Elina Sánchez

Slavic 425

Language Commentary 1

In this assignment, I will address my native language: Spanish, particularly the dialect from Argentina. I would agree with Nisbett’s perspective in The Geography of Thought which views Western societies as more oriented towards individual success where the people strive to be different from each other and distinctive. In these societies people tend to feel good about themselves, they believe in equality among members of a society, and that rules should apply to everybody in the same way. Spanish is spoken mainly in Western countries and therefore I see some of these ideas applied to my language and culture as well. Following Nisbett’s analysis of Japanese, I would situate Spanish speaking countries somewhat in the middle between Western countries and Eastern countries. In Spanish, as opposed to Japanese, there is a word for individualism: that is individualismo. However, I would argue that this term in Spanish has more of a negative connotation than it has in English. The formal definition of the word provided by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) describes this term as “the tendency to think and act with independence from others or without being attached to general norms”. This definition would suggest individualismo refers to having independence from other people. However, this term is usually associated with the idea of selfishness. Nisbett mentions results for studies that situate countries like Italy and Spain in a middle ground between extreme individualistic countries like US, England and Canada and very community-oriented countries like Japan and China. My country (and most of Latin American countries) was very much influenced by Spaniards and Italian immigration, and that may explain the similarities between my views and Nisbett’s comments. With regards of the term self esteem, I do not see much difference between the English term and its Spanish translation autoestima. Both terms have a positive connotation.

Anna Wierzbicka talks about Japanese key words that reflect key core cultural values. These terms are amae ; enryo ; wa; on; giri; seishin; omoiyari and what they have in common is that all of them show that Japanese culture gives special importance to relationships with others, with the community. These terms talk about being aware of the other person, or wanting to protect the other person or be like someone else. They also talk about being in debt to someone after they have done something for us. I have not been able to find equivalents in Spanish to these Japanese terms. However, following the idea that language reflects deep cultural values, I would like to address some Argentine Spanish terms that reflect our own values and for which I have not found an English translation. These terms are Yeta; Cabulero; Canchero/a; Amague; Cuerear; Bancar; Achanchado and they all belong to Argentine lunfardo or slang.

Lunfardo is defined as the vocabulary made up of words of different origin used by Buenos Aires' people in opposition to the orthodox Spanish words. Two major branches can be distinguished in lunfardo: the gauchesco branch (the words used by the gauchos until the 19^th century in the pampas) and the words brought by the European immigration in the last 25 years of the 19^th century and in the first two decades of the 20^th century. In addition, in lunfardo vocabulary there are Spanish words with changed meanings and invented ones. These terms are usually related to very popular interests such as Argentine football (soccer) and politics, revealing the cultural values of the Argentine society. These terms were a minority in the lunfardo's early years, but in the last decades they have become a considerable part of the vocabulary. Nowadays, lunfardo is considered the “Argentine slang”. Lunfardo does not nessesarily refer to swear words (none of the terms I will be addressing are swear words). Lunfardo is used by people of any age (not young population in particular). It is especially predominant in vernacular speech. However, some lunfardo terms are so popular that they can be heard in the media as well.

Yeta: [sɛta] n. In Argentinean lunfardo: a person or an object that is intrinsically associated with bad luck. Commonly used in Argentine football (soccer) where something/somebody could be perceived as yeta. For a person to become yeta something bad has to happen while he/she is present (a negative outcome in a game, somebody gets insured, it rains at a wedding). If this happens repeteadly, other people could start suggesting that the common factor in every bad situation was person X and therefore they can conclude that he/she is yeta (brings bad luck). A person or an object considered to be yeta could be excluded from future games. The term yeta has now been extended to environments other than football, including the music environment (certain musicians believed to be yeta are never mentioned) as well as to the television environment (certain words believed to be yeta are never said on TV).

Cabulero/a: [kabulɛrɔ/ kabulɛra] adj. In Argentinean lunfardo: a person that utilizes cábalas (lucky charms or superstitious rituals) in order to obtain a positive result. Some of these rituals include praying or making the sign of the cross on their chest before stepping on the football field; stepping on the field with the right foot first; wearing a certain color (yellow is supposed to be avoided); or walking seven steps backwards after seeing a black cat on the streets (black cats are considered bad luck in Argentine culture). The term cabulero/a could be understood as “superstitious” but the difference resides in that a cabulero/a person’s objective is the achievement of positive results, not the avoidance of negative ones. The term cabulero/a is associated with extreme Argentine football fans.

Canchero/a: [kancɛrɔ] adj. In Argentine lunfardo: a person who is skilled at doing something or has good management of a certain thing. The term chanchero comes from the noun cancha (football field) and it describes somebody that has good management of the social environment, the “field”. As an example, someone could say that person X is very canchero at driving (has good skills to drive).

Amague: [amagɛ] n. In Argentinean lunfardo: the term amague describes a change of direction. It’s usually used when there’s an original intention of doing something but there’s a change at the last minute. It describes a football movement in which the player, when confronting an adversary, shows an intention to go in one direction, but changes the direction at the last second, therefore deceiving the adversary. The term amague is now used in a broader social environment. As an example, when someone was supposed to show up to a meeting but they didn’t, one can say that such action was an amague. One could also say that when the sky looked grey and it seemed it was going to rain but it didn’t, that situation was also an amague.

Bancar: [bankar] v. In Argentinean lunfardo: to provide financial and/or emotional support. It probably comes from the word banco which means both “bank” and “bench”. The verb bancar could not be translated as “sugar daddy” because such term refers exclusively to financial support. Bancar instead could be used in a situation where someone is very upset or in distress and meets with a friend who listens to him/her patiently. The listener is bancando his friend.

Achanchado/a: [acancadɔ] adj. In Argentinean lunfardo: lazy or slow-moving due to lack of energy, lack of incentive or excess of weight. The term achanchado comes from the word chancho (pig) to address a person’s attitude that resembles those of a pig. An example could be a student who is not studying hard enough or he/she is doing it at a very slow pace. That person is achanchado.

It is interesting to see how much of Argentine slang comes from the number one passion in that country: football. These concepts reflect a tendency to superstition and magic but they also show how important relationships among people (and especially among family) are in Argentine culture. Besides being a form of entertainment, football in Argentina is also an activity that people share with their family, either because they get together to watch/listen to football (games are every Sunday) or because they get together to play football.