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Gita Vs. Gittel



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amother
Royalblue


 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 6:06 am
Question about Gittel - is the root of the name "Gita" - reason I'm asking is because my family always pronounced the name Gittel as "Gita-leh" (Litvak and Polish Jews, fluent Yiddish speakers.)

Gita is aramaic for "wine press". Everyone says "Gittel" is from the German "Gut", which doesn't make much sense to me, as I can't imagine the journey of "Gut" to "Gittel." I can easily understand how Gita morphed into "Gita-leh" and then "Gittel".

Any wordsmiths out there with info? Thanks.
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cm




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 9:40 am
The journey from "Gut" to "Git" is quite simple; the vowels are pronounced differently depending on where you came from in Europe. The diminutive "-el" at the end is similar to "-leh." So "Gittel" is the same as "Gita-leh" in meaning.
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greenfire




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 11:02 am
I don't think there are too many people who would name their child 'wine-press' ... except maybe me לחיים

you can always opt for gertrude
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 11:04 am
cm wrote:
The journey from "Gut" to "Git" is quite simple; the vowels are pronounced differently depending on where you came from in Europe. The diminutive "-el" at the end is similar to "-leh." So "Gittel" is the same as "Gita-leh" in meaning.


The phonetic evolution makes sense.

What about the spelling?

How did it go from גוט to גיט?

If I'm not mistaken גיט can mean an estate. Or is that simply another definition of גוט and I misremembered the spelling?
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Scrabble123




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 11:56 am
There is a name Guta as well.
Your family's pronunciation is as a result of the Polish Accent, where they put the emphasis on different syllables than the more common Hungarian pronunciations.
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amother
Smokey


 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 1:23 pm
A yiddish word for german "gut" is "git". That's how.
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 1:24 pm
amother wrote:
A yiddish word for german "gut" is "git". That's how.


But the spelling is גוט and the name is גיטא or גיטל.

How did that happen?
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amother
Fuchsia


 

Post Wed, Apr 06 2016, 5:08 pm
As someone from Yekke and Litvish descent. The Litvish pronuciation is very different from the original German.

Interesting enough the name Gittel is pronounced the same even with all the different dialects. Unlike Blima, Bluma, Sara, Sura etc
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amother
Royalblue


 

Post Thu, Apr 07 2016, 2:00 am
Ok, my heritage is Litvak/Polish. How should I be pronouncing גיטל? Right now I'm saying a soft "Geetl", if you know what I mean.

And why would a baby-naming book identify גיתא as "wine-press", which is what I assumed what "Gita" was. I guess that's where the Israeli name גיתית comes from? I had assumed they all had the same origin.
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wiki




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 07 2016, 1:35 pm
The German adjective "Gut" gets an umlaut when put back into noun from: "Güte" means "goodness." U with an umlaut is pretty close to the short I sound even in German, let alone once one morphs it into a Yiddish dialect.

The name Gittel is almost definitely a form of the Germanic word for goodness, and not based on some other derivation.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 09 2016, 4:32 pm
Yekke is gut, name Guta, nickname (evolved into a name) Guttel.
Polish is "I".
Read Beider's dictionary of Ashkenazic names.

Definitely not everyone says Gutel/Gitel the same.
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amother
Red


 

Post Sat, Apr 09 2016, 11:06 pm
My name is gittel. It comes from the yiddish word "git" which means good. It is pronounced gi(short I)-tal.
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motherme99




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 26 2016, 9:44 pm
Anyone using this name (Gittel/Gita) have an English secular name that goes along with it?
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amother
Lilac


 

Post Mon, Dec 26 2016, 10:38 pm
motherme99 wrote:
Anyone using this name (Gittel/Gita) have an English secular name that goes along with it?


Tova
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jan 02 2017, 7:28 am
amother wrote:
Tova


Hebrew!
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amother
Bisque


 

Post Mon, Jan 02 2017, 10:07 am
My mom is gittel. Her english name is Judy.
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