Its A Boy Baby Saying

A boy, is a young person of male gender who has not yet reached adulthood, that is, a male child or adolescent. Today, the word boy serves as a supra-regional word form in Germany; Knabe is obsolete as a high-level form outside of Switzerland. In the dialects, the two word forms Bub and Junge show a clear dichotomy, where in the south up to and including Hunsrück, Westerwald, Vogelsberg, Thuringian Forest, and Franconian Forest, 'Buben' is spoken of, but north of there, 'Jungen' is spoken of.

Occasionally, especially in the Rhine-Main area, one also finds the Latin-derived Bursche in the general meaning for boys and young men. Kerle is native to an island in the Alb, to Baden and to Thuringian Upper Saxon in dialect, Bengel was found only on a Pomeranian island. Other synonyms are Hessian Stift (today rather means a trainee in an office profession); Frisian also appears Dreng borrowed from Danish and Upper Franconian Boss.