Ethnic terms

[Jules Levin]

I was happy to see that Alexander Boguslawski again picked up this
delightful genre.  I've been racking my brains trying to compete with all my
polyglot erudite colleagues.  Here are a couple of modest contributions:

>>From my Fulbright student days in Oslo, Norway, I remember

     jodiske priser [with a slash through the 'o', of course] 'Jewish
     prices'.   This refers to prices like '19.95' or '29.99'

I will also share with my non-Jewish friends the Yiddish expression

     goyim-nakhas    This is hard to translate without an explanation.
Nakhas is the pleasure you get from your children's accomplishments that you
can brag about, like getting into Harvard law school.  "Goyim-nakhas",
i.e., Gentile nakhas, refers to accomplishments like leaping over twenty
burning barrels on a motor cycle, or winning first prize in a
beer-chuga-lug contest.

Since Alex has included Proper names, e.g., Frits, in his collection,
although I'm not sure that is part of the original assignment (maybe IF they
are associated with ethnic groups it is okay), let me point out that Russian
'Fon' was army slang (I believe WWI army as well as Red) for a 'German',
derived from the G name prefix 'Von'.  Curiously, Russian Yiddish slang for
an ethnic Russian is 'fonya' derived from 'Vanya'.  I have wondered whether
Jewish soldiers on the Eastern fronts used both 'Fon' and 'Fonya' for their
enemies and comrades-in-arms respectively.
Jules Levin
Department of Literatures and Languages
University of California
Riverside, CA  92521