All Slavic Languages: BCS (bauk), Rus (бука)

Slogos

Slogos

Member
Russian
While working on some unrelated research, I have stumbled upon a word that seems to be represented in a great variety of Indo-European languages:

Serbo-Croatian: bauk/баук
Russian: бука
English: bogey/bogeyman/boogie man
Middle English: bugge
German: bögge/böggel-mann
Greek: Μπαμπούλας
Czech: bubák

These are all references to a mythical creature used to frighten children into good behavior.

I would appreciate it if other Slavic speakers on this forum could comment on any cognates they can think of in their respective languages.
 
Last edited:
    • Panceltic said:
    We have bavbav in Slovenian (pronounced [ˈbaːu̯ˈbaːu̯]).
    Click to expand...

    Excellent! In Russian and Ukrainian, there is another version of this word, “бабай”, that is directly related to the Slovenian word you mentioned.
     
    In Polish in the 16th and 17th century literature you can find the words bobo and bobak, which meant a mythical creature used to frighten children. This word could also mean a 'scarecrow'. Now it doesn't exist in our language, as far as I know.
     
    marco_2 said:
    In Polish in the 16th and 17th century literature you can find the words bobo and bobak, which meant a mythical creature used to frighten children. This word could also mean a 'scarecrow'. Now it doesn't exist in our language, as far as I know.
    Click to expand...

    Very interesting! The Middle English word “bugge” meant “scarecrow” as well. I believe in Slavic languages, we use derivatives of the Proto-Slavic words *straxъ or *pǫditi for “scarecrow”.
     
    Last edited:
    Interesting one in Italian: babaù - imaginary entity that scares children (Treccani; also as barabàu with the same meaning). An etymological dictionary gives it as originating in onomatopoeia: bau-bau, as the sound of a 'raucous voice'.

    It might be a general intuition among speakers of Indo-European descendants that a scary apparition should sound something like ba/o-.
     
    In Russian, buka is something for scarying children (as a joke,it is not serious). Like:"If you don't wash your legs/eat your dinner/do your hometask/...etc., a buka will come to you".

    Or sometimes,it is believed by children that bukas live under beds and in wardrobes. This is often not a serious belief,also like a joke.
    But what a buka is similar to,personally I don't know,there are hardly any stereotypic images.
    Bukas also exist in our folklore...But you'd better google it.
     
    Allienella said:
    "If you don't wash your legs/eat your dinner/do your hometask/...etc., a buka will come to you".
    Click to expand...
    Actually, there's no such word as "hometask." Nor is there a set phrase "home task." No one says so in English, except for the natives of the East-Slavic languages, Esperanto and maybe Hindi.
    If you say "home task", you may be easily misunderstood: first of all, native English speakers will immediately think of something like "housework"; secondly, it's a super rare word combination.

    Which is why I highly recommend using the normal word "homework".

    A couple of useful links with natives' opinions:
    1. Which one is correct: "Homework" or "Home Task"?
    2. What's the difference between "homework" and "hometask"? Hometask - that the teacher gives to do and "homework" - that I do at home?
    3. https://hinative.com/questions/9404968
    4. Hometask - English Vocabulary - English - The Free Dictionary Language Forums
    5. 😨🇬🇧 SOUND NATIVE-LIKE: STOP SAYING HOMETASK!.. | Paul Newson | VK – a Londoner; and a screenshot from the comments: https://i.ibb.co/2qVCDmX/m4-C2-Nf-CFm8.jpg
    6. youtu.be/GSu3evmKMqY?t=137

    If you can read Russian, here's a profound discussion with an experienced English native (johnstephenson) and a bunch of translators:
    dic.mt/C94 (English-Russian forum – Multitran dictionary)
     
    Last edited:
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top