# Why is kielbasa pronounced "koo-basa"?  And what's a "keeshka", anyway?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 26, 2007, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603 "2007-05-26T14:10:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2007, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603/21 "2007-05-27T03:17:46Z")

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[QUOTE=Indistinguishable]  
I think you’ve got it backwards, as **Johanna** points out. Though, of course, some instances of the Polish ‘Ł’ might be rendered as ‘L’ by those not aware of the difference or without access to the means to use the right character.  
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that was backwards…I missed it on first read. English “L” and Polish “L” are basically the same. It’s the slash-L that gets the English “w” pronunciation.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2007, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603/22 "2007-05-27T03:25:14Z")

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[QUOTE=Johanna]

I just learned an interesting fact from WP - the word is derived from Turkish _külbastı_. Growing up in Cleveland, I heard the Polish-Americans mispronouncing it “kolbasi” - they had a humorous song about it, “I Like Kolbasi”. I just found out that’s a Germanization of the word.  
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Interesting. I think “kolbasi” (or some other spelling for the final “i”) would also be the correct Russian plural for “sausage,” as “kolbasa” is the Russian for sausage.

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**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2007, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603/23 "2007-05-27T11:36:01Z")

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Kishka, as my family makes it, is basically pig blood and buckwheat stuffed into natural sausage casing (intestine). Some Ukranian Jews make a kosher form of kishka by mixing buckwheat and chicken fat and stuffing into the neck skin from the chicken.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kielbasa-pronounced-koo-basa-and-whats-a-keeshka-anyway/405603/24 "2007-05-27T14:45:04Z")

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[QUOTE=pulykamell]  
Interesting. I think “kolbasi” (or some other spelling for the final “i”) would also be the correct Russian plural for “sausage,” as “kolbasa” is the Russian for sausage.  
[/QUOTE]

колбасы - Thanks, that explains it.

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