Basque burruna and furrunfarra bullroarer

burruna / furrunfarra / zurrunbera

Source term: bullroarer / free aerophone

Basque names for the bullroarer: burruna (general), furrunfarra (Lekeitio), zurrunbera and furrufarra (Álava), burrun (Sara).

Etymology. Imitative: burruna, furrunfarra and zurrunbera all echo the instrument's hoarse, rolling roar.

In the Basque village of Lekeitio, children swung a whirring slat of wood called the furrunfarra during Lent and again at harvest, to drive sparrows off the crops. It is the same object recorded across the Basque Country under a scatter of local names: zurrunbera and furrufarra in Álava, where it was a children's toy, and burrun in Sara, on the French side of the Pyrenees, where Barandiaran found it used to scare animals. It is an elongated wooden tablet about eighteen centimetres long, with a cord roughly a metre in length threaded through a hole at one end. Wound up and thrown spinning around the player's head, it gives off the deep, hoarse roar that supplies its onomatopoeic names.

tanto en la época de Cuaresma como de cosechas, para ahuyentar a los gorriones

both during Lent and at harvest time, to drive away the sparrows

Soinuenea Herri Musikaren Txokoa, Encyclopedia of Basque popular music instruments, "Bramadera (Burruna, furrufarra, zurrunbera)"

Particulars

Object

The burruna is an elongated wooden splint with a rope through one end, producing a deep hoarse sound when spun.

Function

Sound toy and rural animal- or bird-scarer: children in Alava, Sara animal-scarer, and Lekeitio Lent/harvest use to scare sparrows.