There are some
great sites listed below that will help you translate from English to various
languages, including Eastern Europe's languages and also various languages to
English.
These are great sites to find out what a word --- or a line on an old
paper or a photograph means. Good luck!
Books
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through
Amazon.com. A hyperlink is available at the left side bar of
this page for your ordering convenience.
"In Their Words - A
Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Documents"
authored by William Hoffman and Jonathan Shea, is an excellent resource.
Ordering information - the most direct way to get info on the books - is to go
straight to this Website at www.langline.com
or you can order from my link to amazon.com located on the left side bar
"The Ethnologue"
- a catalogue of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries. The
Ethnologue Name Index lists over 39,000 language names, dialect names, and
alternate names. The Ethnologue Language Family Index organizes languages
according to language families http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/
"Translation
Guide to Nineteenth Century Polish Language Civil Registration Documents"
(Birth, Marriage & Death Records) authored by Judith jFranzin - a book by the Jewish Genealogical
Society -
Dictionary of Many
Languages (Aussie, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finish and many
more) - a Dictionary for Addict Spell Check made freely available to all users
of Addictive Software's Addict Spell Check and Thesaurus - version 3 and higher http://www.addictivesoftware.com
Ladino Language - also
known as Judeo-Spanish, dates back to the
Spanish Expulsion of 1492, when it became a specifically Jewish language.
Several dialects are still spoken in the Balkans.
http://home.earthlink.net/~benven/ladino.html
Language - Dictionaries, Encyclopedias,
Grammar/Style and quotations - http://www.refdesk.com
Language Guides - The Yamada WWW Language
guides - a definitive guide to language resources on the World Wide Web. In the
Guides, you will find pointers to: The Yamada Font Archive; links to the
annotated list of language-related news groups and links to language related
mailing lists. They contain information on 115 languages and there are 112
fonts for 40 languages - all offered by the University of Oregon at
http://babel.uoregon.edu/YLC/guides.html
Languages of the World
- links to language page sites -
the
ultimate source of authentic and reliable information about the Languages of the
world on the net. The links in this directory will guide you to the official
sites of the languages that you are looking for.
http://www.123world.com/languages/index.html
Rashi -
the greatest Jewish commentator, Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, was an
outstanding community leader and decisor who schooled his two daughters
because he had no sons. A video, featuring Leonard Nimoy as the
voice of Rashi and distributed by Destiny Films is available at www.sisuent.com
Translating
AIM - a translating program can be downloaded
from PC World's download site for free. It requires Windows 9.x. After
choosing the languages that you wish to converse in, you click an arrow to
determine what you're transferring from and to. The program supports English,
French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,16322,tk,hsx,00.asp
Babelfish Translator - a resource where you
can immediately translate (up to 150 words) from French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish to
English and vice versus http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi
and
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
This site lets you translate up to 150 words from English (or translate from any
of these languages to English) Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. This tool is a handy resource for your research,
enabling you to read text on foreign language sites, for example. Try
typing a sentence of your own and translating to another language. Now
copy and paste the translation into the main window and translate it back to
English. I personally translated my 'Welcome' page into Spanish ... and it
worked it seconds!
Babylon -
Babylon-Pro is a
dictionary tool that instantly delivers a world of information to users’
fingertips. Babylon provides translation, conversion and relevant information
about any word or value that you click on. With a single click online or
offline, this tool allows users to access information from thousands of
glossaries and dictionaries, convert currencies, measurements, and time zones,
and--through a text-to-speech system--hear the proper pronunciations of words
(you must download and install the Babylon 'Say-it' plug-in from the Babylon Web
site to enable the speech capabilities). Babylon also translates to English,
Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, and
Swedish. A free Demo web site is offered at
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2279-10112948.html
Free Translation - an easy-to-use site for
rapid translations (Portuguese, Italian, German, French to English) where you can get the 'gist' of foreign language text and
http://www.freetranslation.com
From Language to Language
- this site offers a lot and includes Turkish, German, Russian,
Spanish, French and Italian translating to English
http://www.langtolang.com/
Genealogy.net Translation Service - at this
site trans@genealogienetz.de you
can request a translation be made in these supported languages at no charge:
CZEch, ENGlish, DUTch, FREnch, GERman and POLish.
The site requests that you use the three-letter abbreviation as indicated in
bold face and your request should have a maximum length of 40 lines. The
translations are done by a volunteer team, so before you use their services, I
would suggest you read their instructions carefully which are spelled out in
both German and English. And as with any request to help you in your research,
please make sure you send a 'Thank You' note.
A New Feature Site
... now search specific Languages (you name it, Google offers it
and
believe me, you will be amazed) or
Countries at this Google site
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hi=en
Lavrentiy Krupniak (Laurence Krupnak) offers
his services in translating Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Hungarian,
Yiddish, German, etc. Translating is done on a fee basis. Information
available at
http://www.apgen.org/localchapters/nationalcapital/index.html
Lingo - multilingual solutions - at this
site you can upload your document and get an instant price quote on a
professional human translation.
http://worldlingo.com/
Memo Ware - even if you don't have a PDA
( Personal Digital Assistant - a general term used to
encompass electronic organizers and handheld computers) you can use Memo Ware's
document files on my personal computer. Once you have opened up this web site,
you will have many choices - some of them can be also used with a PC or a MAC.
You will be required to download the program you are interested in and you will
find many translation programs including translating from Dutch to English
http://www.memoware.com
Mendez iTranslator™ a commercial translating
service. The site offers FREE on-line language translations and also offers a
human translator service. http://itranslatoronline.com/
Multi-Lingual Dictionaries along with
Translations between European languages and much more can be found at
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Translating Services - Genealogy.net offers
to do translations for free at
http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/translation.html
You need to send
your requests, via email, to trans@genealogienetz.de The first line should read #SRC>DEST where SRC is
the source language and DEST is the destination language (i.e. German to
English). Supported languages include CZEch, ENGlish, DUTch,
FREnch, GERman, POLish Read the instruction page
thoroughly first. Requests can take up to two or three weeks, depending on the
language involved.
Just in case you didn't think of it, contact a
nearby university or college's foreign language department. They may offer to
write letters and translate letters into English. A nominal fee is usually
charged.
A possible source for having a document
translated is your local college or university - perhaps a professor or a
student would be willing to do a translation. A Language School may also be of
assistance.
Web Translation Service for FREE. InterTran™
can translate single words, phrases, sentences and entire web pages between 767
language pairs http://www.tranexp.com.2000/InterTran?
You must add the ? after the web
address appears in the URL box.
You don't need a site to get most foreign
characters on your computer. First, go to Add/Remove Programs, Then
Windows Setup. Next Add Multilanguage support for Cyrillic or
Central (Polish etc.) European Languages, or whatever language you want. You
may also need to Add the Character Map, if that is not in your program
list under Applications/System Tools. It is in Add/Remove Programs,
Windows Setup, System Tools.
With both of these installed, open the character
map and look at the different fonts available, for example, in Windows 98, there
are several CE (Central European) fonts, like Ariel CE. There is Cyrillic.
When you choose the font, you will see all the strange characters available.
Choose one, copy, go back to your document, and paste it in. you can also set
up hot keys if you use them repeatedly.
You can also change your keyboard, but it is not
recommended. For Hebrew, you need Hebrew fonts and the capability from
Microsoft. This information obtained from a JewishGen Digest of
12/8/00 submitted by Sally Bruckheimer.
World AltaVista -
(same as Babelfish) can translate passages of text or entire web pages among
nine languages, or they can translate your page into their language of choice. http://world.altavista.com/
The
Beijing Expert Translation Co., Ltd. is based in Beijing, China, providing
high quality translation services in most of the world’s commercially
significant languages. In addition to considerable expertise English
translations, we offer translation services in the following
languages-pairs:
"It's always acceptable
in German to write the umlauted letters as plain letters
followed by an e. Back in the hardware-only (typewriter) days, a good many
documents were written like that in German, even in Germany.
And ignoring the umlaut is
*not* a good idea. Can lead to some dreadful embarrassments, too. Finally,
have you tried using alt-nnn typing to enter special characters? Try this
when you're entering data:
--turn on the caps-lock key
--hold down the ALT key
--on the numeric keypad on
the right-hand side of your keyboard, type 129.
If that gets you a u-umlaut,
congratulations, and my apologies to the software manufacturer. 132 is
a-umlaut, and 148 is o-umlaut. The sharp S (or ess-zett) is 225."
From a posting on JewishGen by Roger Lustig on 1/27/04
The ability to read
Hebrew - even just to decipher the letters - is a great asset to anyone engaged
in Jewish genealogy. The National Jewish Outreach Program teaches Hebrew
reading in four or five sessions. www.njop.org
or call 1 800 44 HEBRE
'Aramaic for ha-betulah ('the
virgin') and in a Ketubbah and other marriage-related documents it refers to the
bride. Remarrying widows or divorcees were not designated 'the virgin so and
so' but the widow so and so or 'the divorcees so and so.'
'A bride's status had to be specified in the
marriage deed, because it governed the amount of 'bride-price' she could
command. Virgins got 200 zuz as a matter of law, all others 100; and this is
specified formally in the Ketubbah itself. Of course today (except among some
orthodox who reference to bride-price in the Ketubbah is more or less a legal
formality rather than a matter of substance.' Information supplied by Judith
Romney Wegner on 12/16/98 in the JewishGen Digest.
Chevra
It means 'Society" -
both in the narrow sense and in the wider sense. In slang, it's
also used as "the guys" as in "I'm going out with the Chevra."
But in that case, it's accented on the first syllable rather than the
second.
Im Bas/Ben Gilo/Giloh
literally means
'with his/her age mate' but is popular used in wedding invitations
to link the names of the groom and bride and means 'with his/her
intended'
Zahav
Gold (Paz is fine
Gold) (Pazit wouild be Hebrew alternative for a woman named
Golda or Zlatte
Department of
Hebrew and Semitic Languages - The Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar Ilan
University, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel E-mail Attn: Zvi Betzer betzez@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il Phone
+972.3.531.7334 Fax: +872.3.535.1233
"Hebrew and Aramaic Words
in the Yiddish Language - their Phonetic Spelling and Translation into English
and Russian" - authored by Dr. Moisey Wolf. The dictionary is
available for $12 from the Jewish Federation of Portland, Oregon (503) 245
6219 http://www.jewishportland.org/index2.html
Hebrew Translator - translator and
interpreter. Mrs. Circolone provides fast and accurate bilateral
translations (English-Hebrew), for the private and public sectors. Michal has a
working knowledge of French and a university degree (BA) in Psychology and
Communications. She is an Israeli citizen based in the United States (Phoenix,
AZ). Hebrew is her native language. There is also a wonderful commercial site
that offers CDs and a learning Hebrew information at www.jewishsoftware.com
"Learn Hebrew Today"
- authored by Paul Michael Yedwab with Howard I. Bogot and published in New
York by UAHC Press in 1992 - 61 pages ISBN 0-8074-0483-7
Hebrew Language Learning Resource - this web
site has both written and audio pronunciation guides, alphabet charts including
cursive, boldface and Rashi script, as well as links to other topics relating to
the Hebrew language
http://hebrew.about.com/education/hebrew/msubalphabet.htm
My Hebrew Picture Dictionary - an on-line
resource to learn Hebrew words. Each word in the dictionary has a
photograph of the item along with English/Hebrew translation and
transliteration. http://www.milon.co.il
Chotev = wood cutter
(also Kotzetz and Chotekh meaning chopper/cutter)
Moh'r -usually a
prefix for a rabbi
VeBa'ali He'Ahuv - And
my beloved husband
Sahbak.com -
If you want to
write Hebrew e-mail even from computers that do not support Hebrew, the solution
may be Sahbak. Sahbak means (in Hebrew slang) a good friend. Sahbak will do most
of the work for you. Sahbak will install Hebrew fonts and add a right to left
direction. It will also supply a virtual Hebrew keyboard if you need one and
its allfree to download. It won't work on MAC computers, however http://www.sahbak.com
The 1768 Hungarian Jewish
census used Church Latin for occupations.
Arendatores (aredarz)
Lessees and licensees
Lessee
Artifices (Opifices)
Artisans
Berlo
'renter' or leaser'
Meghalt
'died'
Mercatores
Merchants
Quaestores
Tradesmen
Quaestores pagatim
ambulantes
Peddlers (or
magistrate?)
Magyar - Prior to
1910, when the Hungarian language orthography was modernized, the cs
consonant combination was eliminated. It was replaced with ch and ts.
'ch' is pronounced like ch in CHeap and 'ts' is pronounced like 'ts' in iTS.
Ts is pronounced like the 27th letter of the Ukrainian alphabet. The
Ukrainian word 'tsehla' means brick or tile. A tsehl'nik is a
brick-maker.
Note that to write to the Archives,
you can write
in English. To a registry office, local official, etc., write in Polish.
Writing in the language of the person that you are writing to is always best ...
it exhibits respect and courtesy. Make it as easy as possible if you want the
quickest response. Six to eight months for a reply, is not uncommon.
"Hebrew and Aramaic
Words in the Yiddish Language - Their Phonetic Spelling and Translation into
English and Russian" - authored by Dr. Moisey Wolf. The
dictionary is available for $12 from the Jewish Federation of Portland, Oregon
(503) 245 6219 http://www.jewishportland.org/index2.html
"In
Their Words" - a 400-page book designed to help specifically
with Polish documents. Here's the direct link to info on that
book:
The Polish language does have a "Y" in
its alphabet. It is in the Russian language that a "I" or
"J" becomes a "Y". Example: the Polish Marja or Maria
becomes Marya in Russian
The Polish letter "C"
is pronounced "ts" like the Hebrew tzadi. In the Polish language records,
it often replaces the German "Z" or "tz".
The problem of thePolish
"C" is an important piece of general knowledge for those researching
ancestors with Polish names. It seems to have been "lost" even by
gentile Polish-Americans, who routinely pronounce names ending in "icki" as
though they rhymed with "sticky" - when in fact they should be pronounced "Itsky".
"W" in Polish is
pronounced as the sound "V" (the Polish alphabet has no letter "V").
"Polish, as the other Slavic and Baltic languages,
use declensions. Seven forms of Polish declensions are responsible for the
changes that occur at the word ends. For example, in translation from
English "Town Bobrka" to Polish "Miasto Bobrka", the Nominative declension is
used and no change in word "Bobrka" occurs. But when translating from
English "Born in Bobrka" to Polish: "Urodzony w Bobrce", the Genitive declension
changes "Bobrka" to Bobrce".
Similar changes occur in other town names
declensions forms such as shown in the examples below. Note the
differences in the words ends:
Lwów - Lwowie Boryslaw - Boryslawin, Lomza - Lomzy Suwalki - Suwalkach Kolo - Kole
Poznan - Poznaniu Gdansk - Gdansku Sopot - Sopotach Rawa Ruska - Rawie Ruskiej Gora Kalwarii - Gorze Kalwarii
Since ShtetlSeeker database, or any other
geographical references are using Nominative declension form, the changes in the
towns names suffices will not occur. Those changes, on the other hand,
will be noticeable in Polish or Russian documents that describing places where
birth or marriage events took place. This information was posted on
12/29/2001 by Alexander Sharon
a.sharon@shaw.ca
, on the Gesher Galicia SIG Forum.
Either 'lessee'
or publican**. Publican is a tax collector.
Because they were literate (including mathematically literate). Jews were
often engaged by the Polish nobility to collect taxes and rents from the
peasantry on the nobility's behalf. In the 1784 Polish census,
"Aredarz" (arendazh) is a leaseholder in English.
Bakalarz
an archaic Polish for teacher. This is the
Polish translation of the word: Melamed (teacher in Hebrew)
Data Urodzenia -
Date of Birth
Dziekuje
Thank You
Feldschers
Barber-Surgeons
Fulwarek (Folwark)
A
Handlarz
Shopkeeper
Imie -
First Name
Imie Ojca -
Father's First Name
Kategorja -
Category of Repression
Kupiec
Merchant, dealer, sometime a
general description of any businessman
'Khlops'
Peasant
Mogila
Grave
Naidia 'ego'
a common declination ending
used in polish. The ending 'ego' i.e. Starozakonnego is one word and
it means an Orthodox Jew.
Nazwisko -
Last Name
Okregow
Warszawsich
'Of the Warsaw
districts"
Panna
Virgin
Polyak
In Russian it means
Polish man
Robotnik
Workman
Pomoc
Help
Proste
Simple
Shukaj
Find
Starozakonnego
One word meaning an
Orthodox Jew.
Szczegoly
Details
Wdowa
Widow
Wyczysc
Reset
Wyniki
Results
Wyszukiwanie
Search
Zaawansowane
Advanced
Rukodel'nik
Needlewoman
Rustic
Means peasantry, from the
Latin word 'rusticus'
Spektor (Szpektor)
Steward; superintendent.
It is a Polish version of the Jewish surname Spektor which often denoted a
trade related to the production or sale of viewing lenses.
Starozakonny (stary-old
and zakon = order
An adjective meaning the
Old Testament as well as an Orthodox Jew
Szpektor
"Szpektor" in the
Kaszubian dialect is translates as 'inspector. Kaszubian is
Polish-German or German -Polish dialect of the native people known as
Kashubs residing in ex East Prussian territory bordering with our Litvaks.
Refer to Kashubian - Polish dictionary at:
http://www.kaszubia.com/sloworz/sloworzk.pdf
Spektor (Spektorzy)= steward;
superintendent.
Starozakonnego*
An adjective form of the
word "starozakonny" Starozakonny is an archaic word for
the "Jew" and it literally means: "the follower of the Old
testament"
Stary (old) + Zakon
(Testament)
Szlachta Zagrodowa
Land nobility
Szkolnik
a student. The word is derived
from the Polish szkola (school in various Slavic languages). The Jewish
word 'szkolnik' aka 'the bukher'.
Wdowa
Widow
Wlasciciel
Building owner, house owner
WP
"Wojsko Polskie" (Polish
Armed Forces)
Zakon
an Order
Zakonny
a monk
Zona
Used as a translations for
'wife'
Zonaty dzielnicowy duchowny
'a district rabbi where 'dzielnica'
identifies suburb, region council or any other administration entity.
* w. obecnos'cis'wiadko'w starozakonnego Israela Segal, handlarza zboz (symbol over the z]a, = ... in
the presence of the witnesses, Jew Israel Segal, the grain merchant ..."
** "publican" is also a a tax collector. Because
they were literate (including mathematically literate), Jews were often engaged
by the Polish nobility to collect taxes and rents from the peasantry on the
nobility's behalf. It was, unfortunately, a function that often made Jews
a target of resentment by the local population.
Roman Tunkel at
tunkelr@juno.com
offers his own inventive
system using an English keyboard and some imagination. He suggests using the
Arial font.
Dictionary of
Russian - Russian Dictionary for Addict Spell Check made freely
available to all users of Addictive Software's Addict Spell Check and
Thesaurus - version 3 and higher
http://www.addictivesoftware.com
Note that the Russian language has no "H" in
their alphabet. They normally replace an "H" with a "G".
Example: The name Hirsch in Russian is spelled Girsch.
Sometimes 'H' is replaced with the letter and sound
'X' which in Russian is an equivalent to the sound 'Kh', like in Khrushchev.
And in the case of Haim, is known as Xaim (Chaim, Khaim) and Hanna as Xana (Chana
or Khana), and Helsinki is known as Khelsinki.
Sometimes Russians drop letter 'H' altogether (as
in Hebrew 'hey'), and in Hindustan it is known as 'Industan', and Spain
(Hispania) is known as 'Ispania'.
In the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, 'N' looks like
the English 'H' i.e. 'Huchim' could be 'Nuchim' which is a variant of the
biblical male name 'Nachum'.
"I" or "Y" was spelled in Latin letters - "IJ".
The Cyrillic reminds of "Y" but of course it isn't, and the pronunciation is
slightly different. Based on the system of the American Congress
Library, the vowel "I" (they spell "I/l") which
usually sounds like in English 'six' for the consonant "J" the
same letter is used, but with the diacritical mark above it, like small
"v". It sounds like the Hebrew "yod", like the
first sound in "yes".
The Russian vowel,
which cannot be explained because it is not used in the English language,
looks like "bl". Transliterating this letter, use
"y". Further information on the Russian language may be
obtained from Dr. Josef Ash j_ash@netvision.net.il
Letters in the Cyrillic
alphabet used for Russian look very much like the letters in the Greek
alphabet, but do not have the same pronunciations. For example, what
looks like an English "B" in Cyrillic is a "V". What
looks to us like a "P" is an "R". "S" in
Russian looks like a "C". Like Yiddish and Hebrew, Russian
Cyrillic also has single letters for "sh", "ch" (one each
for sibilant (i.e. cherry) and guttural (i.e. chutzpa). Also letters
for "tz", "shch", "zh", etc. Many words in
Russian, Polish, German and Yiddish are similar yet written in 3 different
alphabets.
Alexander Sharon
wrote on March 3, 2002 in response to a posting on JewishGen of that date,
by Aya Kim with the following:
"In my opinion, Aya has provided the correct
response." Surname Kujawski is originated from Kujawy, Polish historical
region, where several Jewish shtetls have been located through the history
such as Wloclawek, Inowroclaw, Kruszwica, Strzelno and others.
In Kyjawski where letter 'u' is in my opinion,
accidentally replaced with the letter 'y' is the commonly known mistake made
by the people that are operating in both languages, Polish and Russian.
Russian letter 'y' is an equivalent to Polish
(or Latin) "u", and often when I am dealing with the translation of Russian
era Polish documents, I do accidentally substitute those and few other
letters. I've notice that the most common in my case are the "accidental
replacements" between the letters 'u' and 'y' and 's' and 'c'.
I have also noticed that this type of an
accidental spelling mistakes are magnified when using alternate multilingual
keyboards.
"Following the Paper
Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide" - authored by Jonathan Shea
and William Hoffman. Published in New Milford, CT: Language and Lineage Press
in 1991. 256 pages. This is a guide to documents in 13 languages including
Polish, Russian, Czech, Romania, Hungarian and Lithuanian. Available from
Avotaynu
"Russian-Language
Documents from Russian Poland: A Translation Manual for Genealogists"
- authored by Jonathan Shea. Published in Orem, Utah by Genealogy Unlimited in
1989 ISBN 0-921811-05-6. It is out-of-print, and has been replaced with
the information you will find at: #Russki
Russian alphabettyped on an English keyboard
A, a
6 - simple six
B
only capital letter
r
only small R
D, g
small G for small letter
E , e
E" e"
k
k - is a trick. First part is upper register
of point ">", second> part is "k"
3
simple three
U , u U' , u'
short "e"
K , k
/\ - another trick. Slash back+slash
forward
M
only capital M
H
only capital
O
0
n
only small N
P
P
C
c
T
m - capital and small letter
Y
y
F
f - this is English, but there is no
substitute
X
x
U
u, - for the 'ts' sound
4
simple number four for the "ch" sound
W
w
W,,w,
for the "shch" sound
bI
only capital (small B+ capital I)
b
soft sign, by small B
b
hard sign i0
Russian adjectives have a
variety of suffixes that change with the linguistic gender of the noun.
Masculine adjectives usually end in a "ee" sound. The Cyrillic letter
looks like an English "U". Feminine adjectives end in "aya".
Example: In Russian black as an adjective is (transliterated) chornee in the
masculine and chornaya in the feminine.
Library of Congress' Slavic Languages
Transliteration Table - The United States Library of Congress developed a
standard set of rules to transliterate Cyrillic letters used by various
languages that use Cyrillic letters such as Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian,
Bulgarian, Macedonia, etc. A basic resource where you will a a nicely laid out
'Table of Slavic Cyrillic Transliterations'
http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/lccyr.html
Russian Language Information: SKY
- a Russian Toponymic Possessive Suffix = as in TurovSKY i.e. of Turov. In
non-Slavic languages Swedish also has one akin to it: SvenSKA - i.e. Swedish.
In both cases, it is an Indo-European element common in many Euro languages.
Also German - ISCH, Italian - ESCO, etc.
Translations into Russian or Ukrainian and vice
versa is available by contacting Serhiy & Yaroslav in Kiev at
sp@alfacom.net Both of these Ukrainians are
fluent in Ukrainian and Russian and appear to be quite good in English. They
will quote you a price before initiating any translation job. Payment can be
made by check through their US or Canadian contact.
Ukrainian - English Dictionary On-Line -
Ukrainian is an Eastern European language belonging to the Slavic group of Indo
European language family and is closely related to Polish, Russian, Belorussian,
Czech and Slovak. Ukrainian is spoken in Western Ukraine and in rural areas of
Easter Ukraine.
http://www.personal.ceu.hu/students/97/Roman_Zakharii/english.htm
Tutor of Russian & Ukrainian - Mr. Oksana
offers his service as a tutor of Russian language for foreigners at $5.00 an
hour; can also arrange to send an invitation necessary to obtain a visa to visit
Russia; and offers to rent a comfortable room in his flat plus 3 meals for only
$15 US per day.
oksana@trav.kiev.ua
or mail address: Mr. Oksana, Box 215, Kiev 25, Ukraine
Sh'mariya were the names of two
distinct people at the time of Ezra the scribe. The iya suffix, is used to
incorporate the name of G-d into a persons name, and was used by many Biblical
characters. Sometimes a quote mark ' is put between the yud and hey so as not
to spell out the holy name.
The three letter verb root Shin Mem
Resh means guard, and so the name means "G-d will guard".
There is also the noun Shamir, which
is either: a) a thorny plant or b" a hard stone, similar to a diamond or c) a
name of a city in the Judean mountains.
Ayzik is usually written
Isaac in English and is an equivalent to the Hebrew name Yitzchak. Yitzchak
Avinu (our forefather) was the son of Avraham Avinu (Abraham our forefather) and
the second of the forefathers of the Jewish people. (Submitted
to JewishGen Digest by David Ziants)
Turkish
The letter "C" in
Turkish sounds like "J" in English
Comer = eat
Comerchero (cumerchu)= comes
from "comercio" meaning merchant (Monastir dialect) Empajador = taxidermist
Empiyegado = employee Empiojado = covered with lice Lokanda/Locanta = restaurant (Turkish = Lokanta)
Lokantaji = restaurant keeper (Turkish = Lokantaci)
Negociante = from "negocio"
= business, i.e. businessman
"Ladino-English /
English-Ladino Concise Encyclopedic Dictionary (Judeo-Spanish)" - authored
by Dr. Elli Kohen and Dahlia Kohen-Gordon and published in 2000 by Hippocrene
Books in New York
Please
see my
Yiddish page
for my
English - Yiddish Dictionary
Although Yiddish is a German based language,
written in Hebrew characters, many Hebrew phrases are used as part of the
language. Much depended on the region or community on how much Hebrew was part
of Yiddish. By the late 19th century, the spoken Yiddish had adopted
differences in pronunciation as well as local expressions. The language
was basically the same. You can compare it to the difference between the
British English and the Texan English. The written language was the same -
German and Polish printers sold their Yiddish books all over Europe.
"Yiddish is also called "Judeo-German"
-- which puts it in a class with Judeo-Spanish, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Parsi, and
many other Jewish variants on local languages. The Spanish Language
Academy, for example, regards Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) as Spanish, even
though it has an admixture of Hebrew,; a similar judgment is justified also with
respect to Judeo-German. There isn't any real reason, other than a
nostalgic devotion to "juicy Yiddish", to the contrary."
Yiddish is thriving at the
Yiddish Institute at Vilnius University. The Institute
offers a month long course in the Yiddish language, literature and culture
Phone: (268 7187)
e-mail institute@yiddishvilnius.com
"College Yiddish and
Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary"
both
published by YIVO and Schocken Books and the
YIVO website at:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/yivo/
Translation from Yiddish
to English - Dr. Sheldon Clare
clare15905@aol.com offers to translate from Yiddish to English for
anyone as stated in a posting to JewishGen on 11-03-2002
Note: Please let me know if there is a favorite
link of yours that is not included in my site and I will be happy to add it to
http://jewishwebindex.com
Email 