Lunfardo

The wordchorros(Lunfardo term meaning "thieves" )graffitiedon the wall of aBNLbank inBuenos Aires,during protests againstCorralito,2002.

Lunfardo(Spanish pronunciation:[luɱˈfaɾðo];from the Italianlombardoor inhabitant ofLombardy,lumbardinLombard) is anargotoriginated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in theRío de la Plataregion (encompassing the port cities ofBuenos AiresandMontevideo) and from there spread to other urban areas nearby, such as theGreater Buenos Aires,Santa FeandRosario.

Lunfardo originated from the mixture of languages and dialects produced due to the massiveEuropean immigration,mainly Italian and Spanish, which arrived in the ports of the region since the end of the 19th century.It was originally 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 in theSpanishofArgentina,andUruguay.Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo has spread among all social strata and classes by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics oftango.

Today, the meaning of the termlunfardohas been extended to designate anyslangorjargonused in Buenos Aires.

Origin

Lunfardo (orlunfafor short) began as prison slang in the late 19th century so guards would not understand prisoners. According to Oscar Conde, the word came from "lumbardo" (the inhabitants of the regionLombardiainItaly,the origin of mostof the Italians in Argentina in the early 20th century).However, the vernacular Spanish of mid-19th century Buenos Aires as preserved in the dialogue ofEsteban Echeverría's short storyThe Slaughter Yard(El matadero) is already a prototype of Lunfardo.

Etymology

Most sources believe that Lunfardo originated among criminals, and later became more commonly used by other classes. Circa 1870, the wordlunfardoitself (originally a deformation oflombardoin several Italian dialects) was often used to mean "outlaw".

Lunfardo today

Today, many Lunfardo terms have entered the language spoken all over Argentina and Uruguay, although a great number of Lunfardo words have fallen into disuse or have been modified in the era ofsuburbanization.Furthermore, the term "Lunfardo" has become synonymous with "speech of Buenos Aires" or "Porteño", mainly of the inhabitants of theCity of Buenos Aires,as well as its surrounding areas,Greater Buenos Aires.The Montevideo speech has almost as much "Lunfardo slang" as the Buenos Aires speech. Conde says that Lunfardo (much likeCocoliche) can be considered a kind of Italian dialect mixed with Spanish words, specifically the one spoken inMontevideo.In other words, Lunfardo is aninterlanguage varietyof the Italian dialects spoken by immigrants in the areas of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

InArgentina,anyneologismthat reached a minimum level of acceptance is considered, by default, a Lunfardo term. The original slang has been immortalized in numeroustangolyrics.

Conde takes the view that the Lunfardo is not so much a dialect but a kind of local language of the Italian immigrants, mixed with Spanish and some French words.He believes that Lunfardo is not a criminal slang, since most Lunfardo words are not related to crime.

According to Conde, Lunfardo

...is a vernacular, or to put it more clearly, is a vocabulary of popular speech in Buenos Aires that spread first throughout the entire River Plate area and later to the whole country... The use of this lexicon reminds speakers of their identity but also of their roots... Lunfardo is possibly the only argot that was originally formed, and in great measure, from Italian immigrant terms.
[Es un modo de expresión popular o, para decirlo más claramente, un vocabulario del habla popular de Buenos Aires… que se ha extendido primero a toda la región del Río de la Plata y luego al país entero… el uso de este léxico les recuerda a sus usuarios quiénes son, pero también de dónde vienen… el lunfardo es posiblemente el único que en su origen se formó, y en un alto porcentaje, con términos italianos inmigrados].

Characteristics

Lunfardo words are inserted in the normal flow ofRioplatense Spanishsentences, but grammar and pronunciation do not change. Thus, an average Spanish-speaking person reading tango lyrics will need, at most, the translation of a discrete set of words.

Tango lyrics use Lunfardo sparsely, but some songs (such asEl Ciruja–Lunfardo for "The Hobo" or "The Bum" – or most lyrics by Celedonio Flores) employ Lunfardo heavily.Milonga LunfardabyEdmundo Riverois an instructive and entertaining primer on Lunfardo usage.

A characteristic of Lunfardo is its use ofword play,notablyvesre(from "[al] revés" ), reversing the syllables, similar to Englishback slang,Frenchverlan,Serbo-CroatianŠatrovačkior Greekpodaná.Thus,tangobecomesgotánandcafé(coffee) becomesfeca.

Lunfardo employs metaphors such asbobo( "dumb" ) for theheart,who "works all day long without being paid" orbufoso( "snorter" ) forpistol.

Finally, there are words that are derived from others in Spanish, such as the verbabarajar,which means to stop a situation or a person (such asto 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.

Examples

Nouns

• buchón– "snitch", informer to the law (from the Spanishbuche,in turn slang for "mouth" )
• chochamu– "young man" (vesreformuchacho)
• facha- "face", and by extension "appearance", "looks" (from Italianfaccia,"face" )
• fato -"affair", "business" (from the Italianfatto,lit. "done" )
• fiaca– "laziness", or lazy person (from the Italianfiacca,"laziness, sluggishness" )
• gamba- "leg" (from the Italiangamba"leg" ). Also "100 pesos".
• gomías– "friends" (vesreforamigos)
• guita– "money", "dole"
• lorca– "heat", as in hot weather (vesreforcalor,"heat" )
• luca– "1,000 pesos"
• mango– "peso"
• mina– "chick", "broad" (from the Brazilian Portuguesemina,slang formenina,"girl" or from the Italianfemmina,"female" )
• naso- "nose" (from the Italiannaso,"nose" )
• palo– "1,000,000 pesos"
• palo/s verde/s- "dollars"
• percanta– a young woman
• pibe– "kid", a common term for boy or, in more recent times, for young man. It comes from Italian word "pivello".
• quilombo– "racket", "ruckus", "mess"; also slang for "brothel" (from theKimbunduwordkilombo,aMaroon settlement).
• urso– a heavyset guy. It comes from the Portugueseursoor the Italian "orso" (bear).
• yorugua– "Uruguayan", (vesreforuruguayo).

Verbs

• cerebrar– "to think something up" (fromcerebro,"brain" )
• engrupir– "to fool someone" (maybe fromItalianingroppare,"to fuck", but also used in modern European and BrazilianPortugueseslang)
• garpar– "to pay with money"(vesreforpagar,"to pay" )
• junar– "to look closely", "to check out" / "to know" (fromCalójunar,"to hear" )
• laburar– "to work" (fromItalianlavorare,"to work" )
• manyar– "to eat" / "to know" (fromVenetianandLombardmagnar-Italianmangiare)
• morfar– "to eat"(fromFrenchargotmorfer,"to eat" )
• pescar– "to understand", "to get a grip" (vesrefrom theItaliancapisce?,"Do you understand?" ) associated to the Spanish verbpescar( "to fish" )

Interjections

• che- appellative to introduce a conversational intervention or to call out, translatable as "hey!", "listen to me!", "so", "as I was telling you!" and other ways of addressing someone. The expression identifies Argentines to other Spanish speakers, thusErnesto "Che" Guevarafor the Cubans (Guaraní,VenetianandValencianorigins have been propounded).
• ¡guarda!- "look out!", "be careful!" (from the Italianguarda!,"look!" )

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 lunfardomusthave 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" ) – "tits", woman's breasts
• maza(lit. "mace" or "sledgehammer" ) – "superb"
• curtir(lit. "to tan leather" ) – "to deal with it", "to dig", "to be knowledgeable about", "to be involved in". Also "to fuck".
• curtir fierroscan mean both "to be into car mechanics" or "to be into firearms".Fierrois the Old Spanish form ofhierro( "iron" ). In Argentine parlance,fierrocan mean a firearm or anything related to metals and mechanics (for example a racing car)
• zafar– "to scrape out of", "to get off the hook", "to barely get by", etc.Zafaris 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", "fake";truchois from old Spanish slangtruchamán,which in turn derives from theArabicturjeman( "translator", referring specifically to a person who accosts foreigners and lures them intotourist traps).Folk etymologyderives this word fromtrucha( "trout"), or from the Italiantrucco-something made fake on purpose.

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 ofpsychoanalysis.

Influence from Cocoliche

Lunfardo was influenced byCocoliche,apidginofItalian immigrants.Many Cocoliche words were transferred to Lunfardo in the first half of the 20th century. For example:

• lonyipietro- "fool"
• fungi- "mushroom" → in Lunfardo: "hat"
• vento- "wind" → in Lunfardo: "money"
• matina- "morning" (from Italianmattina)
• mina- "girl" (fromLombardmina)
• laburar- "to work" (from Italianlavorareand Spanishlaborar)
• minga- "nothing!" (fromLombardminga,negative particle likenotin English orne pasin French)
• yeta- "bad luck" (fromNeapolitaniettatore)
• yira/yira- "to walk around (generally in circles)", "to ramble aimlessly", etc. (from Italiangirare,"to turn", "to tour" ). Usually "yiro" or "yira" is used to refer to a prostitute.
• ¡salute!- "cheers!" (from Italiansalute!)
• eccole- "exactly" (from Italianeccole)

Some Italian linguists,because of the Cocoliche influences, argue that the Lunfardo can be considered apidginof theItalian language.

Suffixes

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, for no particular reason, but playful language. These endings include -etti,-ellieli,-oni,-eni,-anga,-ango,-enga,-engue,-engo,-ingui,-ongo,-usi,-ula,-usa,-eta,among others. Examples:milanesa(meat dish)$\longrightarrow$milanga, cuaderno( "notebook" )$\longrightarrow$cuadernelli,etc.

See also

• Cocoliche
• Germanía
• Jeringonza
• Viveza criolla

Bibliography

• Conde, Oscar.Lunfardo: Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentinos.Ediciones Taurus. Buenos Aires, 2011ISBN978-987-04-1762-0
• Grayson, John D. (March 1964). "Lunfardo, Argentina's Unknown Tongue".Hispania.47(1). American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 66–68.doi:10.2307/337280.JSTOR337280.

External links

• (English)"Lunfardo: The Slang of Buenos Aires"
• (English)"Porteño Spanish – Learn Argentine Slang"
• (English)"A Survivors Guide To Buenos Aires"
• (English)(in Spanish)"CheViste – Lunfardo Dictionary"
• (in Spanish)Diccionario del lunfardo
• (in Spanish)Defining Lunfardo
• (in Spanish)Lunfardo's history
• (in Spanish)Academia Porteña del Lunfardo