balalajka

See also: bałałajka and bałałajką

English

Noun

balalajka (plural balalajkas)

1. Alternative form of balalaika.
   • 1917, Harry de Windt, Russia as I Know It, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 57:

     Every Cossack is a born dancer, and the merry tinkle of a “balalajka” band eventually proved too much for the colonel (a grey-haired veteran of over six feet), who suddenly rose from his seat, hurriedly left the messroom, and the next moment was wildly “pirouetting” amongst his men with, notwithstanding a flowing robe and spurs, the grace and agility of a ballet-girl.

   • 1956, Friendship: Travel, Trade, Cultural Exchange, volume 1, number 4, page 28:

     The Bayans and Balalajkas of the BERYOZKA FOLK DANCERS

   • 1963, Vsevolod Setchkarev, Studies in the Life and Work of Innokentij Annenskij, Mouton & Co., page 238:

     Praising the “play of thought” in Dostoevskij’s work since Crime and Punishment he exclaims: “Well, what sort of playing was there in Poor Folk? One string, and even that on a balalajka.”

   • 1975, The Polish Review, volume 20, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, page 84:

     My deceased aunts and uncles, / Playing “Balalajkas”, / Sipping glasses of wine?

   • 1977, Elizabeth A. Warner, The Russian Folk Theatre (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings), Mouton, →ISBN, page 17:

     In the Novgorod uezd (Gruzinskaja volost’), for example, whole groups of ‘gypsy’ girls dressed in brightly coloured frocks and shawls would appear in the village streets going from house to house, dancing and singing gypsy songs to a balalajka and accordion accompaniment.

   • 1992, Report from the […] International Meeting of the International Council for Traditional Music’s Study Group on Folk Musical Instruments, Musikmuseet, page 94:

     […] kruglolitsa” with an accompaniment by balalajkas, domras and a bajan.

   • 2005, Mark R[oderick] V[endrell] Southern, Contagious Couplings: Transmission of Expressives in Yiddish Echo Phrases, Praeger, →ISBN, page 118:

     Russ. trynka-brynka ‘worthless little coin’ or ‘plink-plunk’ (of a balalajka), associatively helped by purely onomatopoeic tryndi-bryndi ‘plink-plunk’ (verbal rendition of balalajka’s sound ~ trynka ‘small silver coin,’ or a card-game; blended with tren’kat’ / bren’kat’ ‘play badly’ as a further associative echo.

   • 2013, Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis, translated by Elisabeth Dyssegaard, Death of a Nightingale, Soho Press, →ISBN:

     Other times she was just Oxana, like now, when he lifted little Kolja up from the rough planks on the veranda and danced around with him in her arms, as if there were a balalajka orchestra in her head.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbalalajka]

Noun

balalajka f

1. balalaika

Declension

Declension of balalajka (hard feminine reducible)

	singular	plural
nominative	balalajka	balalajky
genitive	balalajky	balalajek
dative	balalajce	balalajkám
accusative	balalajku	balalajky
vocative	balalajko	balalajky
locative	balalajce	balalajkách
instrumental	balalajkou	balalajkami

Further reading

• balalajka in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• balalajka in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Hungarian

Etymology

From Russian балала́йка (balalájka, “balalaika”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒlɒlɒjkɒ]
• Hyphenation: ba‧la‧laj‧ka
• Rhymes: -kɒ

Noun

balalajka (plural balalajkák)

1. balalaika

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	balalajka	balalajkák
accusative	balalajkát	balalajkákat
dative	balalajkának	balalajkáknak
instrumental	balalajkával	balalajkákkal
causal-final	balalajkáért	balalajkákért
translative	balalajkává	balalajkákká
terminative	balalajkáig	balalajkákig
essive-formal	balalajkaként	balalajkákként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	balalajkában	balalajkákban
superessive	balalajkán	balalajkákon
adessive	balalajkánál	balalajkáknál
illative	balalajkába	balalajkákba
sublative	balalajkára	balalajkákra
allative	balalajkához	balalajkákhoz
elative	balalajkából	balalajkákból
delative	balalajkáról	balalajkákról
ablative	balalajkától	balalajkáktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	balalajkáé	balalajkáké
non-attributive possessive - plural	balalajkáéi	balalajkákéi

Possessive forms of balalajka
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	balalajkám	balalajkáim
2nd person sing.	balalajkád	balalajkáid
3rd person sing.	balalajkája	balalajkái
1st person plural	balalajkánk	balalajkáink
2nd person plural	balalajkátok	balalajkáitok
3rd person plural	balalajkájuk	balalajkáik

Further reading

• balalajka in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• balalajka in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

Swedish

Noun

balalajka c

1. balalaika (Russian instrument)

Declension

Declension of balalajka
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	balalajka	balalajkan	balalajkor	balalajkorna
Genitive	balalajkas	balalajkans	balalajkors	balalajkornas