{"id":2956,"date":"2012-03-13T22:04:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T22:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2012-03-13T22:04:57","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T22:04:57","slug":"how-to-call-your-grandmother-in-polish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/how-to-call-your-grandmother-in-polish\/","title":{"rendered":"How to call your grandmother in Polish?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polish grandmother: babcia, babunia, baba, babka…<\/strong>.Which one of these word is correct one to use? Well, each one of them. It just depends on your relation to “her” and the situation.<\/p>\n

“Babcia”<\/strong> is the most popular and this form is used the most in Poland. I noticed that a lot people in USA say: “babciu”<\/strong> or “babci”<\/strong>. Both are correct, but “babciu” is used\u00a0merely as an endearing way to say it to your Grandmother, if you are close to her and speaking to her directly.<\/p>\n

Kocham ci\u0119 babciu!<\/strong> – I love you grandmother<\/p>\n

“Babci” on the other hand you use when you for example say:<\/p>\n

Jad\u0119\u00a0do mojej babci<\/span><\/strong> –\u00a0I’m driving to my grandmother<\/p>\n

To jest sweter babci<\/span><\/strong> – This is babcia’s sweater\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Babunia”<\/strong> is another word for Grandmother.\u00a0 “Babunia<\/em>” is only used when speaking to children about their beloved Babcia in an endearing manner, however, that is not her title.\u00a0 Grandmother’s title is still “Babcia<\/em>“, it is only used in a sentence like “Your\u00a0babunia<\/em>\u00a0is coming over today for dinner” – Twoja babunia przychodzi na kolacj\u0119.\u00a0<\/strong>Babunia is also used a lot in the children stories and books.<\/p>\n

“Baba”<\/strong> is usually used by toddlers, who can not pronounce “babcia”. It also\u00a0means “old lady” or “woman” (not a nice description of a woman though – for example “g\u0142upia baba”<\/em> – stupid woman). It is usually an insult, unless spoken by a little baby.<\/p>\n

“Babka”<\/strong> is similar – rude way, usually used if you do not like your grandmother, used sometimes by teenagers in the conversations with their friends. (It is also a name for a specific Polish cake).<\/p>\n

I think it is better to just stay away from baba<\/strong> and babka<\/strong>, because if you use them incorrectly, you are being very rude.<\/p>\n

Then there are also other words used by people: busha, babusza, busia, buba, bubi, bousha…<\/strong>which are not correct according to Polish grammar.<\/p>\n

Some people are going to read this and adamantly argue that the words I stated above which were the correct way to say “Grandmother” are not true because in their Polish American families they use the other words which I explained were not the correct way.\u00a0 However, there is another history and linguistics lesson in this.<\/p>\n

I would encourage anyone to look in an English-Polish Dictionary to see what is written in the English section for “Grandmother”, then try to find the other words in the Polish section.<\/p>\n

There is also an explanation to this in Polish history. Poland prior to WWII was not all completely Polish, actually it had a diverse ethnic populace, with Jews, Italians, Greeks, Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, etc. living within it’s borders.\u00a0 So, just because a family member came from Poland, does not always mean they were ethnically Polish.\u00a0 I would encourage everyone to look into their family geneology, we all have amazing surprises to discover.\u00a0 Also, there was a time when some Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Russians were labeled as Polish when they came to America and the immigrant just went with that, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n

Also, due to the Partitions in Polish history, there was for about 200 years a time when Poles spoke more than one language, usually Russian, Austrian (Austrian German), or Prussian (German).\u00a0 In some areas and certain periods during that time, Polish was not allowed to be taught or used.\u00a0 So, some Polish families who came to America, used Russian or German words for certain things or people.<\/p>\n

Poles have lived in many places besides Poland for many centuries, just like all other nationalities, or ethnicities.\u00a0 Poles have lived in France, England, Germany, Ukraine, etc. and would have adopted certain words and other cultural habits from their host country, and therefor would have brought that with them when coming to America.<\/p>\n

That is it for the “babcia” subject:) I’m looking forward to your comments about it!<\/p>\n

Do nast<\/strong>\u0119pnego razu… <\/strong>(Till next time…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish grandmother: babcia, babunia, baba, babka….Which one of these word is correct one to use? Well, each one of them. It just depends on your relation to “her” and the situation. “Babcia” is the most popular and this form is used the most in Poland. I noticed that a lot people in USA say: “babciu”…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,6,2391,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-grammar","category-phrases","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2959,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/2959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}