Paa(-paa), pibi, poppa ja (h)äbä
Paa(-paa), Pibi, Poppa and (H)äbä

Summary/Abstract: The distinctive lexicon of child and caregiver speech consists primarily of adaptations of words belonging to the standard language, but also contains loanwords. The article examines four words found in Estonian caregiver speech, paa(-paa), pibi, poppa and (h)äbä, which indicate pain or injury and which are used to warn a child against doing something that is forbidden or may cause pain. paa(-paa) is found in Northeastern Coastal dialects and Northern Estonian dialects, (h)äbä primarily in South Estonian dialects. pibi and poppa are less widespread; both are known in Northeastern Coastal dialects, and pibi is also found in three parishes of southern Estonia. All four words have a similar structure: two syllables and a repeated stem (with small differences in the repetition). The words paa and pibi have hitherto been considered adaptations of the words paha ‘bad, ill’ and kibe ‘sore, acute’ respectively, while poppa has been borrowed from Finnish. The word pibi is found in two separate regions of Estonia: in Northeastern Coastal dialects and also sporadically in three parishes in the South Estonian dialect area. In the Northeastern Coastal dialects and neighboring areas, the word is an adaptation. Synonymous and phonologically similar words are also found in Latvian and in Baltic German dialects; such words are most frequently attested in Baltic German spoken in Latvia. Presumably, the usages recorded in southern Estonia have been influenced by Baltic German dialects, cf. Baltic German Bibi ‘pain, small wound’. In Finnish the word poppa denotes fire, and the Karelian verb poppoa ‘to burn’, borrowed from Finnish, is also related to fire. However, in Northeastern Coastal dialects of Estonian, the meaning of fire is secondary, and in Votic the word only carries the meaning of pain(ful). The origin of South Estonian (h)äbä remains unclear. Upon closer investigation, it emerges that paa(-paa) is not an adaptation of the word paha, but rather has been borrowed into Estonian from Baltic German dialects, ← Baltic German baba ‘painful, bad, forbidden’, cf. German bäbä. Estonian in its turn may have influenced Estonian Swedish dialects, compare Estonian Swedish baba, with a long vowel, to the Swedish dialect form babba.

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