Babcia or Busha - any social class difference?

My father told me what to say. I was 6 years old and adorable; my granny and aunt's favorite. My pop got the scolding and I got the hugs and kisses.

I'm from Pa. also, and we always called my grandmother Babcia or I'd say "my Babci". My grandchildren now call my Mom "Babcia".

Bucia not Busha

What is the word for Grandma or Grandmother in Polish?
How do you pronouce it?

Babcia word (merged to the thread)

My great grandmother was referred to as "BUTTcha" (phonetically) by my mother. Here family came from Poland, and lived in Newcastle PA. Is this just a mispronunciation of babcia? Maybe it was easier for my mom to say when she was little.

I always call both my mother's and father's mothers "Busia"...and my grandfathers "Dziadzia".

lol Babka... isn't that some sweet bread? I recall using the word when I was young, I haven't even heard the word or known of the bread before using it.. I just sort of thought it up... I called my grandmother that once and my mother explained what a 'Babka' really is..

Babcia is definitely more common.

Hi,
I'm from New England and I am the first generation here (father's side) and we always called our grandmother Babci.

I'm trying to get the correct spelling for Busha (grandma) and jaja (grandpa). Can anyone help? Thanks so much!

busia, babcia - grandma
dziadzia, dziadek - grandpa

We called our grandmother "Buscia". I was told that the dialect of Polish my grandparents spoke was very uneducated. I also heard it is from a dialect of Kaszubian.

I wonder if the busia/babcia difference depended upon WHEN one's family left Poland and from WHERE in Poland they came. I live in the midwestern United States, not in Pennsylvania or Chicago. The Polish immigrants who settled here in the early 1900s were primarily poor farmers from the Tarnow area in Poland, and they all called their grandmothers "busia," so we continued to do so.

I never heard "babcia" until I visited Poland several years ago and our young tour guide said that it was the correct term, not "busia". He was a 20-something guy from Warsaw,

It got me to thinking whether babcia was used in the big city of Warsaw or if it simply may be a more modern term than busia. Could this be one possible reason for the differences?

How about Dziadzia for grandfather?

Buscia is the old Polish way of saying grandmother.

My family resides in South Bend, IN

We've always called our grandmothers Busha.

well my mom called her step-grandma namae & her grandpa zampa but thats just how they said grampa & grandma when they where babies

My Great Great Grandmother was from Poland. The family called her Busha which I learned meant grandma.

I am from the New Castle, PA area, and we called our grandmother Babcie. (pronounced BUP she).

My great great gandmother who lived in Chicago was from prussia and we called her busha and we call my grandmother who lives in milwaukee busha as well.

This has been going on for ages, but, since patience is a Christian value, here goes again: busha, busia, babci or bobchee are all in substandard Anglo-Polish jargon used in some US Polonian families, BYT THEY ARE NOT IN POLISH! The Polish word for grandmother is babka and popular hypocoristic forsm include babcia, babunia and

babuleńka.

My family lived around Philadelphia with the grandparents in Wilmington and we always called grandmother Babci (bah-chi) and grandfather Dziadzia. Great grandfather was Dziadek.

Hello,

Someone told me that Babcia is more Polish.

Busha is more Russian.

I think it depends on what part of Poland you are from.

lf99

Hi, I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, and my grandmother taught us to call her mother, who hailed from Krakow, "Baba" (pronounced: bah' bah). After she passed away, we called my grandmother Baba. In light of this thread, where on earth do you think that came from?!? Anyone else call their Polish grammies "Baba"??..

very small babies who learn how to speak call her grandmathers "baba"

Babcia :)

And all my Polish books when I was little said Babcia too :)

Aaaah, that explains it, Magda! She probably taught us to say "Baba" when we were toddlers... and then the name stuck!

Hah hah! :-)

Thanks for clearing up yet another family mystery!

We call my grandfather 'budka', I don't know why as I know dziadek means grandfather, apparently it's a Polish word though, anyone know what it means?=/

"Budka" in Polish basically means "little shed" or "booth". I can't think of any names off-hand that it could be short for... especially since "budka" is a feminine noun. Weird.

Babka - it is unpolite word - if someone calls his grandmother babka it means he does not like her.
Babcia it the proper one, babusia, babunia, babus are made for the very loving babcia by their gradnchildren. And from these words you get words that show even more affection - busia, bunia etc.

Baba - it is toddlers word for babcia - as you can see it is much easier to pronounce.

Babushka - we used to call old women in scarfs babushka because it is russian word for babcia and all older women in Russia used to wear scarfs - there is no such word in Polish - this is russian word!

Dziadek is the grandfather - dziadzius, dziadzia if you want to show your love and you are more bounded to your grandfather.

It is the same with mama - mamusia - like in English mom - mommy. In English you have grandmother, granny, nanny, nana - you probably would call your grandmother "grandmother" but granny i.e and it is the same in polish - I call my grandmother babcia, my kids used to call their maternal grandmother babus and paternal babcia - the diffrence in names is because they are more bounded with my (maternal granny) mother than my mother-in-law. And it does not matter from which part of the country you are - it depends more on the family and in polish immigrants case - how well they speak Polish :)


and i forgot - dziadzia is the toddler word for dziadzius as it is easier to pronounce for babies - it is different with immigrants as they always choose the easier form hence your dziadzia, baba, busia (shorter is easier than original babusia) or "babci"

- oh I know why you call your babcia - "babci" - probably because you could hear it always - "go to your babci" - idz do babci - this is polish grammar - who? - babcia , to whom? babci :)

I hope you could understand my English ;)