Briefly:

  • Another "brand" with the word "bulbash" appears in Belarus.

    Surveys show that the public's attitude to this word is ambiguous.

  • But the word "bulbash" is not Belarusian, but Russian.

    It is not found in the Belarusian folk-dialect language or in dictionaries.

  • However, it is not even in the dictionaries of the Russian literary language - it is only in the dictionaries of Russian slang.

  • The word is formed with the help of the suffix -ash, which is characteristic of jargonisms and words with a derogatory meaning (torgash, alkash, eldash).

  • It arose in the mid-1940s, at first it meant the military of UPA chief Taras Boravets ("Potatoes").

  • It entered Russian criminal slang with the meaning "Belarusian", from there - into army slang, where it was heard by Belarusian men who served in the Soviet army.

  • The word "bulbash" is not a self-name, but an exoethnonym, a name by which a certain nation is called by other nations.

  • People's nicknames based on their gastronomic preferences are known to be derogatory.

  • The Irish are offended when they are called Potato-eaters, even though they eat more potatoes than Belarusians.

  • But the word "bulbash" is popularized and actually announced as a nickname for the people by the main character of television news.

    As a result, the owners of the "Bulbash" brands respond to protests against the derogatory name confidently and aggressively.

The dispute is not new.

I was hooked again when some time ago an advertisement of the children's center "Bulbashik" appeared in my Green Meadow.

Advertisement of the children's center "Bulbashyk".

Minsk

There is "bulbash

i

" - why not "

bulba shikam"

Called the ad number.

They answered (politely, as a possible customer).

No, Belarusian-speaking groups are not planned.

I asked what the name of the center meant and if it was confusing to anyone.

As if waiting for the question, the interlocutor interrupted: "As you noticed, we have an emphasis on a

cheerful mood, on humor,

adults of Belarus are so jokingly called, why not call children..."

This is such a cheerful and attractive brand - "Bulbashik".

(At the moment, the center is not working, I don't know the reasons.)

Is being a "bulbash" a normal thing?

We have two street surveys on this topic - from 2012 and 2017.

Over the past five years, the mood of those caught in the lens (the sample is random, non-representative!), has changed a little: in 2012, there was an absolute majority of those who agreed to be bullies.

​In 2017, the proportion balanced out a bit.

Some answers to the question

"Would it be offensive to you if they say you are a potato?"

":

- It's normal, that's what they call us: bulbash - Belarusian...


- No, of course, we're Belarusians, what kind of offense can there be!


- No, bulbashi-y, of course, oh, what are you doing!


-

Normal name?


- Even pretty, darling, I would say.

And how do those asked understand/feel this word?

— Bulbash means "potato" in translation.


— A man eating potatoes.


- Bulbash... Well, this is a Belarusian.

Such a Belarusian-Belarusian.

A true lover of potatoes.

Bolshinya believed that "bulbashi" is a Belarusian word, a self-name, or she did not think about this topic.

There were also such answers (though not often):

- Bulbash?

Well, that's what the inhabitants of other countries call Belarusians.

And this year, in 2022, the survey was held in the "Only about language" communities in various social networks.

Questionnaire about the word "bulbash".

2022

On Facebook and Instagram, there are twice as many people who consider "Bulbash" offensive than those who treat him calmly.

There are approximately the same number of such in Telegram.

Those who marked two variants - both "harmless nickname" and "insult" - often noticed: they say, if someone else calls me "bulbash", then I am offended, but if it is my own, a Belarusian, then I am not.

This is a situation known and described by psychologists: we have the right to make fun of our community among ourselves, but strangers do not.

In each case we see at least a contradictory perception of the word.

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Is this word Belarusian?

Names of peoples -

ethnonyms

- are divided into

endoethnonyms

(from the Greek ἔνδον 'internal'), by which the people call themselves, and

exoethnonyms

(from the Greek ἔξω 'external'), by which a certain people are called by others.

The fact that the word "bulbash" is not a proper name was emphasized by linguist Piotr Sadovsky in an expert commentary for the court about the word, arguing with an official expert from the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences (signed as O. Shcherbakova).

The word is not in the Belarusian dictionaries under the seal of the same Academy of Sciences.

I will add that it is not in the dictionaries of the classical canon, and in the Corpus of the Belarusian language, and in the Belarusian language in principle.

"bulbash" is an exoethnonym, a foreign word.

If we do not pay attention to the loyal "districts", in Belarusian it is used only as a barbarism, with the awareness that we do not call ourselves that and do not consider ourselves as such.

Levon Volsky confirmed that there is a "Bulbash" breed, but "they" are not "we":

They crave mana.


They want to be lied to.


And they themselves love to lie


with terrible force.

Bulbashi,


Bulbashi,


Bulbashi They


lie with terrible force.

"Bulbash" is an ethnofaulism.

This does not mean anything good

Linguists have long studied the nicknames that some peoples give to others.

The term

ethno

phaulism

(from the Greek ἔθνος 'people, country' and φαύλισμα 'slander') was introduced by the American psychologist Abram Robak, a native of Honiaz in Podlasie, who compiled the first dictionary of international slurs —

A Dictionary of International Slurs

(1944). Russian lexicologist Leonid Krisin non-normative ethnonyms" (in English offensive ethnonyms) describes as unconditionally offensive:

"These words have, to varying degrees, a sharp negative connotation, which reflects the negative - sarcastic-mocking, disdainful, humiliating, contemptuous-ironic, etc.

— the attitude of Russian speakers towards representatives of certain ethnic groups.

Most of such ethnonyms are not recorded in modern explanatory dictionaries".

The word "bulbash" is not in the dictionaries of the Russian literary language.

Because it belongs to the category of offensive ethnonyms.

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with our editors.

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Nobody likes nicknames for food

The stylistic and emotional spectrum of national nicknames is different.

There are some among them who are not offensive.

Britons is a somewhat elevated nickname for the English, from the Roman name.

They single out a separate group of ethnofowlisms motivated by the way of life and customs of another people.

Their roots are in the ancient opposition "one's own - another's": the features of the "foreigner" are inappropriate, abnormal.

And the food of "strangers" is, of course, strange and of poor quality, so

they

consume it in unacceptable quantities.

In 2010, the International Journal of Language and Social Psychology published the results of the study

"How did you call me?"

European and American ratings of the valence of ethnofowlisms"

.

Representatives of 17 European nations who came to the USA were asked to rate the degree of birativity of various English nicknames for their nations.

Nicknames based on (real or imaginary) gastronomic inclinations are perceived negatively and even very negatively.

Germans rate the nicknames Sauerkraut

,

Sausage

and

Hans

negatively (2.8 points according to a 10-point scale, where 5 points is the limit between negative and positive)

Wurst

('sauerkraut' and two 'sausage' nicknames; below are only insults like 'cabbage head' and

Nazi

).

The French themselves no longer like the American nicknames

Frog

and

Jean

-

potage

('Frog', 'Jean-potage', 3.25 each).

Italians do not accept ethnofoulisms

Spaghetti

-

bender

,

Spag

,

Macaroni

.

Swedes and Norwegians consider herring nicknames

Herring

-

choker

and

Herring

-

destroyer

('stranger' and 'herring destroyer', respectively 2.40 and 4.8).

It is significant that Russians categorically (1.8) do not accept the

nickname

Cabbage

-

eater

The exception is only Hungarians, who are not offended by the nickname

Goulash

(6,6).

The Irish don't want to be bullies, they want to be fighters

Attention Irish people!

- can't bear to be called

Potato

-

eaters ('potato-

eaters

'; 2.13), the only worse nickname is "swamp rats".

However, they are not against the nickname

Fighting-Irish

(from former Irish soldiers in the Civil War; 5.25), the word has become overgrown with images and has become a brand.

And this is the same "wrestler" with which they try to insult conscientious Belarusians in Russian.

SoundCloud

Therefore, in decent society, it is not customary to call the French frog-

eaters

, the Germans cabbage-

eaters

, the

Mexicans women

, and the northern Germans

fish-heads

.

English and German linguists refer to all relevant words as derogatory.

Not only "bulbashi".

We were also "chaff"...

"Bulbashi" is not the first nickname that strangers gave to the Belarusian people.

According to U. Dahl, the Russians disparagingly called Belarusians (Lytvins)

Koltuns

(

Litvin

ъ — колтун

ъ

) — from the disease Kautun, as well as

земленик

и́

"gravediggers" (

Бѣ

lorusy

strawberries

).

Belarusians also received a nickname from the Russians based on their gastronomic preferences (I think they are imaginary):

Myakinnik

(…) Who is the chaff.

Lithuanian chaff

;

in general, the nickname of Belarusians and Pskovites.

After threshing, the chaff was tough, with sharp spines;

flour with bran was forced to be ground - to save money - in the years of famine.

The eastern neighbors stigmatized the inhabitants of different historically and linguistically Belarusian lands with an offensive nickname - not only Pskov region, but, for example, the inhabitants of Surazh in the Starodub region.

But I doubt that such a diet distinguished the inhabitants of the Great Patriotic War from the subjects of the Moscow State and their descendants;

on the contrary, surrogate bread was typical for Russian provinces proper.

...and "beets"

The Western neighbors had a different "gastronomic" ethnofowlism for us.

Subjects of the VKL were contemptuously called

boćwina

,

boćwiniarz

, boćwinisko

— from the Belarusian word

батвінн

е

(previously it meant both beetroot itself and beetroot leaves; by the way, both are important components of traditional cold food).

Our ancestors were not delighted.

Although Bagushevich took the pseudonym

Matei Burachok

- but defiantly, with self-irony.

Francishak Bagushevich.

Cover of the book "Belarusian Pipe", Vilnius, 1922

Belarusians themselves did not begin to call themselves either

"motherland

"

or "

myakinniki ".

And why did some Belarusians agree to be "Bulbash"?

After all, they were trained using the non-conflict and adaptability of the national character.

Vaccination in the Soviet army

In the Soviet army, Belarusians were rudely humiliated with that potato for a long time.

Piotr Sadovsky writes:

I remember how on the very first day at the military school in Yaroslavl (1959), the company commander commented on the geography of my origin in front of the formation:

" Belarus is my

native country, small potatoes are rotten...

"

And in the article "Bulbash" in the "Dictionary of Freedom" Andrei Laptsyonak recalls the Soviet army and the following: the first reaction to a "bulbash" is to respond to the offending person on the intonation of an insult, but suddenly, through this stigma, a Belarusian in the imperial army realized that he was separate, distinctive :

"Bulbash" is the border, the demarcation line that forever separated us from the "Kakhlovs", "Moskals", "Labus" and "Psheks".

Dictionary of Freedom: 20th century in the Belarusian language.

A word for the day for memory and for reflection

H. so

it happened that ethnofowlism, contrary to its very nature, stimulated the awakening of the dormant national consciousness of young Belarusians.

Perhaps this is one of the explanations for cases of tolerant attitude towards xenophobic nicknames.

Obtrusive brand

The word

bulbash is

aggressively gaining ground in our country.

The vodka company was the first to undertake the reprogramming of the nation's consciousness.

Then appeared meat products with the terrible (in the tradition of Dr. Lecter) name "Bulbash taste".

People were indignant and laughed, so the company inserted the preposition "ot" into the "brand".

Brand of meat products "Taste of Bulbash".

(c) Info-Courier

Some "bulbash festivals" appeared.

And quite officially, the word was made to sound out in Belarusian - "Bulbash's Guest House" - as part of a holiday in the village of Aleksandria.

It is predictable: the biggest contribution to the legalization and artificial raising of the status of the word

bulbash is

made by a well- known aborigine of Alexandria.

Earlier he noted that, they say,

we

are called that (he admitted the exonymous nickname):

"For example,

we

are called potato growers, but now our position

in

potato growing is not

the

same

as

before

"

(

2009).

But 10 years later, in his head, the exoethnonym turned into an endoethnonym (allegedly, Belarusians already call themselves that):

"Open the potatoes, we're potatoes!

Bake cookies, make tea, wash the car, something else.

Sea of ​​services!

"

(about business in transit; 2019).

An indulgence has been announced.

The semantic and stylistic injection of foreignness into the brains of Belarusians can be expanded.

The form determines the content

The word

bulbash

meaning "Belarusian" is Russian;

most likely, from the Russian criminal argo.

Here is the iconic one for the dedicated "Dictionary of prison-camp-criminal jargon" by Baldaev, Byalko and Isupov, 1992 edition:

The word "bulbash": Dictionary of prison-camp-slang jargon.

Moscow, 1992

Nearby -

eldash

'Asian',

lohtar

'Estonian', etc.

The suffix

-

ash

is characteristic of Russian argotisms - the same

eldash

,

legash

'legal, policeman',

tselkash

'total, ruble', also

torgash

,

alcoholic

- Piotr Sadovsky cites these parallels in the mentioned expertise.

The suffix

-ash

indicates plainness, humility.

It is quite rare in our country and, according to word formation expert Pavel Stiatsko, it gives personal nouns an "expression of displeasure" (

zvadyyash

,

gnevash;

I note that the Belarusian suffix is ​​apparently of a different origin).

And the root of the word is

potato

-

alludes to the lowered social status of a person, which, when spoken by foreigners, is painfully perceived.

From a street survey:

-

Potato planter.

Such a person who sits in the village on his food

.


- A

typical

peasant, that's how I understand it.

People who have visited Russia have the

most unambiguous attitude to the word "

bulbash" :

-

When they call me a

"

bubble

" in Moscow

, I am offended.

How and when "bulbash" was born

You can find the word only in Russian dictionaries of argotic and obscene vocabulary.

And at first it had a different meaning:

"Surname of a follower of S. Petlyura, a Melnikov resident.

It was used in the "Golos" intelligence group from July 1944. From the Belarusian name of potato - potato"

(H. Walter, V. Mokienko. Big Dictionary of Russian Nicknames. Moscow, 2007).

It is not clear why Ukrainian military personnel received a familiar nickname from the Belarusian word, nor what side Simon Pyatlyura was in the events of the 1940s.

In truth, SMERshavts called the fighters Taras Borauts ("Taras Bulba") from UPA "Paleskaya Sech" in Volyn and Polesia.

But it is important that the word

bulbash

in the Russian language is recorded only from the mid-1940s.

Then, having changed its meaning, it became fixed in the criminal argo.

Were they indignant?

Yes.

There was more than one appeal to the courts.

Yevgeny Guchok and Valery Misnikov tried to legally defend their right to protect national dignity from the insulting, in their opinion, nickname that filled the visual space.

Alina Nagornaya made the request.

In vain.

Piotr Sadovsky described the conflict with the influential owner of the "brand":

"

Emotional

discomfort

...

creeps

into

the

heart of an educated Belarusian when he sees

signs of the presence

of the

former Russian Empire

on

the streets

of

Minsk

today

.

"

At the same time, the expert does not believe that the owners of the trademark wanted to offend Belarusians from the beginning.

But they do not understand those Belarusians who are hurt by the word "bulbash".

Moreover, they go on the offensive and accuse those who demand the removal of an ambiguous word from public use of... inciting national enmity!

This gives the author of the expertise a reason to think that the director of STAO "Dionys" M. Liavonchyk "is not such a harmless ignoramus".

I believe that the promoters of "bulbash" on the market know that they can count on the "highest" support, which is where their self-confidence and aggression come from.

I have no doubt that if we were a more consolidated national community, after really massive protests, no one would have dared to give dubious names to products and institutions.

However, there was one fairly massive protest.

The conscious Belarusian society was also outraged by the construction of an entertainment complex near the Kurapatskyi graves, and I will call it "Bulbash Hall".

As a result, the owner slowly removed it - it is true, only the name, but not the complex.

But the appearance of "Bulbashik" shows that we have not yet made ourselves respect enough.

If I am a "bulbash", can I insult others?

An indirect result of the legalization of the word

bulbash

was that some Belarusians do not see anything bad in calling neighboring nations by nicknames.

But if your interlocutor - a Ukrainian, a Pole, a Lithuanian - gently remains silent or smiles in response to

kakhla

,

pshek

and

labusa

, this does not mean that he agrees to be called that at all!

The interlocutor may also be insensitive - then do not take offense at the consequences.

FYI.

The nickname

"labus" is offensive

to Lithuanians and Latvians.

It is often believed that it comes from the word labas, labs - "good" (eg

day

), but it seems that it comes from the offensive Belarusian dialect word

labus

"unwise, stupid", not related to labas in any way.

And

a conscientious Ukrainian will never call himself

"

Kakhlom

" .

Although this word is quite old, connected with Cossack traditions.

Because there is a name for the people - and people want to be called exactly Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles.

With the beginning of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine in our region, issues of national dignity have become extremely acute.

And we are not "bulbashi", and our children-grandchildren are not "bulbashi".

  • Vintsuk Vyachorka

    Born in Brest in 1961. As a linguist, he studied the language of publications of Western Belarus during the interwar period, initiated the modern arrangement of Belarusian classical spelling, contributed Belarusian programs and reading books for preschool institutions.

    An active participant in the national movement, starting with "Maistrovni" and "Talaki" in the 1980s.

    Author and contributor of popular science texts and books, including about national symbols.

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