Talk:Oy vey

message: To put it mildly, there is absolutely no sense discussing the origin of this phrase, which is entirely Germanic, a fact that no scholar of Yiddish or linguistics has ever questioned; in Middle High German the phrase "ou wê" (and variants of it) occurs frequently, and this phrase persists in many Modern German dialects as "au weh" or "o weh." Apply the historical vowel changes and you get modern Yiddish "oy vey." Furthermore, in older Yiddish texts we find the interjection "או װײ," and though we may not know how this was pronounced, it proves that there is no connection between the ancient Hebrew noun "אױ" and the Yiddish interjection "אױ." This makes sense, since these texts predate the vowel change that turned various different vowels into "oy" in Yiddish. Bws2002 (talk) 14:50, 27 December 2005
:Thanks Bws, that's what I suspected. Do you want to make the appropriate edits?  RMoloney (talk) 20:46, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Origin of 'oy' and 'vey'

message: This article survived an Articles for Deletion debate. The discussion can be found here. Owen× ☎ 21:07, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Articles for Deletion debate

message: Does anyone know if the swedish expression "oj" (pronounced just like oy), meaning something like oops, has any connection with "oy". It certainly seems like it, but i wouldn't want to edit an article to find myself beeing completely wrong. 
OGOL 21:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmmm, by comparing the entries for Svenska Akademins Ordbok and Deutsches Wörterbuch, it seems plausible, but we'd need a better, more explicit source. On the other hand, interjections are often bad choices for etymology, since they're prone to occhur naturally, and are easily loaned between languages. (However, a common origin somewhere in the German-Dutch language continuum doesn't sound unlikely, from what I could find out.)  惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 10:01, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swedish "oj" 

message: I'm editing out this section it doesn't add anything to the article. Whispering 14:49, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's been put back. I tend to agree with you, and think that "popular culture" sections are too often used for "piles of stuff I find vaguely interesting", with a sudden lack of the quality control the rest of the encyclopedia gets. I've added an  template, and I think it would be perfectly reasonable for anything that's not sourced after a reasonable period to be removed. For example, the "Oy Oy Seven" Bond parody has no referencing at all, and should not remain. 86.132.138.84 (talk) 14:49, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  In popular culture 

message: The footnotes in the introduction are overused and sloppy. For instance, there are two different articles cited from two different papers, but they are clearly articles on the same story. The problem is they are used to cite two different things... That makes no sense and takes the legitimacy away from both of the citaitons. Citations are not to be arbitrarily doled out to one sentence or another. They are supposed fit with sentences/clauses like a locks and keys. There are a lot of arbitrary citations here... Someone should fix... ask123 (talk) 19:10, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Arbitrary citations 

message: In German we say "oh je!" to express anxiety, shock or dismay. It is pronounced almost like "oy vey!". As we have quite a few Yiddish loanwords in German language, AND there are lots of German words in Yiddish, I cannot figure out where it orginally comes from. Does anybody know?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.236.54.118 (talk) 21:35, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think you could say that there are Yiddish words in German. Yiddish is basically German with some Hebrew words. TFighterPilot (talk) 21:05, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

text: Oje! is a minced oath for O Jesus! (Which is probably the source of Polish Ojej!, transformed then into Ojejku, Ojejuśku etc. There's also northern Polish O jeny (kochany)! for O Jezu (kochany)!, but I don't know if it's native or e.g. derived from Low German). Jews mostly used to adhere to Rabbinic Judaism, so they wouldn't swear upon Jesus. 89.64.68.227 (talk) 16:48, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Oh je" in German  

message: Im German and I've absolutely never heard anyone use this expression. Sounds like something someone foreign to the german language might say.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.243.48.2 (talk) 23:39, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In Polish, there's old-fashioned Gwałtu! (genitive, not nominative, with partitive meaning, analogical to Wody! "[give me some] water!"), meaning "Help!" (the notion is that others might not be able to overpower the attacker, or even see anything in the dark, but if they make enough noise [Gewalt], the attacker may get scared away). Perhaps it's Gwałtu! and not some German usage that was rendered as Oy gevalt!. 89.64.68.227 (talk) 17:32, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Au Gewalt ?" 

message: Turkish word "Eyvah" is also used as an exclamation when faced with a disaster. Used with an exclamation mark when in writing. Spoken sound is very similar to the "Oy veh"
 
eyvah    Far. eyv¥h 
ünl. (eyva:h) Beklenmedik, kötü, hoşa gitmeyen bir haber veya olay karşısında duyulan acınma, üzülme sözü:
 
eyvah excl. (eyva:h) Word of pity or sadness expressed to an event or news that is unexpected, bad or disliked.
 
Taken from Turkish Language Society website link http://tdkterim.gov.tr/bts/ (search function for dictionary)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.215.110.15 (talk) 21:46, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The Turkish word looks like it's from Arabic (cf. ʔaywa). Arabic is related to Hebrew, but not to Germanic languages like Yiddish. 89.64.68.227 (talk) 23:07, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eyvah - Turkish Word with same meaning 

message: Please add whoever is editing this page:
Peter Sellers's character Dr.Fassbender in 1965 movie What's New Pussycat at 1º37'48 exclaims "Oh Vey!". 
The screen writer is none other than Woody Allen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.215.110.15 (talk) 22:06, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Popular culture addition 

message: As stated above the pop culture section is currently nothing but a trivia list, a clear violation of the MOS (see Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Trivia_sections). For whatever reason Nikkimaria has an emotional attachment to this. I have tagged the section appropriately and the tag needs to stay until the section is fixed. There are three possible remedies:
# The listed material can be moved into other sections of the article and discussed in a meaningful way.
# The whole section can be rewritten to be a serious discussion of the significance and meaning of the phrase in modern culture.
# The section can be removed altogether.
--192.88.165.35 (talk) 20:12, 13 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  In popular culture (redux) 

message: The article says that the full phrase, "oy vey ist mir" translates to "Oh, woe am I."  I know we're talking dialects here, rather than textbook German, but surely that can't be correct.  Shouldn't it rather be "Oh, woe is to me"?  I would think the "Oh, woe am I," would come out something like "oy vey bin ich." Uporządnicki (talk) 19:30, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Translation of full phrase--incorrect? 

message: this guy on the internets said this on a forum & I thought, given the potential pronounciation of the greek in question, that this may be of some importance regarding the history of "oy vey"...  Just thought I'd share it, in case anyone ever had the means to maybe look into the implications.  
"θε να (also seen written as θε' να) represents an intermediate stage in the transformation of ancient/classical θέλω 'ίνα + subjunctive clause ("I want that...") into the Modern Greek particle of future tense, θα."
What I mean is, mispronouncing "θε να" as "oy vey" would obviously lead to such a mispronunciation claiming right to an expression that basically means "oh well".  If you get where I'm coming from here.Lostubes (talk) 01:30, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Have you actually checked the pronunciation of the Greek you're citing? I doubt it. This wouldn't be just "irregular development", this would be "bananas development". 89.64.68.227 (talk) 23:09, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  bad Greek? 

message: Eminem's song, Rap God, uses "oy vey" in the lyrics.
Je6johns (talk) 06:08, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
replies: text:  please provide a reliable source for the information you want added.  G S Palmer (talk • contribs) 15:08, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 10 December 2014 

message: when i read "oy vey ist mir", which does alrdy include the two originally german words "ist" (is) and "mir" ("me" in the meaning of "to(wards) me) and combined it with the "oy vey" which alrdy does sound like "oh weh!" (in it's originally meaning, you would say "oh...god/fuck/damn!"), i figured out "oh weh ist mir", a sentence that was used in southwestern germany in until the last 100 years. my (dead) grandma's vocabulary could have easily include this sentence, it's expressing that you do not feel well. nothing magic, nothing special, just "i don't feel good"; if you do need a word-for-word translation, take "so sick is me!". greetings from germany, --78.43.41.5 (talk) 03:22, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  forget about the other german comments, get THIS! 

message: Can we consider this phrase as an anti-semitic slur to the Jewish people according to the Conspiracy theorists?
02/14/19  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.146.131.227 (talk) 00:25, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: How so?  Do you have any reliable sources that say this?  The phrase is a bit stereotypical, but not so much that non-Jews don't use it humorously.  I don't think that would constitute a slur, even if deliberately used as part of a racial caricature.  P Aculeius (talk) 14:00, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not really a slur, but it's often used by the alt-right to express anti-semetic remarks , an example would be "oy vey the goyim know". I found some articles here: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/beyond-three-more-ways-to-troll-the-internets-nazis https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/the-goyim-knowshut-it-down https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/04/19/day-trope-white-nationalist-memes-thrive-reddits-rthedonald https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/04/19/day-trope-white-nationalist-memes-thrive-reddits-rthedonald. And for some more examples just browse /pol/ archives: https://archive.4plebs.org/pol/search/text/oy%20vey/. I think it's important the Wikipedia documents alt-right dog whistles better.95.168.158.121 (talk) 23:15, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Insult

message: Hi! There should be a redirect page at Gevalt liking here. Regards
no bias — קיין אומוויסנדיק פּרעפֿערענצן — keyn umvisndik preferentsn talk contribs 09:27, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Gevalt]] versus [[Gevolt]] 

message: Chabad is a cult and should not be a validated source for Orthodox Judaism. This is akin to anti-semitic white washing of Judaism. CHABAD is NOT JUDIASM. 
יחי אדוננו מורנו ורבינו מלך המשיח לעולם ועד
"Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu v'Rabbeinu melech hamoshiach lolam vaed!"
Long live our master, our teacher and our rabbi king moshiach forever and ever.
This song is an anthem of the messianic branch of the Chabad movement which venerates Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. (The Chabad version of Jesus) AKA not Judaism.
Moshe Feinstein - the Haredi Posek declared that "Chabad is the CLOSEST thing to Judaism." Chabad is not actual Judaism and should never be promoted as such on a platform like Wikipedia.org
 --This is not Judaism. This is Chabad cult worship and anti-Judaism. 188.26.252.25 (talk) 23:14, 8 June 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:41, 8 June 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2021 

message: I think the chabad.org staff are not a reliable source in the field of linguistics and should not be used in the article. HueSurname (talk) 08:22, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chabad as a source in the field of linguistics