View source for Lunfardo

{{Short description|Argot of the Río de la Plata region}}{{Cleanup lang|date=February 2025}}[[File:Buenos Aires - Manifestación contra el Corralito - 20020213-14.JPG|thumb|right|The word ''chorros'' (Lunfardo term meaning "thieves") [[graffiti]]ed on the wall of a [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|BNL]] bank in [[Buenos Aires]], during protests against [[Corralito]], 2002.]]

'''Lunfardo''' ({{IPA|es|luɱˈfaɾðo}}; from the Italian ''lombardo''<ref>{{cite book | last=Davie | first=J. | title=Slang across Societies: Motivations and Construction | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-351-36463-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wlrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT49 | access-date=2020-06-22 | page=49}}</ref> or inhabitant of [[Lombardy]], ''lumbard'' in [[Lombard language|Lombard]]) is an [[argot]] originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in the [[Río de la Plata]] region (encompassing the port cities of [[Buenos Aires]] and [[Montevideo]]) and from there spread to other urban areas nearby, such as the [[Greater Buenos Aires]], [[Santa Fe, Argentina|Santa Fe]] and [[Rosario]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.agenciaelvigia.com.ar/historia_del_lunfardo.htm |title=Lunfardo history, with historical accounts in newspapers of the nineteenth century. |access-date=2011-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034115/http://www.agenciaelvigia.com.ar/historia_del_lunfardo.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=lunfardo Definition of the word "Lunfardo"according to the RAE.]</ref>

Lunfardo originated from the mixture of languages and dialects produced due to the massive [[European immigration to the Americas|European immigration]], mainly Italian and Spanish, which arrived in the ports of the region since the end of the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lunfardo: conocé de dónde vienen muchas de las palabras que usamos a diario |url=https://www.cultura.gob.ar/en-el-dia-del-lunfardo-conoce-de-donde-vienen-muchas-de-las-palabras-que-usamos-a-diario_4604/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=www.cultura.gob.ar |language=es}}</ref> 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 the [[Rioplatense Spanish|Spanish]] of [[Argentina]], and [[Uruguay]]. 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 of [[tango music|tango]].

Today, the meaning of the term ''lunfardo'' has been extended to designate any [[slang]] or [[jargon]] used in Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/cultura/2018/09/05/dia-del-lunfardo-por-que-la-voz-de-la-calle-esta-mas-viva-que-nunca/|language=es|title=Día del lunfardo: por qué la "voz de la calle" está más viva que nunca|publisher=[[Infobae]]|last=Amuchástegui|first=Irene|date=September 5, 2018|access-date=April 11, 2019}}</ref>

==Origin==
Lunfardo (or ''lunfa'' for 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 region [[Lombardia]] in [[Italy]], the origin of most{{cn|date=January 2021}} of the Italians in Argentina in the early 20th century).<ref>Conde. "Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentinos". Introduction</ref>  However, the vernacular Spanish of mid-19th century Buenos Aires as preserved in the dialogue of [[Esteban Echeverría]]'s short story [[The Slaughter Yard]] (''El matadero'') is already a prototype of Lunfardo.<ref>The story may be read on Wikisource: https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/El_Matadero.</ref>{{Original research inline|date=May 2021}}

==Etymology==
Most sources believe that Lunfardo originated among criminals, and later became more commonly used by other classes. Circa 1870, the word ''lunfardo'' itself (originally a deformation of ''[[Lombard language|lombardo]]'' in several Italian dialects) was often used to mean "outlaw".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Schijman|first=Bárbara|date=2 April 2018|title='El lunfardo es un fenómeno lingüístico único' {{!}} Oscar Conde, poeta, ensayista y estudioso del habla popular argentina|url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/105340-el-lunfardo-es-un-fenomeno-linguistico-unico|access-date=2021-05-31|website=PAGINA12|language=es}}</ref>

==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 of [[suburbanization]]. Furthermore, the term "Lunfardo" has become synonymous with "speech of Buenos Aires" or "Porteño", mainly of the inhabitants of the [[City 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 like [[Cocoliche]]) can be considered a kind of Italian dialect mixed with Spanish words, specifically the one spoken in [[Montevideo]]. In other words, Lunfardo is an ''interlanguage variety'' of the Italian dialects spoken by immigrants in the areas of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

In [[Argentina]], any [[neologism]] that reached a minimum level of acceptance is considered, by default, a Lunfardo term. The original slang has been immortalized in numerous [[tango music|tango]] lyrics.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

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.<ref>Oscar Conde: Lunfardo. Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentinos; pág. 43</ref> He believes that Lunfardo is not a criminal slang, since most Lunfardo words are not related to crime.<ref>Conde; p. 55</ref>

According to Conde, Lunfardo

{{Quote|...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.<br />
[''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''].<ref>Conde; p. 109</ref>}}

==Characteristics==
Lunfardo words are inserted in the normal flow of [[Rioplatense Spanish]] sentences, 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 as "El Ciruja"—Lunfardo for "The Hobo" or "The Bum"—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 [[back slang]], French [[verlan]], Serbo-Croatian [[Šatrovački]] or Greek [[Podaná]]. Thus, ''tango'' becomes ''gotán'' and ''café'' (coffee) becomes ''feca''.

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 (such as ''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.

==Examples==
===Nouns===
* ''buchón'' – "snitch", informer to the law (from the Spanish ''[[wikt:buche#Spanish|buche]]'', in turn slang for "mouth")
* ''chochamu'' – "young man" (''[[vesre]]'' for ''muchacho'')
*''facha'' - "face", and by extension "appearance", "looks" (from Italian ''faccia,'' "face")
*''fato -'' "affair", "business" (from the Italian ''fatto'', lit. "done")
* ''fiaca'' – "laziness", or lazy person (from the Italian ''fiacca'', "laziness, sluggishness")
*''gamba'' - "leg" (from the Italian ''gamba'' "leg"). Also "100 pesos".
*''gomías'' – "friends" (''[[vesre]]'' for ''amigos'')
* ''guita'' – "money", "dole"
* ''lorca'' – "heat", as in hot weather (''[[vesre]]'' for ''calor'', "heat")
* ''luca'' – "1,000 pesos"
* ''mango'' – "peso"
* ''mina'' – "chick", "broad" (from the Brazilian Portuguese ''mina'', slang for ''menina'', "girl" or from the Italian ''femmina'', "female")
*''naso'' - "nose" (from the Italian ''naso'', "nose")
* ''palo'' – "1,000,000 pesos"
* ''palo/s verde/s'' - "dollars"
* ''percanta'' – a young woman
* ''pibe''<ref>[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?LEMA=pibe pibe] in the [[Diccionario de la Real Academia Española]]</ref> – "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 the [[Kimbundu]] word ''kilombo'', a [[quilombo|Maroon settlement]]).
*''urso'' – a heavyset guy. It comes from the Portuguese ''urso'' or the Italian "orso" (bear).
* ''yorugua'' – "Uruguayan", (''[[vesre]]'' for ''uruguayo'') .

===Verbs===
* ''cerebrar'' – "to think something up" (from ''cerebro'', "brain")
* ''engrupir'' – "to fool someone" (maybe from [[Italian language|Italian]] ''ingroppare'', "to fuck", but also used in modern European and Brazilian [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] slang)
* ''garpar'' – "to pay with money"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://transpanish.biz/translation_blog/lunfardo-what-do-garpar-and-garpe-mean/ | title=Lunfardo: What do "garpar" and "garpe" mean? | date=27 October 2015 }}</ref> (''[[vesre]]'' for ''pagar'', "to pay")
* ''junar'' – "to look closely", "to check out"/ "to know" (from [[Caló (Spanish Romani)|Caló]] ''junar'', "to hear")
* ''laburar'' – "to work" (from [[Italian language|Italian]] ''lavorare'', "to work")
* ''manyar'' – "to eat"/ "to know" (from [[Venetian language|Venetian]] and [[Lombard language|Lombard]] ''magnar'' - [[Italian language|Italian]] ''mangiare'')
* ''morfar'' – "to eat"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://transpanish.biz/translation_blog/the-meaning-of-morfar/ | title=The Meaning of 'Morfar' | date=24 January 2012 }}</ref> (from [[French language|French]] [[Cant (language)|argot]] ''morfer'', "to eat")
* ''pescar'' – "to understand", "to get a grip" (''[[vesre]]'' from the [[Italian language|Italian]] ''capisce?'', "Do you understand?") associated to the Spanish verb ''pescar'' ("to fish")

===Interjections===
* ''[[Che (interjection)|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, thus [[Che Guevara|Ernesto "Che" Guevara]] for the Cubans ([[Guarani language|Guaraní]], [[Venetian language|Venetian]] and [[Valencian language|Valencian]] origins have been propounded<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2013/02/130213_che_argentino_jr|title="The 'che' is not Argentine" (in Spanish)|date=14 February 2013|work=BBC|access-date=21 January 2020}}</ref>).
* ''¡guarda!'' - "look out!", "be careful!" (from the Italian ''guarda!'', "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 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") – "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 fierros'' can mean both "to be into car mechanics" or "to be into firearms". ''Fierro'' is the Old Spanish form of ''hierro'' ("iron"). In Argentine parlance, ''fierro'' can 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. ''Zafar'' is 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"; ''trucho'' is from old Spanish slang ''truchamán'', which in turn derives from the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ''turjeman'' ("translator", referring specifically to a person who accosts foreigners and lures them into [[tourist trap]]s). [[Folk etymology]] derives this word from ''trucha'' ("[[trout]]"), or from the Italian ''[[wikt:trucco|trucco]] -'' 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 of [[psychoanalysis]].

==Influence from Cocoliche==
Lunfardo was influenced by [[Cocoliche]], a [[pidgin]] of [[Italian Argentine|Italian immigrants]].<ref>[http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/aispi/pdf/14/14_073.pdf Cocoliche e Lunfardo: l'italiano dell'Argentina (in Italian).] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222045910/http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/aispi/pdf/14/14_073.pdf |date=2016-02-22 }}</ref>  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 Italian ''mattina'')
* ''mina'' - "girl" (from [[Lombard language|Lombard]] ''mina'')
* ''laburar'' - "to work" (from Italian ''lavorare'' and Spanish ''laborar'')
* ''minga'' - "nothing!" (from [[Lombard language|Lombard]] ''minga,'' negative particle like ''not'' in English or ''ne pas'' in French)
* ''yeta'' - "bad luck" (from [[Neapolitan language|Neapolitan]] [[wikt:iettatore|''iettatore'']])
* ''yira/yira'' - "to walk around (generally in circles)", "to ramble aimlessly", etc. (from Italian ''girare'', "to turn", "to tour"). Usually "yiro" or "yira" is used to refer to a prostitute.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Todotango.com - Término: yira de nuestro Diccionario Lunfardo |url=https://www.todotango.com/comunidad/lunfardo/termino.aspx?p=yira |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=www.todotango.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=ASALE |last2=ASALE |title=gira {{!}} Diccionario de americanismos |url=https://www.asale.org/damer/gira |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=«Diccionario de americanismos» |language=es}}</ref>
* ''¡salute!'' - "cheers!" (from Italian ''salute!'')
* ''eccole'' - "exactly" (from Italian ''eccole'')

Some Italian linguists,<ref>A. Cancellier. ''Italiano e spagnolo a contatto nel Rio de La Plata'' Università di Milano. Milano, 2006</ref> because of the Cocoliche influences, argue that the Lunfardo can be considered a ''[[pidgin]]'' of the [[Italian 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'', -''elli'' ''eli'', -''oni'', -''eni'', -''anga'', -''ango'', -''enga'', -''engue'', -''engo'', -''ingui'', -''ongo'', -''usi'', -''ula'', -''usa'', -''eta'', among others. Examples: ''[[milanesa]]'' (meat dish) <math>\longrightarrow</math> ''milanga, cuaderno'' ("notebook") <math>\longrightarrow</math> ''cuadernelli'', etc.

==See also==
{{Portal|Argentina}}
* ''[[Cocoliche]]''
* ''[[Germanía]]''
* ''[[Jeringonza]]''
* [[Viveza criolla]]

== References ==
<references/>

== General and cited references ==
* Conde, Oscar (2011). ''Lunfardo: Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentinos''. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Taurus. {{ISBN|978-987-04-1762-0}}.
* {{Cite journal |last=Grayson |first=John D. |date=March 1964 |title=Lunfardo, Argentina's Unknown Tongue |journal=Hispania |publisher=American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=66–68 |doi=10.2307/337280 |jstor=337280}}

==External links==
* [https://transpanish.biz/translation_blog/lunfardo-the-slang-of-buenos-aires/ "Lunfardo: The Slang of Buenos Aires"]
* [http://www.portenospanish.com/ "Porteño Spanish – Learn Argentine Slang"]
* [http://argentinastravel.com/1831/lunfardo-a-survivors-guide-to-slang-in-buenos-aires/ "Lunfardo, a Survivors Guide to Buenos Aires"]
* {{In lang|en|es|cap=yes}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20130510190811/http://cheviste.com/ "CheViste – Lunfardo Dictionary"]
* {{In lang|es|cap=yes}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20160305011039/http://elportaldeltango.com/dicciona.htm Diccionario del lunfardo]
* {{In lang|es|cap=yes}} [http://geocities.ws/lunfa2000/pone.html Defining Lunfardo]
* {{In lang|es|cap=yes}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20100115141812/http://www.tangoportugal.com/ale/lunfardohist.htm Lunfardo's history]
* {{In lang|es|cap=yes}} [http://www.lunfardo.org.ar/ Academia Porteña del Lunfardo]

{{Spanish varieties by continent}}
{{Interlanguage varieties}}
{{Italian language in the world}}
{{Languages of Argentina}}
{{Languages of Uruguay}}

[[Category:Buenos Aires]]
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[[Category:Spanish slang]]
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