Palianytsia

The word comes from Ukrainian: пали́ти, romanized: palyty, meaning "to burn" or "to smoke".[1] This is because, when baking the bread, the raised crust can sometimes be burned. Another version is based on the assumption that pOlianytsia is a traditional bread produced by the Polans (Poliany) an early medieval tribe of Eastern Slavs.

Ahatanhel Krymsky, a noted Ukrainophile and scholar, believed that the word palianytsia comes from the Greek: πελανος, romanized: pelanos,[2] which referred to round cakes offered to the gods.[3]

Traditional palyanytsya was baked from yeast dough. First, hops were boiled in a pot, which was then poured into a makitra, to which sifted wheat flour was added. The resulting dough was kneaded, covered with a makitra and left to cool. Yeast or sourdough was added to the cooled dough and placed in an unheated oven overnight. In the morning, the dough that had already risen was kneaded with wheat flour, and warm water and salt were added. The dough was then kneaded at night until it stopped sticking to the baker's hands. After that, the dough was divided into pieces, which were then rolled out on the table. The resulting bread was placed in the oven on a wooden shovel, sprinkled with flour or steamed cabbage leaf. Finally, an incision was made in the bread to allow it to rise further when baked.[4]

According to GOST 12793-77, the bakeries of the USSR produced a standardized "Ukrainian palyanytsya" baked in molds.[5] It had a mass of 750g-1kg, with a lateral cut of 3/4 of a circle.

In Christianity, palyanytsya, like bread in general, symbolizes happiness and can represent well-being, the body of God, affection, hospitality and security. Palyanytsya can also be interpreted as a symbol of the sun.[6]

According to popular belief, you should not eat a piece of palyanytsya after another person, as doing so will take away their happiness. It is also unlucky to leave a piece uneaten; and eating bread behind another person's back will "eat" their strength.[7]

The word palyanytsya is used as an important shibboleth test in the Ukrainian language, to identify people for whom the Ukrainian language is not phonetically familiar. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the word was often used to identify Russian soldiers or saboteurs.[8][9] When captured, some Russians have claimed to be Ukrainian. Instead of pronouncing it "palianytsia", however, Russian speakers would often mispronounce the Cyrillic letter и (y) as і (i), and the Cyrillic я (ya) as (a),[10], thus sounding more like "palianitsa" ([pɐlʲɪˈnʲit͡sə]). The latter mistake is particularly widespread because the phoneme represented by the letter ц (ts) is never palatalized in Russian, unlike in Ukrainian.

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