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ArchivesRe: Keile/Kayla/etc - Yiddish?
in reply to a message by ChanaRose
To the meaning "black" – this is possible by relating it to the German word Kohle "coal", and the shift in the vowel looks plausible. There is also the adjective kohlschwarz "black as coal".
Next association: Keiler "wild boar". In High German the feminine counterpart would be Sau "sow" or Bache "sow having piglets", so no natural connection of this word to a feminine name.
To ETA2: I wouldn't consider Geila as a cognate because Yiddish usually preserves the High German state of consonants, and hardening of G to K occurs only in the Southernmost dialects of German, but Yiddish comes from the middle-west German dialects. In fact, when considering G->K shifts, Abigail would be another candidate origin.
Next association: Keiler "wild boar". In High German the feminine counterpart would be Sau "sow" or Bache "sow having piglets", so no natural connection of this word to a feminine name.
To ETA2: I wouldn't consider Geila as a cognate because Yiddish usually preserves the High German state of consonants, and hardening of G to K occurs only in the Southernmost dialects of German, but Yiddish comes from the middle-west German dialects. In fact, when considering G->K shifts, Abigail would be another candidate origin.
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The main difference in the German (non-Jewish) pronunciation of Abigail is the letter b, the last two syllables may be contracted into one, giving /a-bee-giel/ as the result. Germanic Geila comes from a completely different root (by searching the submitted names for geil* you can find a few rare names with that root) and I don't think it is relevant here. It was never big in Old High German and later acquired the new meaning "horny" leading to the death of names containing that name element.
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