Lunfardo
Encyclopedia
Lunfardo is a dialect originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires
and the surrounding Gran Buenos Aires, and from there spread to other cities nearby, such as Rosario
and Montevideo
, cities with similar socio-cultural situations. Originally, Lunfardo was a slang used by criminals and soon by other people of the lower and lower-middle classes. Later, many of its words and phrases were introduced in the vernacular and disseminated Castilian
of Argentina
and Uruguay
. Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo began to spread among all social strata and classes, either by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics of tango
. During the 20th and this century many of its words have gone to neighboring countries like Chile
and Paraguay
, because immigrants from those countries are living in Argentina
.
A few have been recognized even by the Real Academia Española
. Lunfardo is, for all practical purposes, unintelligible to an average Spanish-speaking person from any other country.
and its surroundings during the second half of the nineteenth century from the great contribution of the various waves of immigration, especially Italians
, and words from American Indian, African and gaucho origin which had already existed in Argentina.
The Lunfardo language began as prison slang in the late 19th century, so guards would not understand the prisoners. Many of its expressions arrived with European immigrants (mainly Italians). When there was a mixture of the Spanish
and Italian
in the Rio de la Plata area, cocoliche
is found, from which many Lunfardo words are derived. Other words came from the typical way Gauchos speak.
The slang also includes Aboriginal words, especially from Quichua
, Guaraní and Mapuche
languages, and also many words from African origin, especially from the Bantu areas, such as: quilombo, mucama, mina, catinga, mondongo, candombe
, etc. Lunfardo has also received contributions from France, especially the Occitan language, and from English
(ex: words as espiche comes from speech, or escrachar comes from scratch), and many words which come from Galician
and Portuguese
.
. Furthermore, the term "Lunfardo" has become a synonymous with "speech of Buenos Aires", mainly of the inhabitants of the City of Buenos Aires, and its surrounding areas (Greater Buenos Aires
). The Montevideo speech has almost as "lunfardo slang" as the Buenos Aires speech.
In Argentina
, all neologism that has reached a minimum level of acceptance is considered a Lunfardo term. The original slang has been immortalized in numerous texts of tango
.
sentences. Thus, an average Spanish-speaking person reading tango lyrics will need, at most, the translation of a discrete set of words, and not a grammar guide.
Tango lyrics use lunfardo sparsely, but some songs (such as El Ciruja, or most lyrics by Celedonio Flores) employ lunfardo heavily. "Milonga Lunfarda" by Edmundo Rivero
is an instructive and entertaining primer on lunfardo usage.
A characteristic of lunfardo is its use of word play
, notably vesre
(from "[al] revés", reversing the syllables, similar to English pig Latin
). Thus, tango becomes gotán and café con leche (coffee with milk) becomes feca con chele.
Lunfardo employs metaphors such as bobo ("dumb") for the heart
, who "works all day long without being paid", or bufoso ("snorter") for pistol
.
Finally, there are words that are derived from others in Spanish, such as the verb abarajar, which means to stop a situation or a person (e.g. to stop your opponent's blows with the blade of your knife) and is related to the verb "barajar", which means to cut or shuffle a deck of cards.
Some examples of modern talk:
Many new terms had spread from specific areas of the dynamic Buenos Aires cultural scene: invented by screenwriters, used around the arts-and-crafts fair in Plaza Francia, culled from the vocabulary of psychoanalysis
, or created by the lyricists of cumbia villera
.
A rarer feature of Porteño speech that can make it completely unintelligible is the random addition of suffixes with no particular meaning, usually making common words sound reminiscent of Italian surnames. These endings include -etti, -elli eli, -oni, -eni, -anga, -ango, -enga, -engue, -engo, -ingui, -ongo, -usi, -ula, -usa, -eta, among others.
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and the surrounding Gran Buenos Aires, and from there spread to other cities nearby, such as Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
and Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, cities with similar socio-cultural situations. Originally, Lunfardo was a slang used by criminals and soon by other people of the lower and lower-middle classes. Later, many of its words and phrases were introduced in the vernacular and disseminated Castilian
Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo began to spread among all social strata and classes, either by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics of tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
. During the 20th and this century many of its words have gone to neighboring countries like Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, because immigrants from those countries are living in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
A few have been recognized even by the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
. Lunfardo is, for all practical purposes, unintelligible to an average Spanish-speaking person from any other country.
Origin
Lunfardo (or briefly, lunfa) appeared in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and its surroundings during the second half of the nineteenth century from the great contribution of the various waves of immigration, especially Italians
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and words from American Indian, African and gaucho origin which had already existed in Argentina.
The Lunfardo language began as prison slang in the late 19th century, so guards would not understand the prisoners. Many of its expressions arrived with European immigrants (mainly Italians). When there was a mixture of the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
in the Rio de la Plata area, cocoliche
Cocoliche
Cocoliche is an Italian-Spanish pidgin that was spoken by Italian immigrants in Argentina between 1880-1950.-History:...
is found, from which many Lunfardo words are derived. Other words came from the typical way Gauchos speak.
The slang also includes Aboriginal words, especially from Quichua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
, Guaraní and Mapuche
Mapudungun
The Mapuche language, Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It is also spelled Mapuzugun and sometimes called Mapudungu or Araucanian...
languages, and also many words from African origin, especially from the Bantu areas, such as: quilombo, mucama, mina, catinga, mondongo, candombe
Candombe
Candombe is a musical genre that has its roots in the African Bantu, and is proper of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil .Uruguayan Candombe is the most practiced and spread internationally and has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...
, etc. Lunfardo has also received contributions from France, especially the Occitan language, and from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(ex: words as espiche comes from speech, or escrachar comes from scratch), and many words which come from Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
.
Etymology
Most sources believe that Lunfardo originated among criminals, and later became more commonly used by other classes. Circa 1900, the word lunfardo itself (originally a deformation of lombardo in several Italian dialects) was used to mean "outlaw".Lunfardo today
Today, some Lunfardo terms have entered in the language spoken all over Argentina and Uruguay, while a great number of Lunfardo words have fallen into disuse or have been modified in the era of suburbanizationSuburbanization
Suburbanization a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs...
. Furthermore, the term "Lunfardo" has become a synonymous with "speech of Buenos Aires", mainly of the inhabitants of the City of Buenos Aires, and its surrounding areas (Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires is the generic denomination to refer to the megalopolis comprising the autonomous city of Buenos Aires and the conurbation around it, over the province of Buenos Aires—namely the adjacent 24 partidos or municipalities—which nonetheless do not constitute a single administrative...
). The Montevideo speech has almost as "lunfardo slang" as the Buenos Aires speech.
In Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, all neologism that has reached a minimum level of acceptance is considered a Lunfardo term. The original slang has been immortalized in numerous texts of tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
.
Characteristics
Lunfardo words are inserted in the normal flow of Rioplatense SpanishRioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
sentences. Thus, an average Spanish-speaking person reading tango lyrics will need, at most, the translation of a discrete set of words, and not a grammar guide.
Tango lyrics use lunfardo sparsely, but some songs (such as El Ciruja, or most lyrics by Celedonio Flores) employ lunfardo heavily. "Milonga Lunfarda" by Edmundo Rivero
Edmundo Rivero
Leonel Edmundo Rivero was an Argentine tango singer, composer, and impresario.-Early days:Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his travels, he was exposed to the lifestyle and the music of the gauchos of Buenos Aires Province from...
is an instructive and entertaining primer on lunfardo usage.
A characteristic of lunfardo is its use of word play
Word play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
, notably vesre
Vesre
Vesre is one of the features of Rioplatense Spanish slang. Natives of Buenos Aires and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and never in formal circumstances...
(from "[al] revés", reversing the syllables, similar to English pig Latin
Pig Latin
Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the first consonant is moved to the end of the word and an ay is affixed . The object is to conceal the meaning of the words from others not familiar with the rules...
). Thus, tango becomes gotán and café con leche (coffee with milk) becomes feca con chele.
Lunfardo employs metaphors such as bobo ("dumb") for the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
, who "works all day long without being paid", or bufoso ("snorter") for pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
.
Finally, there are words that are derived from others in Spanish, such as the verb abarajar, which means to stop a situation or a person (e.g. to stop your opponent's blows with the blade of your knife) and is related to the verb "barajar", which means to cut or shuffle a deck of cards.
Nouns
- buchón - snitch, informer to the law (from the French bouillonBouillonBouillon is a municipality in Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Luxembourg Province.The municipality, which covers 149.09 km², had 5,477 inhabitants, giving a population density of 36.7 inhabitants per km².- History :...
) - chochamu - young man (vesre for muchacho)
- fiaca - laziness, or lazy person (from the Italian fiacco "weak")
- gomías - friends (vesre for amigos)
- gurí - boy (from Guaraní) Feminine: gurisa "girl". Plural: gurises "kids"
- guita - money
- lorca - hot, as in the weather (vesre for calor "heat")
- mina - (African origin, a common word for woman)
- percanta - a young woman
- pibe - like "kid", a common term for boy or, in more recent times, for young man
- quilombo - racket, ruckus, disorder, mess (from the KimbunduKimbunduNorth Mbundu, or Kimbundu, one of two Bantu languages called Mbundu is one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages in Angola, concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda Province, the Bengo Province and the Malanje Province...
word kilombo).
Verbs
- cerebrar - to think something up (from cerebro, "brain")
- engrupir - to fool someone (origin unknown, but also used in modern European and Brazilian PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
slang) - garpar - to pay with money (vesre for pagar "to pay")
- junar - to look to / to know (from CalóCaló (Spanish Romani)Caló is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani. It is a mixed language based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items through language shift by the Romani community. It is often used as an argot, a secret language for discreet communication amongst Iberian...
junar "to hear") - laburar - to work (from ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
lavorare "to work") - manyar - to know / to eat (from the ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
mangiare "to eat") - morfar - to eat (from FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
argot morfer "to eat") - pescar - to know (vesre from the Italian capisce "do you understand?")
Modern slang
Since the 1970s, it is a matter of debate whether newer additions to the slang of Buenos Aires qualify as lunfardo. Traditionalists argue that lunfardo must have a link to the argot of the old underworld, to tango lyrics, or to racetrack slang. Others maintain that the colloquial language of Buenos Aires is lunfardo by definition.Some examples of modern talk:
- Gomas (lit. tires) - woman's breasts
- Maza (lit. mace or sledgehammer) - superb
- Curtir (lit. to tan) - to be involved in
- Curtir fierros can mean "to be into car mechanics" or "to be into firearms"Fierro is the Old Spanish form of hierro (iron). In Argentine parlance, it can mean a firearm or anything related to metals and mechanics, for example a racing car.
- Zafar - to barely get byZafar is actually a standard Spanish verb (originally meaning to extricate oneself) that had fallen out of use and was restored to everyday Buenos Aires speech in the 1970s by students, with the meaning of "barely passing (an examination)".
- Trucho - counterfeit, fakeTrucho is from old Spanish slang truchamán, which in turn derives from the ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
turjeman ("translator", referring specifically to a person who accosts foreigners and lures them into tourist trapTourist trapA tourist trap is an establishment, or group of establishments, that has been created with the aim of attracting tourists and their money...
s). Folk etymology derives this word from trucha (troutTroutTrout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
), or from the Italian trucco, something made fake on purpose. Reference (Spanish)
Many new terms had spread from specific areas of the dynamic Buenos Aires cultural scene: invented by screenwriters, used around the arts-and-crafts fair in Plaza Francia, culled from the vocabulary of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, or created by the lyricists of cumbia villera
Cumbia villera
Cumbia villera is a typically Argentine form of cumbia music born in the villas miseria around Buenos Aires and then popularized in other large urban settlements, is derived musically from Cumbia sonidera and Chicha Cumbia.-Origins:Ever since the 1930s there has been a strong migration from the...
.
A rarer feature of Porteño speech that can make it completely unintelligible is the random addition of suffixes with no particular meaning, usually making common words sound reminiscent of Italian surnames. These endings include -etti, -elli eli, -oni, -eni, -anga, -ango, -enga, -engue, -engo, -ingui, -ongo, -usi, -ula, -usa, -eta, among others.
See also
- CocolicheCocolicheCocoliche is an Italian-Spanish pidgin that was spoken by Italian immigrants in Argentina between 1880-1950.-History:...
- GermaníaGermaníaGermanía is the Spanish term for the argot used by criminals or in jails in Spain during 15th and 16th centuries. Its purpose is to keep outsiders out of the conversation...
- VesreVesreVesre is one of the features of Rioplatense Spanish slang. Natives of Buenos Aires and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and never in formal circumstances...
- JeringonzaJeringonzaJeringonza is a Spanish language game played by children in Spain and all over Latin America. It consists of adding the letter p after each vowel of a word, and repeating the vowel. For example, Carlos turns into Cápar-lopos....
- ArgotArgotAn Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
External links
- (English) "Porteño Spanish - Learn Argentine Slang"
- (English) "A Survivors Guide To Buenos Aires"
- (English) "Gringo Lingo: A Guide to Buenos Aires Slang, Common Grammar Mistakes and much more"
- (English) "Lunfardo-English Online translation and help" Diccionario del lunfardo Course description - Includes extensive bibliography What is lunfardo Lunfardo Dictionary Lunfardo etymology Defining Lunfardo Lunfardo's history Academia Porteña del Lunfardo Traducción y ayuda online