Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 1 no. 98
November 13, 1991
 
1) Sissel (Noyekh Miller)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 13 Nov, 91
From: nmiller@trincc
Subject: Sissel

Let's review the evidence about sissel bread or
seeds thus far.

First, it's generally agreed that sissel bread is dark
and heavy.  It may or may not be seeded.  (Harry Bochner,
Fayvel Miller, Elliot Wolk).

Second, sissel seeds are either caraway or sesame or
something larger than caraway seeds (but not to be
confused with nigrela) (Bochner, Miller).

Third, what's 'sissel' in Providence may be 'shissel'
in Worcester (all of 44 miles away) (Wolk).

At this point it occurred to me that Hartford might
also be a player.  I therefore called my friend Lillian
H., a native and old enough to know a few things.
Indeed 'shissel' bread was baked here as well.  And
with this fillip: even though her family were Litvaks
and would normally have said 'sissel', they were taught
to pronounce it 'shissel'.  

A Id gibt zikh an eytze.  The fact that Stutchkoff is
silent on the matter _might_ suggest that we're dealing
with an American word.  (He tried, to be sure, to include
American Yiddish as well but no one could expect him to
cover such variants as Yankee Yiddish.) This might also
explain why my Litvak friend pronounced the /sh/.

[This explanation depends on the sur-le-champ (al regl
achas?) assumption that speakers of Litvak persuasion were
perfectly capable _in this country, where the /sh/ is
spoken_ not only of pronouncing the /sh/ but of
distinguishing between old-stock Yiddish (which continued
to be pronounced af Litvish) and new words that belonged to
the new world.  I hope the linguists will shoot this one
down before I do even more damage.]

My own first thought about sissel was that it derived from
sweet cicely until I learned that the herb in question
(myrrhis odorata) is used for its leaves, not its seeds.
This line of speculation was faintly revived by Fayvel
Miller's mention of the possibly eponymous Providence baker
named Zisl, a name which in turn is often translated into
English as Cecil or Cecile.  But probably a dead end.

Vi halt men baym davenen?  Based on the evidence so far I
would say, conservatively, that we're hopelessly lost.

Vos shaykh 'nigrela' (again Favvel Miller).  I assume that
what's meant here are the large black rectangular seeds we
used to get from some bakeries.  It's curious that there's
no specifically Yiddish word for them.  I also wonder
whether nigrela is the same as nigella sativa aka fennel-
flower (not be confused with fennel) and a member of the
buttercup family.  They're also known as Russian caraway.
Tam ganeden.

Noyekh

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End of Mendele Vol 1.98