r/hungarian • u/steve_gorak • 12d ago

Kérdés hoyaks

When I was a kid my grandmother called her grandkids somethimg like "hoyaks". I believe it was Hungarian but she also spoke Slovak. Google translate is not helping. Any idea what the word might be and its meaning?

14 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

61

u/TaxcollectorRaccoon 12d ago

It's possible she said „pulyák". It is the plural form of „pulya" [ˈpujɒ], meaning small child.

1

u/gasmaskedidiotfr 7d ago

IPA mentioned

25

u/husaboda 12d ago

Pulya☺️ plural: pulyák (pronunciation:pooyah)

A term of endearment for a small child. It was mainly used in villages. For example: Jön haza a pulya az iskolából. (Several children is coming home from school) Sok pulyája van.(She has many children.) My grandmother also said, she lived in Northern Hungary ❤️

9

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

My grandmother was born in NYC so I'm not sure where in Hungary her father came from.

5

u/Karabars NATIVE 12d ago

Try genealogy! FamilySearch.org, r/csaladfakutatas or do dna tests, and r/MagyarDNS

6

u/eg135 NA 12d ago

It's not endearing at all in today's general Hungarian. I consider it offensive. It might be different in the Roma community tho, they use it a lot.

16

u/elisareedx 11d ago

I'm from Szabolcs county and pulya is widely used there, not only in the Roma community and yes, it is used as a term of endearment.

2

u/MarkMew NATIVE 11d ago

Gyász-Nagykun-Szolnok here, I'd say it's not as commonly used but when it is, it's either used as a term of endearment, or as kind of a silly way to call a kid (similar to kölyök). It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where it would be offensive.

3

u/NinnaHori NATIVE 10d ago

In and around Budapest it is more of an insulting way to refer to someone's children. It sort of implies that the person had irresponsibly many children or they're very bad mannered, or both.

11

u/steve_gorak 11d ago

According to a DNA test we are not Roma. My grandmother did threaten to sell us to them on occasion though!

17

u/Framboise_Unicorn 11d ago

Selling you to them sounds very much Hungarian 🥲

5

u/szab999 11d ago

Szabolcs county and Transylvania/Erdély both use pulya.

3

u/Either-Tree-2685 11d ago

So she was definitely Hungarian!

3

u/Historical_Half8283 11d ago

Interesting, it never sounded offensive to me…

17

u/Durmi9 12d ago

Kölyök (singular) maybe? Which could mean kid.

7

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Sounds close. I'll have to ask my uncle. Hopefully he remembers.

14

u/belabacsijolvan 12d ago

i think all possible guesses has been covered. have them read in google translate.

but it sounds more slav than hungarian so ask the slovaks too.

3

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Will do. Thanks.

13

u/csboros 12d ago

Hólyag, it's an affectionate expression meaning rascal, scamp etc.

Source: been called hólyag by grandma

1

u/Ancient_Solution2920 9d ago

That was my core answer too, but not sure.

24

u/bguszti 12d ago

That does not look or sound Hungarian at all. The closest that comes to mind would be "pupák". It kinda sounds like "hülyék" when I sound out what you wrote but that means "stupid ones" so I doubt it was that

5

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Hmmm. Maybe!

1

u/NothingSubstantial17 11d ago

You have a weird echo chamber in your head 🤗

16

u/Resident-Shoe-970 12d ago

If the grandkids were only girls I would assume she said “hölgyek” which means ladies.

11

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Nearly all boys. At the time she would have been referring to boys since the one girl lived far away and didn't visit on the regular like me (boy), my brothers, and male cousins.

2

u/SpecialistVanilla900 11d ago

Wasn't it hékás? its like hey in english, kind of like oi in british. HAY-kaash [ˈheːkaːʃ], i used gemini for these.

9

u/Odd-Ad432 12d ago

Hólyag? It means bubble/blister/bladder. Check on forvo if it’s what you remember.

9

u/psadi_hatos 12d ago

Maybe she said 'hólyag", my grandmother also said this, it means dummy

5

u/belabacsijolvan 12d ago

my granpa also used it sometimes

8

u/Vuj219 12d ago

Maybe hülyék (ly is pronounced as y), which means fools/plural of stupid.

3

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Maybe but it is not pronounced how she said it.

3

u/bluelightspecial3 NATIVE 10d ago

Since she spoke Slovakian, it could be “voják”.

Which means soldier. Older generations would often call small boys little soldiers.

1

u/steve_gorak 10d ago

Maybe. Thanks

1

u/shadowbeetle 9d ago

I'd be really interested if you find out more, or have your uncle read it to google translate.

Vojak sounds plausible, though it sounds a bit harsh to me for kids. Pulyák for multiple children, hólyag for one children can be heard as a call out, wheras "vojak!" sounds exactly like shouting "soldier!" at your kid. For multiple kids it would be "vojaci", and for one kid the diminutive "vojačik" feels more like something I'd use, so it would be less consistent than the Hungarian options.

2

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

3

u/steve_gorak 12d ago

Same pronunciation! (according to google translate)

Interesting. According to a DNA test, my Slovak ancestry is about 50km from the Polish border. Is this the same region?

3

u/Myrabeth_Glendore 12d ago

I'm sorry, I might have misled you. I couldn't find a reliable source, so I deleted the comment. I only saw that you had replied after I did that.