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| I didn't have a photo for this post, so Happy Llama will have to do! |
One thing I learnt whilst living and travelling in Peru is that the Spanish language is much richer than I originally thought. Some Peruvians preferred to use the word 'castellano' instead of 'español' when talking about their language, which I'd previously learnt about in a linguistics class. It's a deliberate distancing from the Spanish spoken in Spain; 'castellano' is not specifically Spain's language, it's also theirs. Their own version, with different words and phrases, different pronunciation, and sometimes different grammar. I won't go into linguistic details here, but it's quite interesting how supposedly one language can differ so much from country to country, and even region to region- I am an Arabic language student, I should know!
Then you have to consider that even within the same 'dialect', there are still significant differences. For instance, I might say 'what's up?' to a friend but I'd never say it to a potential boss in a job interview. We adapt our language to the situation, to the people with which we are talking, their age, their relationship to us etcetera... This is certainly the case with the Spanish spoken in Peru. I was taught a formal form of Spanish from Spain, so had to adapt the way I spoke when I arrived in Peru. I'd already stopped the 'lisping' pronunciation (formally described as destinción) used in Spain when I started university, mainly because it requires more effort, and in Peru they don't use it. But there were still many other aspects of the language that I had to adapt to. For example, in Peru the word for car is 'carro', whereas I'd been taught 'coche', which is used to mean 'shopping trolley' in Peru. Aside from all these differences there are sociolinguistic differences too, how the people adapt their language to varying social situations.
Peruvians, or at least the ones I met, seem to love their slang, and use it only a daily basis. So, here are some of the ones that I found were the most common and that I liked the most:
Al toque - al momento - right away
A su madre/asuuu! - expression of surprise
Bacán, chévere, paja - bonito/bueno - cool
Bamba - imitación - a fake (e.g. DVD, branded clothing etc.)
Brichero/a - a Peruvian who tries to get with foreigners in order to get a green card, 'gringo hunters'
Causa/pata - amigo/a - friend
Chamba (chambear) - trabajo (trabajar) - work (to work)
Chela - cerveza - beer
Chibolo/a - infante - kid
Churro - hombre guapo - good-looking guy
En bola/en bolivia - embarazada - pregnant
Flaco/flaca - novio/novia - boyfriend/girlfriend
Huevón - tonto - stupid, slow (in terms of intelligence), idiot
Huevadas - tonterías - nonsense, stupid remarks
Luca - un Sol - one sol (Peruvian currency)
Mamacita - guapa - good-looking (women only)
Mancha - grupo de personas o de amigos - group of people or friends
Ñoba - baño - bathroom (syllables switched around)
Palta (qué palta)/roche (qué roche) - vergüenza (qué vergüenza) - embarrassment, how embarrassing!
Pituco/a - persona adinerada - rich person, posh (negative)
Tono (tonazo) - fiesta - party (great party)
Violinista - third wheel (in a relationship)
Yapa - algo extra que nos dan cuando compramos - a small gift (given by a vendor after you buy something from them)
I also learnt some slang from the jungle region of Peru, where the Spanish is quite different from that of Lima. Their pronunciation is very different, meaning that at first I had difficulty understanding some people! For instance, the 'j' sound is transformed into a 'f' in some cases such as 'jueves' ('Thursday'), becoming 'fueves' in pronunciation. Some words used in their 'dialect' of Spanish are taken from the Native American language 'Quechua'. Here are some of the slang words and expressions I picked up:
Charapa - persona de la selva - someone from the jungle
Doña - señora - Miss/Mrs./lady (used directly to the woman)
Huambra - mujer adolescente - teenage girl
Huambrillo/a - niño/a pequeño - small child
Huahua - niño pequeño - small child
¡Ish! - ¡agh! - yuck!
Pelejo - oso perezoso - sloth
Ya vuelta - no te creo - I don't believe you, no way!
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