tāfele

tāfele

See also: tafele and tāfelē

Latvian

Tāfele

Tāfele

Alternative forms

• (dialectal or colloquial form) tāpele

Etymology

Borrowed from German Tafel (“blackboard”), itself from Middle Low German tavel, tavele, from Old High German tavala, borrowed from Latin tabula (“plank, board; tablet”). The first occurrences are in 19th-century Latvian literature. (J. Endzelīns preferred the variant tāpele, since it was closer to the original Latin source.)[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tāːfɛlɛ]

Noun

tāfele f (5th declension)

1. blackboard, chalkboard, whiteboard (rectangular surface normally used for writing for others to read)

   skolas tāfele ― school blackboard

   izsaukt pie tāfeles ― to call (a student) to the blackboard

   iet pie tāfeles ― to go to the blackboard

   rakstīt uz tāfeles ― to write on the blackboard

   noslaucīt tāfeli ― to erase, to wipe the blackboard (clean)

   pie tāfeles stāvēja Adatiņš un atbildēja latviešu valodu ― Adatiņš stood at the blackboard and answered/recited the Latvian language (lesson)

2. bar (a small portion of food, especially chocolate, in rectangular form)

   šokolādes tāfele ― chocolate bar

   Ingeborgas dzimšanas dienas rītā manā “Varoņa” mugursomā blakus mācību līdzekļiem tika ievietota zīdpapīrā ietīta šokolādes “Skaistā Latvija” tāfele; tā bija cienīga dāvana ― in the morning of Ingeborga's birthday, a bar of “Skaistā Latvija” (= “Beautiful Latvia”) chocolate, wrapped in silk paper, was placed in my backpack next to the schoolbooks; that was a worthy gift

Declension

Declension of tāfele (5th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	tāfele	tāfeles
accusative (akuzatīvs)	tāfeli	tāfeles
genitive (ģenitīvs)	tāfeles	tāfeļu
dative (datīvs)	tāfelei	tāfelēm
instrumental (instrumentālis)	tāfeli	tāfelēm
locative (lokatīvs)	tāfelē	tāfelēs
vocative (vokatīvs)	tāfele	tāfeles

References

1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “tāfele”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN