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What is the genitive plural and nominative plural of башка?

My search returned a lot of contradicting information. Is there any authoritative source with a single concrete answer?

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4  
This link may be interesting to you deevrod.narod.ru/think/o_boshkax.html – iHunter Jun 13 '12 at 20:48
The dictionary basically says it all. «Р. мн. затрудн.» indeed. – n.m. Jul 9 '12 at 20:01

6 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

башка is originally not Russian word. It comes from Turkish baš which means head. And it is really used in common language, rather than in literature.

In plural башка may have 2 valid forms: башки́ and another one that changes letter in the root to бо́шки (with accent on the о́).

In genitive those will respectively be башки́ (singular) and башо́к or бо́шек (plural). Both variants are considered valid, even though I prefer the last one :).

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4  
+1 for бошек, never heard of башок. – kotekzot Jun 13 '12 at 22:08
башка is of course an imported, and moreover a colloquial word, but could you still try to provide an authoritative source to support your answer? There are countless publications on the colloquial language and I can't believe none have addressed this question. – Philip Seyfi Jun 13 '12 at 22:49
I think iHundter gave very good link. First plural variant comes from logical conclusion on how Russian language should be, second plural variant comes from how Russian person would actually say it :) – Andrey Adamovich Jun 14 '12 at 6:45
5  
@AndreyAdamovich ah, logic and Russian, two great nemeses. – kotekzot Jun 14 '12 at 8:27
@kotekzot, You are absolutely right :) – Andrey Adamovich Jun 14 '12 at 8:46
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up vote 3 down vote

Nominative plural is башки.

Wiktionary says the genitive plural is башок.
Yet I've never heard this word. Usually, one would find a synonym in this case.

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Wiktionary isn't the best source about slang. – Nakilon Jun 14 '12 at 6:48
@Nakilon Wiktionary is much better about slang than many dictionaries :). I'm a native Russian speaker, and I have never heard plural genitive form of башка used. – Alexey Ivanov Jun 14 '12 at 8:27
«бо́шки поотрываю!» – kirilloid Jun 18 '12 at 20:55
бо́шек is the correct form, -1 – Anixx Jun 28 '12 at 14:17
@Anixx Give the link confiming бошек is the correct form. Lingvo agrees with Wiktionary. – Alexey Ivanov Jun 28 '12 at 15:26
up vote 2 down vote

Nominative: бОшки
Genitive: бОшек

The stress is on the second syllable. That is what I use.

It is very informal, by the way. I guess you know. :)

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Did you want to say the stress on the FIRST syllable? – Anixx Jun 28 '12 at 14:19
The word бо́шки is mostly used as a name of marijuana. – user1104 Nov 20 '12 at 7:05
up vote 1 down vote

Of course, the correct original spelling of this word borrowed from a Turkic (?Tatar) language is "башка". The spelling "бошка" may refer to northern-eastern dialects of Russian, which are located closer to the modern area of the Tatar language. The northern dialects tend to pronounce unstressed "a" as "o" (sorry for the absence of phonetic signs). That's why we can consider Genitive Plural "бОшек" as the form of "бошка" (where shift of accent is another question), and G. Pl. "башОк" as the one of "башка" (the same model кишок - кишка). Though the word "башок" is surely extinct in the modern language. So, I think, we can't talk about the form G. Pl. of "башка" at all, and such pair as "башкА" - "бОшек" is only reconsideration of paradigm because of the absence of "башок".

offtopic: It is interesting, that, according to the research of Vladimir Belikov, Acc.Sg. "башкУ" is more frequently used by male respondents, while "бОшку" is more popular with the female:)

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up vote 1 down vote

"бОшки" пожалуй корректнее. Например "бестолковые бОшки". бывают в разговорной речи и "глупые башкИ", но реже. можно и башОк. "гатожь - связка рыбы в дюжину башок" Также: "бОшки поотрываю" "стукнулись башкАми" И - можно и "глупым башкАм" и "глупым бОшкам".

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up vote 0 down vote

The correct is бОшки with stress on о. бОшки also found in smoker's slang. This term extensively used to name top part of weed.

Genitive plural is бОшек.

Посмотри, каких я амстердамских бошек притащил!

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