Babcia or Busha - any social class difference?

This isn't a Polish word. What you presented is merely a phonetic spelling in Polish of a foreign word.

Poles would use the correct term "szkoła talmudyczna."

Anyway, I was going to say you should concern yourself more with the complete lack of racial diversity in such places, but then I came across this interesting news article published only last year and realized it is probably better they remain insulated from the wider society:

Former ultra-Orthodox sue over poor education - Erstwhile members of strictly religious communities seek damages from state that funded sytem they claim is inadequate

"They were already in their 20s the first time they ever heard about dinosaurs or even tried their hands at maths and English. Now a group of young Israelis who left the closed world of ultra-Orthodox Judaism are demanding answers from the state which funded their strictly religious education in Jewish seminaries, known as yeshivas."

Source: timesofisrael.com/former-ultra-orthodox-sue-over-poor-education/

Very very interesting. We used Babush.

Doesn't look nice, I prefer 'jeszywa'

The traditional prohibition against i after sz, cz, (d)ż and ł is strong enough that foreign words that contain those sequences tend to maintain their original spelling

that's why there's

chipsy instead of czipsy
gin instead of dżin
and
weekend instead of łikend

dżinsy is the only one that is much used but jeansy gets many more google hits than does dżinsy

Well, my great grandmother was often referred to by the family as Busha and when asked about it I was told it meant grandmother later on Busha told me it was a way to differentiate between mom's mom and dad's mom. She never told me why though, but I guess it was just something you grow up with like some people don't really ask about why their grandmother is grandma, ma, mawmaw, mammy, granny, nanny, nana, and other such names.

{Busha}
One of my cousins in the States used to refer to her paternal gran as babcia and her maternal one as busia. I never used busia but told my grannies apart by calling one Babcia Kazia (first name) and Babcia Kupczyńska (surname).

Busha was what we called our great grandmother Mary Zadlo. Since Im from Chicago, Il. It might have been shortened so the kids could all say it. It would be like saying gooma instead of grandma. Apparently, I called grandma baboo as a play on busha.

Thank you, Cindy L.. I was wondering if that was going to come up. My grandmother, born in Poland, used to use the same term. I don't know how it was spelled, but she said buh-zha, which I'm thinking is being spelled "Busha" on here.

She probably says "Bozia"
pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bozia
check the proper Polish pronounciation online.

@Bzibzioh
bushia and dziadzia are Polish

dziadzia yes, but bushia (busia?) is not used in Poland, babcia is the normal word.

It is used, if a family has more Ruthinian/Lithuanian origins they use that term.

I suspect "busha" is the corruption of "dać mi buziaka" by maybe a third generation decendent.

Probably closer to the Russian 'babuszka'.

Nah, rather of 'babusia', or could be a case of some local version that ii hasn't being used anymore but survived in the USA.


Influence of the Russian language is rather late, if anything it could be one of those local dialects, ruthenian or whatnot.

My maternal grandfather was of Kashubian decent and we as 3rd generation Polish in the United States used the Bushia for grandmother. However, my mother who spoke Polish up to 3rd grade, but who could still read Polish until her death, wrote it with a "z" and some type of diacritic symbol.

I just found an old Christmas card from my Polish great-grandma and it is signed Babcia, which I what I called her. She came to America in the early 1900's. My Polish cousin told me it has to do with social class.

I'm 53 from western ny. My great grandmother was referred to as busha. At her funeral there was more than one busha in the funeral home. We were told we were of polish decent. Keep in mind that the lines in Europe were redrawn in WW1 and WW2. During that time people scattered everywhere. Sometimes even claiming to be of different heritage to avoid discrimination and persecution.

Babcia we all know.
I have never heard Busha.
Maybe not a Polish word?
Others,more informed than I will,no doubt,answer your question.

Most likely a dialect word that mostly died out in Poland but pushed out other words in the US (very typical type of language process)

I am a 64 year old Polish descendent and in Chicago all Polish people called grandma Busha. So it's not new; it's been around quite a while.

Busha is a rough spelling of the word - I think they say Busia, which has a softer sound than Sh.


It is a shortened version of Babusia - granny.

I have a Polsko-Angielski Dykgyonarz; a Polish-English Dictionary, copyright, 1912 by L. Szumkowski. Baba-old woman. Babka-grandmother. Babski-womanish. My grandchildren do not call me the Polish word for grandmother, that would be too formal. They call me a diminutive of that word, which in English would be any granny; they call me Babci. And they tell me that there are a lot of grandmothers in the world, but only one Babci!

Thank you Polonius 3.As I was reading the comments from people about the the name Busha, JaJu and who taught it to them the critizim surprised me.These prople were respspecting their elders. as will I because I also have a busha and a jaju and am Polish. Busha ana Jaju managed to escape the Holocost just before their county got invaded

The endings should be different.

They call you Babciu.

There is only one Babcia.

My grandmother was born in Staw Noakowski, Lubelskie, Poland in 1896 but her birth certificate says Russia. Her family migrated to the USA in 1910 and settled in Wisconsin. My sisters and I called her Bush-shee (that is how we pronounced it but i have no idea how it should be spelled)

My grandfather was born in Wisconsin 1891as his parents had already migrated to the USA. His father was born in Leszno, West Prussia/Poland-Germany 1848.
His mother was born in Poland/Germany 1857. We were taught to call him Jah-jee (that is also how we pronounce it and I have no idea how to spell it.

I am not a language expert but here in the USA we have ma, mah, mama, mamie, mom, momma, mother and pa, papa, pop, poppa, dad, daddy, father and maybe others.

Regardless of how it came to be those are the pronunciations of the names we were taught to use.

No she wasn't. She was born in Russia.


Unfortunate.

Both of my great grandparents on both sides immigrated from Poland in the early 1910's. One in Jersey we called Babcia and the grandparents who lived in the Polish Village in Toledo we called Busia. Neither spoke much English but my Toledo grandparents were definitely more adept at English.....very interesting.

tlcg13: The part of the village named Staw Noakowski was and is in Poland. For 125 years Polish Kingdom was invaded by Russia, Prussia, and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Staw was in part of Poland annexed by Russia. This why in your grandma had stated in her passport not Poland but Russia. Mather of your grandpa, Jah-jee, most likely has her first name Jadwiga. I live in IL, 35 miles away from Chicago - if you need any help in your genealogy or pronunciation Polish language I can help you.

Nobody necro'd this thread since 2021, it was necro every year, i must do my part! Anwyay - American-Polish here and we call grandma Busha and Grandpa jaja, my Dad's side Polish blood grandmother has also heard of and knows the word Babushka means grandma, even though she has forgotten most of her Polish language originally. You say this Babushka may be a Russian pronunciation? She says they also would say Babusha as well. My grandmother estimates her parents moved here in 1890's they came directly from Poland she believes.

Now on my mother's side everyone is Russian, but has nothing to do with my grandmother on my Dad's side is full-blooded Polish or so we believe. She used to only know Polish and other kids had to translate for her to the teacher back and forth English, until she eventually learned English as well. But now that's all she can speak, she cannot read or write or speak polish anymore, except certain common words she understands.

So Busha is definitely an American-Polish version of Grandma. On my Russian side they never spoke Russian or knew of it anymore, and so there are no nicknames on that side of the family: grandma is grandma and grandpa is grandpa.

Er sorry her grandparents moved here in 1890 not her parents*