Taytsh

Word Entry

DEFINITION(S)

Collective name for a group of three streets in Białystok, named for the sand (Polish: piasek, pl. piaski) that was there.

EXAMPLE(S)

מײַנע קינדער־יאָרן אױף די פּיאַסקעס The memoir of L. Hindes is titled

NOTES

I 've come across several times with the word '' piaskes'' without finding a proper explanation. It seems to be a central place in a shtetl but I am not sure .It couldhave a link with the word piasek : sand in Polish. There is a book by Hindes called: מיינע קינדער-יארן אויף די פיאסקעס what is the meaning ?

COMMENTS

  • Mundart Press

    The only thing that I can imagine is that 'pioskes' from 'pios' from 'der pies' meaning 'dog' is what is meant here.

    Does that sound right to you? It would mean 'dogs' plural with the diminutive Slavic ending -ke cf. 'water' 'voda'>'vodka', 'duck' 'katshke' etc.

    5 March 2014, 1:53 pm

  • s.otsar

    Thanks for you reply.
    I found two different texts where the word piaskes appears :
    In a Yzkor bukh :Men hot undz ale avekgefirt in der turme, oyf di piaskes.
    and in a book by Hinder.
    מיינע קינדער-יארן אויף די פיאסקעס
    piaskes could be related to sand in Polish, but then?

    5 March 2014, 5:34 pm

  • Stempenyu

    I looked up מיינע קינדער-יארן אויף די פיאסקעס on the Yiddish Book Center's archive, and read the first page of the preface. You're right, it is connected to piasek. "Piaski" (sands) was the Polish name for a group of three streets in Białystok because of the sand that was there, and this name became "Piaskes" in Yiddish.

    6 March 2014, 9:23 am

  • Mundart Press

    Well, I'm certainly glad Saul was able clear this up.

    The only stuff that I am able to add now that you have clarified its connection to sand, is that when I look up 'sand' in Peter M. Bergman's "The Concise Dictionary of 26 Languages"(1000 word vocabulary) all of the listed Slavic languages have the cognate (I looked up the Russian 'pesók' in my Russian dictionary and also found 'peska' in reference to 'sand(s)').

    Slavic cognates:
    Polish = piasek
    Czech = písek
    Serbo-Croat = pjesak
    Russian = pesók

    Possible cognate outside of Slavic:

    Indonesian = pasir

    6 March 2014, 2:12 pm

  • s.otsar

    Thanks to all of you for your contributions
    By the way it is interesting to note that sand was very much used in
    The shtetl to help clean up houses and there were sand peddlers.
    But the word used was zamd and not the Polish word Piasek
    who became piaskes in Yiddish as a loanword. So we have a word for the location
    and a word for the material.

    7 March 2014, 2:30 am