From A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given
Names:
Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation and Migrations
by Alexander Beider
Yentl
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(Note: Hebrew and Cyrillic characters are displayed as ?????)
Several names with the same root gentil were used by Jews in various Romance countries. Since the Middle Ages, Gentile was a common name in Italy (Cassuto 1918:241, Colorni 1983:72, Loevinson 1935:171). Gentel appears in the medieval documents from Spain (Régné 1978:580). Descendants from these countries came to the Ottoman Empire and as a result ????????? and ??????? were common names in that country (Rosanes 1908:1:190, Bornstein--Makovetsky 1997:25). Gentil, Gentile, Gentila and Gentilia appear in the medieval sources from southern and northern France, while ????? and ?????? are quoted in Hebrew documents from England dating from the 13th century (Seror 1989:119, 120). Note that English Jews mainly originated from northern France. In old French, the adjective gentil(l)e meant noble (Greimas 1948:312). The use of the similar names in France, Italy and Spain could either be due to migrations between these countries or independent events. The last possibility should not be neglected since the independent creation (or borrowing from local Christians) of a name with such attractive semantics could indeed have taken place. It is unclear from what Romance country this name was brought to Germany. Max Weinreich suggests Italian origin claiming that in early Ashkenazic communities this name was pronounced (as in Italian) with initial /dzh/ to which corresponds the double yod in the Hebrew spelling. According to him, the shift /dzh/>/y/ occurred in Germany (GYS 2:71--72, 4:105). However, Weinreich does not explain why he ruled out the French origin. In France, before the 11th century the Latin "G" before "e" and "i" was pronounced /g/. During the 11th--12th centuries, after the phonetic shift, the initial sound became /dzh/ before being finally shifted to /zh/ during the 13th century (Fouché 1946:3:555). If Gentil came to Germany before the 11th century from France, then its initial phonetic form should be /gentil/. Due to the influence of local German--speaking Christians, that form would be transformed to /yentil/. Such a phonetic shift looks more plausible that /dzhe/>/ye/ necessary to corroborate the Italian origin suggested by Weinreich.
From the second half of the
13th century onward, the form Yente appears in Christian and Jewish sources. That form is related to the old French
adjective gente (noble, beautiful), from the same root as gentille (cf. Greimas 1948:311). On that form were based
the names Genta and Gente, quoted by French medieval documents, as well as the form ?????, present in a document
of 1248 from England (Seror 1989:120). Brought to Germany from France by Jewish migrants, this name could enhance
its popularity partly due to the existence of the similar name, spelled Jenta, in the corpus of Christians from
southern German--speaking areas; cf. the reference to Christian Jenta in 1289 (Socin 1903:57). Weinreich suggested
that Yente resulted as the hypercorrect back formation of Yentl based on the belief that Yentl was a hypocorism
using the diminutive suffix -l (GYS 2:72). This theory cannot be valid since at that time the suffix -l was not
used by Jews yet (see the details in Chapter 3 of the present book). The derivation Yente < Yentl could indeed
sometimes take place, but much later and rather in Eastern Europe than in Germany. Similarly to our hypothesis,
Salfeld (1898:395, 399) also considered that Yente and Yentil are parallel forms, both originating from France.
Jewish migrants from Germany brought both Yentl and Yente to Slavic countries.
Variation scheme
Gentil
Yentil
Yentl [disappearing of unstressed vowel]
Yendl [voicing /t/>/d/ between two resonants]
Genta
Dzhenta [the French shift /g/>/dzh/]
Dzhente [reduction of unstressed vowel]
Yente [shift /g/>/y/]
Yent [apocope].
References to the variants
?????? [Hebrew] 1096 Rhineland (Salfeld 1898:9; 11 persons) {Yentil} -- ?????? [Hebrew] 1269 Mainz (Avneri 1970:148)
{Yent(i)l} -- ?????, ?????? [Hebrew] 1267, 1271 Erfurt (Kroner 1884:352) {Yent(i)l} -- Gentyl [Latin] 1281 Cologne
(Hoeniger 1888:48) {Yent(i)l} -- ?????? [Hebrew] 1298 South Germany (Salfeld 1898; 5 persons) {Yent(i)l} -- Gentil
[German transcription from Hebrew] before 1342 Nürnberg (Stern 1894:121) {Yentl} -- Gentel [German] 1370 Vienna
(Spitzer 1974:2:35) {Yentl} -- Gentl, Jentl [Czech] 1546 Prague (Bondy 1906:1:359, 360) {Yentl} -- ????? [Hebrew]
1548 Prague (Muneles 1988:153) {Yentl} -- ????? [Hebrew] 1575--1786 Prague (Hock 1892:394, 86; 51 persons) {Yentl}
-- ????? [Hebrew] 1696 Amsterdam (van Straten 1996:170) {Yentl} -- ????? [Hebrew] 1726 Silesia (Wodzinski 1996:378)
{Yentl} -- *Yentl [Yiddish] 19th Ukraine, Bessarabia (surnames Entel' and Entel'zon; DJSRE 198) -- Jendl [Czech]
1546 Prague (Bondy 1906:1:363) {Yendl} -- Jendl [German] 1652 Vienna (Schwarz 1909:272) {Yendl} -- Gendl [German]
1668 Vienna (Schwarz 1909:302) {Yendl} -- Jendel [German] 1784 Alsace (Leeson 1993:136) {Yendl} -- ????? [Hebrew],
Gente, Genta, Gentas [Latin] 1281, 1289, 1291, 1322 Cologne (Hoeniger 1888:44, 69, 76, 56) {Yente} -- Genta [Latin]
1290 Switzerland (Steinberg 1903:5) {Yente} -- Jenta [German] 1296 Hessen (GJ 2:630) {Yente} -- ????? [Hebrew]
1296 Worms (Lewysohn 1855:32) {Yente} -- ???? [Hebrew] 1298 South Germany (Salfeld 1898:45; 14 persons) {Yente}
-- Jenta [German transcription from Hebrew] before 1342 Nürnberg (Stern 1894:155) {Yente} -- Gente [German]
1378 Hessen (Battenberg 1995:75) {Yente} -- Gente [German] 1392 Alsace (Mentgen 1995:194) {Yente} -- ???? [Hebrew]
1400, 1414 Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:7, 8; 2 persons) {Yente} -- Genta [German] 1407 Mainz (Wiener 1862:66) {Yente}
-- Gente, Jente [German] before 1408 Erfurt (Süssmann 1915:98) {Yente} -- Schenta, Schente [German] before
1408 Erfurt (Süssmann 1915:98) {Dzhente?} -- Jinte [German transcription from Hebrew] 1419 Worms (Grunwald
1938:79) {Yente} -- ???? [Russian] 1563 Volhynia (RN 1:238) {Yente} -- Jeanette [German transcription from Hebrew]
1657--1790 Hamburg (Grunwald 1904:284, 304; 37 persons) {Yente?} -- Jente [German transcription from Hebrew] 1663--1791
Hamburg (Grunwald 1904:283, 275; 20 persons) {Yente} -- ????? [Hebrew] 1672 Prague (Hock 1892:99) {Yente} -- ????,
????? [Hebrew] before 1690 (Bet Shmuel) {Yente} -- ?????, ?????, ????? [Hebrew] 1727, 1730, 1754 Amsterdam (van
Straten 1996:170) {Yente} -- ????? [Hebrew] 1764 Amsterdam (van Straten 1996:174) {Yente?}. Perhaps, misinterpretation
of ????? -- Gente [German] 1728 Saxony (Freudenthal 1928:109) {Yente} -- ???? [Russian] 1780 Brest (RN 3:224) {Yente}
-- Jenta [Polish], ???? [Russian] 19th Lomza, Mariampol, Checiny, Hrubieszów (civil records) {Yente} --
*Yente [Yiddish] 19th Lithuania, Belorussia, Ukraine (surnames Entes, Entin and Entis; DJSRE 198) -- Gent [German]
1466 Rothenburg (Wehrmann 1976:238) {Yent} -- ???? [Hebrew] 1572, 1656 Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:22, 83; 2 persons)
{Yent} -- ???? [Hebrew] 1704 Cologne area (Jellinek 1881:26) {Yent} -- ?????, ???? [Hebrew] 1751, 1778 Amsterdam
(van Straten 1996:170) {Yent}.
Derivation scheme
Yentl
Yente [--e]
Yentle [--(l)e]
Yenle [simplification of consonantal cluster]
Yentli [--li]
Yentlkhen [--khen]
Yentl, Yente
Yentlin [--lin]
Yentkhe [--khe]
Yentele [--ele]
Yentke [--ke]
Yentshe [--tshe]
Yendl
Yendle [--e]
Yendkhe [--khe].
References to the derived forms
Jentli [German] before 1430 Baden (Chone 1935:3) {Yentli} -- ??????, ??????, ?????? [Hebrew] 1660----1794 Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:89, 488;
16 persons) {Yentle} ---- ??????, ?????? [Hebrew] 1675----1723 Prague (Hock 1892:367, 134; 5 persons) {Yentle}
---- Jentle [German] Frankfurt (Dietz 1907:4) {Yentle} ---- ?????? [Hebrew] 1725 Amsterdam (van Straten 1996:170)
{Yentle} ---- ?????? [Hebrew] 1792 Lorraine (Netter 1906:113) {Yentle} ---- Jentla [Polish] 19th Checiny (civil
records) {Yentle} -- ????? [Russian] Volhynia (Kulisher 1911:83) {Yentle} -- ????? [Hebrew] 1789, 1795 Frankfurt
(Horovitz 1901:468, 495; 2 persons) {Yenle} -- *Yentele [Yiddish] 19th Ukraine (surname Entelis; DJSRE 198) --
Jentka [Polish] 1928 Poland (SIZ 64) {Yentke} -- Yentke, Yentshe, Yentele [Yiddish] 20th Poland (Stankiewicz 1949:276,
277, 282) -- ??????? [Hebrew] 1298 South Germany (Salfeld 1898:45; 4 persons) {Yentlin} -- Jentlin [German transcription
from Hebrew] 1322 Worms (Grunwald 1938:79) {Yentlin} -- Gentlin [German transcription from Hebrew] 1376 Nürnberg
(Stern 1894:193) {Yentlin} -- Juntlin [Latin] 1414 Switzerland (Steinberg 1903:8) {Yentlin?} -- Gentelin [German] 1417 Pfalz (Ziwes
1995:309) {Yent(e)lin} -- ???????,
?????? [Hebrew] 1586--1729 Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:30, 204; 6 persons) {Yentlin} -- ?????? [Hebrew] Vienna (Frankl
1855:116) {Yentkhe} -- ??????, ?????? [Hebrew] 1725, 1777 Amsterdam (van Straten 1996:170) {Yentkhe} -- Jentche
[German transcription from Hebrew] 1760 Worms (Grunwald 1938:79) {Yentkhe} -- ??????, ?????? [Hebrew] 1734--1797
Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:223, 504; 16 persons) {Yendle} -- Jendle [German] 1802 Frankfurt (Klibansky 1924:105)
{Yendle} -- Jentelchen, Jentelgen [German] 1802 Frankfurt (Klibansky 1924:35, 79) {Yentlkhen} -- Jendche [German]
Frankfurt (Dietz 1907:4) {Yendkhe} -- ?????? [Hebrew] 1797 Frankfurt (Horovitz 1901:506) {Yendkhe}.
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© 2001, Alexander Beider