I encountered a discussion about Baba Yaga and how to pronounce her name. I was prompted to do some research and discovered something that needs consideration. There are 13 Slavic countries (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia) and 12 distinct Slavic languages (Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Lower Sorbian, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Upper Sorbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbo-Croatian). Thus, how her name is pronounced is largely dependent on which region the speaker is from.
The most common pronunciation (Bulgarian, Polish, Serbian) is BAH-bah YAH-gah. It should be noted this is the most common way her name is pronounced in English-speaking countries. Ukrainian is BAH-bah yah-GAH, with the emphasis on the second syllable of “Yaga”. Russian is BAH-bah YEE-gah. The most interesting was the Hungarian name which is Vasorru Baba (VASH-orr-oo BAH-bah), which translates to “Iron-nosed Witch”. At the time of this writing, I have not been able to track down any additional variations from the other languages mentioned above.
Something that also has an impact is your own dialect, which can affect how another language sounds because your accent will differ from native speakers of the language. So while I think it is definitely important to show respect to our Deities by learning the proper pronunciation of their name, in this case we have to simply choose what we are comfortable with and what fits with our practice. What feels right to us as opposed to what someone else tells us is right.
