Spelling "aunt" in Polish

@kaprys

I looked it up. Belarusian for aunt is ciotka. So it's close. I know that whatever my grandmother spoke was not quite Belarusian. And maybe White Russian is not the right name either. Her name was Wojciechowski so I feel sure she was Polish -- and her immigration paperwork says Poland. But I know she didn't speak straight Polish because she was not fully accepted by the Polish community in her area due to her dialect -- and that was definitely a sour point for her. She felt shunned and embarrassed. She was also not educated. She only made it to 6th grade (in the US -- she had no school in Poland). Her family was very poor so it is possible that she spoke a dialect only used by the lower class -- which might explain her perceived shunning. I don't really know. It is interesting that someone else who was from a similar place in PA used the same words that my family uses -- lacking the a's -- for aunt and grandmother. For paternal grandmother we say Babka. I don't know what it is -- not quite Polish, not quite Belarusian. Something similar. My father's father was Polish. My father never new his grandfathers, but he spoke only Polish to his paternal grandmother. My father's mother was Ukrainian. And my father spoke only Ukrainian to his maternal grandmother. His grandmothers could not (and would not) speak to each other. Now he only speaks English. He lost both languages when he lost his grandmothers. Pretty sad. But I notice that he can still say mass in Ukrainian when we go back to PA and attend the Ukrainian Catholic church -- which is not often at all -- but he grew up in that church until he was 17. My maternal grandmother (babci) always referred to my father as "the Russian" -- even though he is really 1/2 Ukrainian and 1/2 Polish. Strange. When I try to ask my father what language my mother's family spoke, all he can say is "some form of Polish". My father's family has only ever used English words with us. I guess the whole Ukrainian / Polish mix was a divide in the family so they spoke only English after the grandmothers passed.

I'm from up the line a bit, Dupont, and Babci and Cioci were the normal forms among third generation kids grandmother and aunt there, including in my family. All of my grandparents spoke proper standard Polish, so it probably has nothing to do with the variety of Polish the grandparents spoke, but is more likely a matter of regional expression originating in the States.

@JeannineZ
Babka is Polish, too.
So is ciotka.
But Slavic languages are similar.

I think the key word here is 'ruski' in Polish which isn't only Russian but Ruthenian and that may also indicate Ukrainians and Belarusians.

I guess your Polish family came from Kresy.

Wondering whether the "Huzulen" are identical to the Ruthenians.

Hutsuls are a subgroup of Ruthenians. Not all Ruthenians are Hutsuls, though. Lemkos and Boikos are two other larger subgroups of Ruthenians.

Informative as always, DominicB! Many thanks:-)

Wow! I found this thread while trying to research "correct" spelling of Polish terms for relatives. Both pairs of my grandparents, as well as my husband's grandparents, immigrated from different areas of Poland at the beginning of the 1900s, settling in Polish communities in NH and MA. I grew up in a household where my parents spoke Polish when they didn't want the kids to know what they were talking about, while my husband spoke only Polish until he started school. I can say prayers and swears, ask for bread, a kiss, slippers in Polish (I'm hoping I might get by in Poland!) and I refused to let my children's heritage escape them.

What I've read on this thread echo the sentiments that have been bantered about in many family discussions over the past 50 years (choose one!): "That's not correct Polish." "What part of Poland is that from?" "That's not REAL Polish." Etc... Which leads me to consider the many factors that influence the transplantation of words in a Language and a Heritage...

The human factor: 2 adolescent brothers from Poland arrive together in Ellis Island after a long and cramped overseas voyage, and they are "next in line" as they pass through immigration together. But they are sent to 2 different immigration officials to speed up the line, and end up back together with two different spellings of their last name: 3 different letters change that same name and pronunciation from that moment on. They were my great-uncles.

There's a lot of political issues that Poland has suffered throughout its history. The people on this side of the tracks or that side of the river are still people and part of the same community even if the governments have different ideas. And then people follow those ideas...

I'm not going to touch religion in Polish Heritage, though it does bear mentioning: Roman Catholic, Polish National Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. It breaks my heart when people fight over the same one true Judeo-Christian God, when it's just really man-made rules that they disagree upon. I do not question a person's faith, as that is between them and God.

And let''s not forget the campfire story that changes from the original after much repeating.

My family calls my husband's aunts Choçia, my aunts Choçi, and while my sister's children call me Auntie, my brother's children call me Choch (a lovingly abbreviated form of Choçi). Our proudly Polish family does it's best to honor and pass down what's left in our heritage, traditions, and our loved ones. I'll consult a Polish/English dictionary when I need the "proper" translation and spelling of a word.

Aunt is ciocia in polish. Choci sounds more like some dialect maybe goralski.

?? Clearly she means cioci.....

@Cowgirl
That's what I came here looking for! My godmother is Polish, and her nieces & nephews call her what sounds like the word you wrote (chuci.) Is that pronounced "Choo-chee" or "Chuh-chee" or some other way? It seems like Cioscia or Ciotka are too formal, maybe like Auntie rather than Aunt.

It isn`t cioci, but ciociu - it is the vocative case when you address sb. It is pronounced - chyochyoo.

Click the speaker icon to hear it
context.reverso.net/t%C5%82umaczenie/polski-angielski/ciociu

@Nic27NotPole
Chuh-chee, at least in my family

Anything, as long as you don`t call her chow-chow.

is chachi a term you'd use when referring to your aunt or great aunt?

No, but close, it is cioca, pronounced in English as chiocha.

Ciocia

I would say: Ciociu

That's for when you address her directly...

Alien: Ciociu! Chcesz trochę herbaty?
Ciocia: Wolałabym trochę tej nalewki wiśniowej....

Alien: Auntie! Would you like some tea?
Ciocia: I'd prefer some of that cherry nalewka....

Precisely

Ciociu!, przecież wiesz ze nalewka ci nie słóży.
Auntie!, you know that Cherry is not gut for you.

And what are these?

Ha,ha, sorry Prof. służy and good.