Spelling "aunt" in Polish

How do you spell Aunt in Polish?

Ciocia or Ciotka

Thank you. Would you know the spelling of grandfather and grandmother as well?

Dziadek- grandfather
Babcia- grandmother

I would rather say "dziadziuś" for my grandfather. But it's harder to pronunce, I know ;-)

Buziaki
Edyta

Dziadzia and Busia are shorter forms, like grandpa and grandma.

W jakim języku jest ta BUSIA?:) tyle lat zyje w Polsce i pierwszy ra to widze:)

it's not polish short form for grandma

Some 2 years old children wouldn't agree.

I'm sure children from Poland wouldn't know what's "busia" . Can u tell me Grzegorz where in Poland (what region) they know what's "busia". I really want to know.

Usually grandma is :babcia, baba or babunia.
:)

maybe "busia" is short for "babusia"???
Any 2 year old would probably use the shorter version

Yes :)

I've never heard of "busia", too. Maybe some children use it, I don't know, but I can't imagine an adult calling his grandmother "busia", really.

Oh! And 2 year old children I know use "baba" rather than "busia" (it's easier to pronunce and is similar to "tata" and "mama" - children who start talking often use this kind of words, with repetition of one syllable - "bumbum" for a car, "miał-miał" for a cat, etc. At least, that's what they've told us at the lectures :-))

Buziaki
Edyta

I found this link just today while Googling something, so I am a very late responder. If anyone is still reading this thread and cares to know...

I grew up in a working class city just south of Detroit called Wyandotte that had and still has a large Polish population. My mother was born in Poland and grew up in that town with her parents. Her parents were always Busia and Dziadzia to me as a child and through adulthood. In addition, I attended a Polish Catholic school and EVERY kid there called his or her grandparents busia and dziadzia. Makes me wonder if busia and dziadzia are terms that were used by certain socio-economic classes (e.g., working class vs, professional).

Hi Wyandotteguy

I live up in Utica. What school did you go to. Most of the Polish Catholic schools by me have been closed for ages.

lf99

I attended Our Lady of Mt Carmel, but it is now closed as are most of the small catholic schools that were in the area. Several of the churches that supported the schools are still there, but not the schools.

I attended Mt Carmel through 8th grade, but graduated from the public high school, Theodore Roosevelt.

I've heard it used to be ciota in old Polish, hehehe

For grandmother we were told "Babci"
I also remember for Aunt was "chuci"

ciocia
wójek

babcia
dziadek

a couple of the variations mentioned are kids' talk. everything else in this thread is made up or something...

Ciotka (ciocia) and wujek

There is also obsolete (more or less, depending the region of Poland) forms: stryj and stryjenka. BUT these are not equal to wujek/ciocia.
Wujek is our parent brother, while stryj is our parent sister's husband.
Ciotka is our parent sister, while stryjenka is our parent brother's wife.

In other words: stryj is ciotka's husband, while stryjenka is wujek's wife.

I am 30 years old and grew up calling my grandparents "Busia and Dziadzia". My brother had a Polish girl working out at his gym, and told him what he called his grandparents. She said there is no such thing as "busia". I was just googling and found a website that sells baby clothes (i was searching for my little boy), and found T-Shirts that said "Busia's angel". This re-opened the discussion about whether or not Busia is a word. I have now come to the conclusion that if enough people call someone by the name Busia, it may not be correct, but it certainly exists. :)

My family calls grandmothers "busia" and grandpas "dziadzia". All of my great-grandparents immigrated from Poland around the 1900s.

I called my favorite aunt "cioteczka".

there is no need to debate whether "busia" is a word from polish dictionary. :-) There is a word from childreen`s vocabulary. All kids all over the word create their own words. When I was child I used to name sockets as "taptepty"..or "potatos" as "taptule" ... 'Wujek" ( uncle) was for me for years simply "bujek" . Of no availe is to look for it in all dictionaries of a world :-) . Some of theese words remain in future as normal family slang ( e.g. busia) ..some of them pass away to history - when you get older - and live only in memory

Hello, this was the right thing that you have done. I don’t think that you were wrong.
All the best!

what about "stryjenka"

How about reading the thread first

Hey Wyandotteguy.....I just found this forum and have been reading quite a bit. I grew up in Wyandotte also. Live out on the left coast now, but I was born at Wyandotte General and lived in Michigan until the mid 80's. Maybe it's a regional thing, because my grandparents were always called Busia and Dziadzia as well.

Interesting, back when I took Polish classes, I was taught different, and I just looked up my textbook to see if I remembered right.

What it says is that wujek is a maternal uncle (your mothers brother) and that stryj is a paternal uncle (your fathers brother).

That is correct
stryj: father's brother, stryjenka: father's sister