Babcia or Busha - any social class difference?

This is the most plausible explanation for the word:



You know nothing about my life, and your pretending that you do shows what a pompous fool you are, the fact that you are constantly on this forum trying to denigrate people reveals that it is you who is lacking things in your life to be proud of, hence this bizarre anti-social behavior on your part. All of my great-grandparents were from the occupied territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath and all of my great-grandmothers were Polish. If you want to keep trying to cast doubt upon the facts of my own heritage then keep trying, but you will only end up looking like more and more of a creep with some sick fetish for lying about people's ethnicity.


I do not take jobs from craven little internet trolls such as yourself. Stop pretending you know anything about me or my family. Seek psychological help Harry. Your behavior on this forum is a cry for help even if you are not consciously aware of it.

you are american. not polish

I am a Polish-American and you, Pip, are a sad purveyor of simplistic binary thinking.

Just to finally close this case ;) - a few more sources confirming that the word "busia" exists in Polish dialects:

1. Mieczysław Szymczak, "Nazwy stopni pokrewieństwa i powinowactwa rodzinnego w historii i dialektach je̜zyka polskiego" ("Names of degrees of kinship and affinity in history of Polish language and dialects").

books.google.pl/books?id=dm7RAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9Dmianowicie+busia%E2%80%9D&dq=%E2%80%9Dmianowicie+busia%E2%80%9D&hl=pl&ei=42isTprXN8XO-QbmobTqAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA

Forma babcia dominuje w Małopolsce, na Mazowszu i w Wielkopolsce (w sumie 132 zapisy), forma babusia - w dialekcie kociewkim, tucholskim, krajniackim, chełmińskim i północnowielkopolskim (w sumie 26 zapisów). Ta ostatnia na wymienionym terenie stała się w wielu wypadkach formą neutralną, w związku z czym funkcję hipokorystyczną przejęła forma będąca jej pieszczotliwym skróceniem, mianowicie busia, zanotowana przez nas na wymienionym terenie w jedenastu miejscowościach.

Again, "busia" is a hypocoristic form.

2. Mieczysław Karaś, Jerzy Reichan, "Słownik gwar polskich: opracowany przez Zaklad dialektologii polskiej Instytutu języka polskiego PAN w Krakowie" ("Dictionary of Polish Dialects...")

books.google.pl/books?ei=OKOqTqznOqjj4QSR2_nrDg&ct=result&hl=pl&id=IHRXAAAAYAAJ&dq=busia++s%C5%82ownik&q=busia#search_anchor

Busia - matka ojca lub matki.

3. Kazimierz Nitsch, "Mały atlas gwar polskich" (Small atlas of Polish dialects)
books.google.pl/books?id=GuhKAAAAYAAJ&q=Maly+atlas+gwar+polskich:+opracowany+przez+Pracowni%C4%99+Dialektologiczn%C4%85+Zak%C5%82adu&dq=Maly+atlas+gwar+polskich:+opracowany+przez+Pracowni%C4%99+Dialektologiczn%C4%85+Zak%C5%82adu&hl=pl&sa=X&ei=-b IET8foFYWZhQfJvs2iAQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA

na zachodnim Śląsku - babcia, w Wielkopolsce z Krajną - babusia, busia, babcia i babka, w Borach Tucholskich - babusia, busia i babka, na Kaszubach - babusia, babuśka, babcia, babka i sporadycznie babula, babulka.

4. Honorata Skoczylas-Stawska. Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa językoznawczego, "Z badań nad słownictwem pogranicza językowego wielkopolsko-śląsko-małopolskiego w województwie kaliskim." ("Research on language vocabulary in the borderlands of Silesia, Greater Poland, Little Poland, in Kalisz voivodship").

books.google.pl/books?id=Ef8oAQAAIAAJ&q=Nazwy+babka,+babcia,+babciuchna+busia&dq=Nazwy+babka,+babcia,+babciuchna+busia&hl=pl&ei=yGmsTovdHoGE-waGg83uDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA

Babcia, babciuchna, babusia, babuśka, busia, babunia...

5. An interesting finding (from 1879!) Antoni Małecki, "Gramatyka historyczno-porównawcza języka polskiego".
327. 3. Kategoryi trzeciej okazy:busia,babusia, babcia, Marysia . Władzia , ciocia itp
It is possible that this word was more common in the past.
books.google.pl/books?ei=erMET5GqIcSyhAfG9_zZCQ&hl=pl&id=8RQOAAAAIAAJ&dq=babcia+busia&q=+busia#search_anchor

These three shouldn't be overlooked:
6. "Słownik Gwary Mazurów Wieleńskich"
drawsko.freehost.pl/ok/30maja/Sandra/slownik.html

7. "Gwara babimojska".
babimojszczyzna.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=88

Link to Boletus' source - 8. Hanna Makurat, "Kociewskie babuś, buś na tle leksyki kociewskiej" ("Kocievian babuś, buś in the context of Kocievian lexis."), page 18.

"Babusia" (just like "Mamusia") IS a standard Polish word.
PWN dictionary: sjp.pl/babusia

The forms of "babcia" :
babcia -> babunia (a diminutive,common)
babcia ->babusia (a diminutive,in less common use but still existing in Poland today!) ->busia(the American-Polonia abbreviation and "busha" spelling )

just as
mama->mamunia (a diminutive,common)
mama->mamusia (a diminutive,common)

Merged: Ironside's take on busha !

Because the original thread has been closed I'm going to express my opinion in this brand new thread.
Please do not contaminate this thread with trolling and ramblings, only informative posters are welcome.

Busha (busia) is a legitimate Polish word.There are two reasons for it not being widely used in Poland:
One - it is diminutive of diminutive and for Poles it is like going over the top with diminutiveness and tenderness.
Two - in the Polish language busha (busia) doesn't sound good. I mean that sounds like something a small child would say - kids talk!

On the other hand it sounds easy to pronounce for somebody from the English-speaking environment, hence its popularity.
I think that there is nothing wrong with that. (Applause )

Yes, very legitimate - so legitimate that the PWN don't recognise it as such. Sorry, Ironside - but we, defenders of the Polish language, feel that the custodians of the language are far more of an authority than some Americans.


It doesn't sound good because it's not a Polish word.


Because "bab-cha" is so difficult, isn't it?

" Busha (busia) is a legitimate Polish word."
Really? Which page of the dictionary is it on?

You think people who use "Busia" know what a dictionary is?

As far as I know, no current dictioanry of American Polonian speech exists, but if it did, it would certainly record the very widepsread term busia. It is encountered far more often amongst the descendants of the old (late-19th/early-20th-century) Polish immigrants than the Polish term babcia.

What has Polish-American speech got to do with Ironside's point that it's a legitimate Polish word?

Busia is simply a word used by people who are too uneducated to use the correct word. Given that "Busia" was almost certain a peasant when she arrived, it does make sense.

This thread reminds me of 'Groundhog day'

Pretty much.

One thing is certain : it was never a word uttered by the elite of Polish society.

look, who cares? 'Nanny', in reference to grandmother, is not a word uttered by the elite of British society. Who gives one? People can call their relatives what the hell they like.

It is a legitimate Polish-American term just as legitimate as the speech of the Afros or other groups.

Busia is a diminutive/short of Babusia, nothing to do with peasantry. Why are you such a retard about all this..? I dare say your Polish is too crap to understand that words in Polish can be morphed and played with in ways unprecedented in Germanic languages.

Unlike in English, Polish is defined by a single authority - and any arguments about "legitimacy" should be referred to them. Anyway, it's a word of peasant origin.


Perhaps so, but don't try and claim that it's a Polish word.


It isn't according to the PWN.


No, I just accept that the PWN is a far more definitive source on Polish than some dumb internet rednecks.

(Busia, as has been proven countless times on here, has never existed in Polish as a whole)

Accept all you want but while you are at it you may as well accept the fact that language is not a static monolith but an ever-evolving, flowing entity. Knowing Polish failry well, I instinctively deducted its Babusia origin, but that obviously comes with a certain level of proficiency which you evidently do not posses. Heh why don't you come over to some Danish forum armed with Nudansk Ordbog and start telling Danes how they should speak Danish, it would be just as ridiculous as what you are doing here in this thread.

It is legitimate because its derived in accordance with inner logic of the Polish language - but of course you know nothing about that.


Sorry delphiandomine- are taking the **** here ? :D


So called custodians can only describe what is the official correct language, apart from that there is a living language out there.


Look who cares what you accept or not, your Polish is too crappy to make you an expert on it. Who are you to be telling people what is and what isn't Polish ? You are only the internet upstart,a wannabe authority on all things Polish, phew!

Growing up in Chicago I called my grandmother Busha/Busia.
When I visited Jaslo, where she originated and my cousins still
live, they never heard the name! They use Babcia... so I agree
it is regional.
(I have to laugh at the answer"The language is complicated enough
without adding any more embellishments".) :-)

In the 1950's in Hyde Park Chicago, my father called his mother what sounded like BUSHA. I don't speak Polish but he did with his siblings and mother. If so many people say that they used the word BUSHA, what is the problem? This word is not genocide.

Don't think it's a social class difference, most likely those families who use it have some roots to former Eastern Poland or the times of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

I remember my dad's grandmother on my grandmothers side be called Busia (and her husband Buś) while I called my grandmother Babcia.

The word is genocide against the Polish language.

Any linguistic genocide is being committed not by remote overseas Polonians but by Polish advertisers with their 'dwa w jednym', 'od Wedla' and myriad other non-Polish intrusions. They corrupt the language from within all the more effectively due to frequent repitition which distorts the public's lingusitic sensitivity.

It's a living language. If people overseas use a vestige of that language with archaic and slightly amusing forms like 'busia', then that is their choice and right, however mainstream Polish is the language that is spoken in Poland regardless of how it may change over the years, absorb influences from other languages, respond to technological and commercial advances in mass communication or otherwise develop.

My dad was born in 1918 in Pittsburgh Pa. His mother my grandmother was born 1889 in Galicia she was Polish and my Grandfather was Ruthenian/Ukrainian. My father spoke and I believe he also wrote both languages! We called my grandmother Busha, don't know how correct it was, but it seems that a good number of others with our background also called their grandmother Busha so it is what it is - Busha = Grandmother

Has anybody said it is? Busia and dziadzia (sometimes spelt jaja in America) are part and parcel of a multi-ethnic salad-bowl country like the USA. Would you also tell America's Afros they're wrong to say 'axe me a question' (instead of ask) or 'hep you' (may I help you? in service trades). It works both ways -- elements of English are found in ethnic-minority speech and their English also displays traces of their ancestral language. The Cannucks of New England and the Milwaukee Deutsch, Italo-Ameircans, Jews, Hispanics and others all display such linguistic tendencies. Are you against them all?

On another score, some people (without mentioning any names) would help this country the most if they went back where they came from rather than constantly badmouthing patriotic Catholic Poland.

another dictionary for Harry

drawsko.freehost.pl/ok/30maja/Sandra/slownik.html

busia - babcia

babimojszczyzna.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=88

stara-wisniewka.manifo.com/gwara

from net: monweg.blog.onet.pl/2009/01/20/babcie-i-dziadkowie/

Danuta Dejter "Test na dobrą Babcię"

Baba, Babcia, Babusia, Busia, Bubcia, Buleńka,

Babica, Babsko, Bunia, mała Babuleńka, Babka, Babisko, Anioł,

Słoneczko na niebie, - w którym z tych określeń poznajesz Babciu siebie?

Sofijufka, you should forget about it. The word "Busia" was only used by Harry as a weapon for fighting the Polish-Americans in his ever-going war against tradition, heritage and those who are not "leftist" enough in his plastic world of appearances. You, on the other hand, seems to be too "traditional", which means that you live in an unbalanced, "plastic" world of the past that will never return.

Yawn, ziemowit back telling yet more of his lies about me. As for Busia being Polish, even Polonius agrees with me that it isn't a Polish word and that it never has been one.