Argentine slang: Lunfardo

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Laburar como loco.

Coparse con algo.

Zarparse en boludo.

These are just some Argentinian slang phrases that you might hear in your stay and you wouldn’t be able to decipher without proper induction.

Welcome to the world of Lunfardo, or Argentinian Slang.

Argentine slang, called LUNFARDO, is one of the linguistic features of Argentinian Spanish. In fancy terms, it’s a vernacular form of Spanish:

a vernacular language, expression, or mode of expression: an expression or mode of expression that occurs in ordinary speech rather than formal writing.

It’s the perfect example of the mutant talent of Spanish under the influence of Italian. Perhaps only surpassed by the grammatical changes produced by VOS and YEISMO, it’s what gives Argentinian Spanish its unique identity.

It’s very difficult to say what is ‘Lunfardo’ and what is an ‘Argentinianism’ (the former being a part of the latter), and there are serious studies on the matter carried out by linguists, trying to settle the controversy. One thing is certain: it is a mark of Argentine identity.

Lunfardo shows that a language is what people do to it.

What is Lunfardo?

Lunfardo is a set of words and expressions which are used in every day conversation in Argentina, but whose meaning is highly idiomatic and cryptic for ‘outsiders’. Its origins date back to the late 1870s.

Once upon a time in Buenos Aires…

Languages contain a political message. We speak Spanish because that was the language of the Spanish conquistadors.

For a long time, Spain held the reigns of the use of Spanish, pretending to set the standards. It was wishful thinking, aided by the opinion of some influential characters of those times who pledge loyalty to the purity of Spanish. Fortunately, time has shown that neither English, Portuguese or Spanish have remained the same in America.

The history of the origins of our Argentine Slang is really powerful as it shows that each community shapes the language according to their needs and their reality. In the late 19th century, European immigrants, mostly Spanish and Italians, arrived in great numbers to Argentina, bringing their language and idiomatic expressions along with them.

Many of them continued their journey into the interior of Argentina, but many stayed in Buenos Aires.

To give an idea of the demographics, at the beginning of the 20th century half of the males between the ages of 15 and 50 living in Buenos Aires had been born in Italy. The neighborhood of La Boca, the area beside the port, was known as “the little Genoa” at that time.

Several families would live together in shared buildings called conventillos. These were the homes of the wealthy classes readapted to the new purposes. Each of them had an average of sixty tenants.

They, too, tried to adapt to their new realities.

Cocoliche was one by product of this situation. So, let’s stop at cocoliche for a moment.

Cocoliche

Cocoliche was the first outcome of the encounter of Italian and Spanish. It was no more and no less than the Spanish spoken by Italians while they were trying to assimilate into the new society into which they had become part of.

You can see HERE how many words from Italian are part of our Rioplatense dialect.

Contributors to Lunfardo

However, it was not just Italian that contributed to Lunfardo. So did the rural language of gauchos, caló (spoken by Romany people in Spain and Portugal), French and Portuguese, as well as aboriginal languages such as Quechua and African languages.

Still, the origin of the word Lunfardo does seem to be linked to the Italian word ‘lumbardo’, thief. And, in its origins it seemed to be indeed the jargon of crime.

Journalists as well as criminologists were particularly interested in it, and the first studies of the subject came from those fields.

For a long time, it was thought that only criminals used Lunfardo, or at least it was considered el lenguaje del bajo fondo, the language of the underground side of the city.

However, it’s important to note that the semantic fields of Lunfardo extend beyond those of the crime and felony.

Tango and Lunfardo

Tango music made it clear that was not precisely the case. Tango played a major role in the dissemination of many words of popular origin. Its lyrics are full of Lunfardo.

This breakthrough of Lunfardo was not without problems. For example, during the 1930s, many lyrics of popular tango songs had to be rewritten to overcome the censorship of that time, which considered it was against morality and decency.

TOP Lunfardo words

Okay, you know enough about the history of Lunfardo and you are now ready to actually learn some of the most iconic Argentine slang words.

  • BONDI | BUS
  • FIACA | SLOTHFULNESS
  • LABURO | WORK
  • LABURAR | TO WORK
  • CHAMUYERO | LIAR
  • CANCHERO | TOO FULL OF HIMSELF
  • GUITA | MONEY
  • MINA | WOMAN
  • TIPO | MAN
  • PIBE | GUY
  • PIBA | GIRL
  • QUILOMBO | MESS
  • PIOLA | CLEVER
  • TRUCHO | FAKE
  • MORFAR | TO EAT
  • GARPAR | TO PAY
  • PUCHO | CIGARETTE
  • PILCHA | ROPA

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For a more extensive list, visit THIS POST.

And I also recommend you watching this video:

Well, I’ll leave it here. I wish you know more now than when you started reading.

Remember: Lunfardo is not a language and it’s not another name for Argentinian Spanish. It’s not possible to speak in Lunfardo, but rather with Lunfardo.

Hope you find this post on our own Argentine slang helpful!

If you want to learn Argentinian Spanish online with a native tutor, just let me know, okay?

Happy Spanish learning,

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