The Ukrainian Word's 'kutya' Anthropological Value



Posted: Monday, December 07, 2009

by
Ivan Petryshyn

The Ukrainian Language word "" denoting the main Christmas Sacred Supper lent dish has very many interesting phonetic correspondences in other languages.

The Scottish word "coutie" (pleasant, friendly), the Latin words "cautio, onis" (caution, headfullness, stipulation, pledge), "quatenus" (seeing that from the times immemorial), add to the understanding of the Ukrainian family of words, as well as the Lettish "kuka" (cake). There's no doubt that we can assign "kutya" both pleasant taste, friendliness (which is the mutual atmosphere of the Christmas Season), the ancient character of the dish which, in fact, is a kind of a soft-cake that, if left for to be dried, can very much become an Irish fruit-like pudding.

The same-sense/phonetically similar morphemes of the Ukrainian Language like "" (to want), "" (to have a desire), the Russian word "" (to celebrate, to feast), the other Ukrainian words as "" (corner), "" (rear), "" (penance), "" (a corner place, area), "" () ( a way) develop the imaginative symbolic character of the lexeme's notion- as that of penance and the ye-long way of the Holiday celebration merged with the folkloristic and spiritual understanding of the respect toward the ancestors: the word "" (banquet) presupposes respect ("") as in the Russian word "" ( to revere, to respect). Somewhat distant in the sense but close in the phonetic represantation would be the Ukrainian word "" ( in the meaning of being a lent dish), the Old Slavic "" ( ) ( a dish), as well as "" (life) - a symbolically incarnated sense of the human existence. Even a somewhat not too complacent word "" ( in the same meaning of love desire) might have had its inner connotation of the folklore word known from the times immemorial. More common closely related words would be ", " (ready cooked, to feed) as the same-phonetic represantation can be found in the Italian word 'cotto/a" (cooked).

The word has very close relation to the word "(Kolyada), a Polish variant "Kole,da", a Latin correspondence " Kalendae" ( a first day of the month), which correlates with the Ukrainian "" (glorifying, glorybringning). And there is no connection of the word with the verb "" ( to mix together).

The point of view that the word is a coinage of 2 words, "chud/cud/kudes ( as in the Russian "kudiesnyy/kudiesnyy)+yagd/yadg"= the miraculous meal/dish could lead us to the temptation of believing that the "kutya" was an ancient Slavs ritual dish with its astral meaning.

Interesting, symbolically Universe-connected are also the ingredients of the Kutya- wheat (the symbol of life and prosperity), poppy seeds ( the symbol of immensity and continuance of the generations), honey (love), nuts ( the symbol of strength). That's why, in the Ukrainian Language, we have such set expressions with the age of centuries as :"-" ( wheat, the spring caller), "-" (love as sweet as honey), ", " (as many poppy seeds as stars - the astral symbol), ", " (as hard/strong as a nut), "vyno'hrad" (grapes) -the symbol of unity and prosperity might have been first substituted by dried berries (berries were believed to be symbols of "tears", i.e. woe). Was the dish brought by the known from the Old Slavic folklore "Volkhvy", the Oriental synonym for Druids, the spiritual leaders of the tribes, it's difficult to say but it could have been accepted that the dish has something to be done with the pre-historic tribes unity, at the times where the Pre-Slavic, Pre-Gaellic (Pre-Celtic), Pre-Italic, Pre-Baltic the Pre-Teutonic tribes were living in closer unions than known now- a nice immaginative guess, but nice to such an extent that one would be glad to believe in, esp. in the today's World of Globalization.

The additional information about the word "kutya" is offered by the Baltic Languages, Lettish and Lithuanian. In Lithuanian, the whole Christmas period is called "Kuc^ios" ( Christams Eve). In Lettish, we find other interesting phonetic correlative words : " kuteli:gs" (delicate)/ which is a really adequate decription of the Christmas dish/, also - "gu:t" (to acquire, obtain, procure) /which can develop our immagination in the line of the importance of the Holiday and the unbeated presence of the dish on the Sacred Dinner table/, as well as "putra" (porridge). The Polish linguist Alexander Broekner explaining the definition of the same word in the Polish Language " kucia" states that it is originated from the Greek word "kukki" (beans) which, if to take into consideration all the above-mentioned seems to be doubtful.

If to analyse all possible phonetic operations, the matrix of the word 'KUTYA", has the following consonant and vowel shift specifications:

K U T' A

CHUDES

TSUDO

KUDES

G O D(d) A

G U DJ A

The two latter ones seem to sound very romantically to guess the possible hidden meaning of the word : 1/ given by God; 2/ the meal of God /gods (" "). And the most phonecically immagined coinage will also prompt you the other possible meanings as the Sinhala Language names : "kookat" (everyone)/ in the meaning of everyone's duty to eat it/, "Goot + arang" /good brining/.

Ivan Petryshyn

Ivan Petryshyn - Phonological and Linguistic Research, teaching, methodology of foreign languages, the experience and excellent response in translating and interpreting, native or near-native communication skills in the languages known (Italian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian), good conversational knowledge of German, French and some Spanish, author, poet (www.gather.com, www.poetichouse.com /ivano/, also-Facebook.

This Article has been viewed 855 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Anonymous 1 year 58 days ago.
Dear Ivan:

I have just discovered that there is a dish served only in Sicily (and by Sicilians who live elsewhere) called CUCCIA. It consists of wheat berries which are soaked overnight and boiled. Olive oil might be added as well as almonds, candied fruit, ricotta and other items. It is made on St Lucia's day, 13 December, to celebrate the time when St Lucia brought wheat berries to Sicily when the people were starving. On 13 December, no bread is to be eaten in honor of this miracle. The word itself is found only in the Sicilian dialect. It comes from Arabic "kiskiya," which refers to the grain and the earthenware bowl in which it is served. This is not surprising, as the Arabs occupied Sicily for centuries and left a great mark, including in the cuisine. So with the cuccia being served on 13 December, which is very close to Christmas, I am wondering about a possible connection. I myself am Ukrainian and make kutya every year.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.