Advanced series 2
4: Spain – Jerga de España con Daura
Lis Salinas
Colombiana
Daura
Española
Contents
Transcript
Welcome to episode number 4 of Latin Voices. In this episode, I continue my conversation with Daura, from Spain. Daura tells us the latest, most popular slang in Spain, which is in fashion. It's a little rude at times, but in this episode you guys can learn with me some of the latest expressions of the language in Spain.
¡Acho! Welcome to Spain [laughs].
¡Acho! Hello everyone, here the Colombian, with the Valencian, I'm trying to learn a bit of the Spanish slang that is a bit difficult for me [laughs], but here Daura will tell us a little bit and will explain us about the traditional words of Spanish slang, but the language of friends, as you said right now, not business.
Yes, of course a conversation between friends, not a formal conversation, there aren’t so many conversational fillers, that is the set-phrase, or so many words that really don’t make sense, but that everyone says.
Because when you learn they teach you what is in the real academy, what they have put in the formal language-
Very different. What I have learned from the language of the Spaniards is that, in addition to being, like, a very direct language, they also have many words that they add to the sentences, for example, you said one about, “I sweat it.”
That can have double meaning, that perhaps can sound rude if you hear them literally, but that in the context of Spain is super common and is part of everyday life and nobody is going to say anything to you.
It's just words that if you really think about them, you say, “Lord, what did I just say”, but really in the everyday world they are associated with other things, “I sweat it” that you said is associated with, “I don’t care”, but it has a very rude connotation, it's like, “I don’t care, I don’t care what you say”, but it has grown to include other things, it has been related to less rude things, or more everyday things, more loosely.
How about rhe, “echar ositas”? What does it mean? Where does it come from? I think that is the most Spanish word, the “ostia” and “uncle”.
Of course, the thing about Spain is that each place has its own little things, and there are words that, if two Spaniards get together and maybe those “conversational fillers” are not understood, because it also works in groups, if it becomes fashionable in one area and does not pass to others.
The “ostias”, there are areas in which it is said more than others. In Spain we get lost (ie, confused) among ourselves because of these conversational fillers, when you want to imitate someone from another region, you use the filler, if you want to imitate someone from the Basque country, you say, “Ahí va a la ostia ”
Yes, there are a lot of people who say, “Ostia”, but in a different way, “Ahí va a la ostia”, it's like, “Go there,” or there are times people say “I s**t on the ostia”
“Ostias”, it's like you've remembered something and you say, “There I’ve got it, now I remember,” it’s the same word, but that one uses differently. I, for example, in Valencia the word, “chafar”, is used to mean “step on”, to step on something, “I have stepped on a line”, and I have a friend who is more from the centre who is from Toledo and says “chafar” to mean ruin a plan.
Where is the “Uncle” born? Because “Uncle” too, when we Colombians try to imitate the accent of the Spaniards, the word, “Uncle and ostia”, that's the only thing we know, but it's like the most representative thing.
Yes … The “uncle” is like … It's really that these words don’t make sense, but it's like referring to someone or not. There are times you say, “Uncle me–”
It’s not known, “Uncle” is like a representation of someone, someone who is saying, “You're doing something to me”. For example, there is a phrase that is, “Uncle, you are annoying me,” “You are confusing me,” but it is like a figure, not someone specific, but it is, “Uncle, I don’t know what.
Yes, of course. I think that is the kind of thing that, perhaps, someone who is learning Spanish can find it a bit complex from Spanish from Spain, and the speed is also sometimes fast.
I think so, it's influenced, but I really don’t know what it comes from, because it also gets used a lot, and there are people who use it in one way, and there are people who use it in another.
Also a lot, “Au”, comes from the Valencian, “Adeu”, “Au”, it's like, “Au vamos”, it's related to, “Vamos”, and in the end it has become “And that's it and it's over, and we're leaving”. Of course, “Au”, there are many people who also say, “Au va”, “Au” is like, “Come on”.
There are more words, I love it too, “Cagarla” is not the same in Colombia, but in Colombia we use a lot, “I screwed it up, I screwed it up”, or when you're doing a job and something went wrong like, “Wednesday”, You don’t say, or you say, “Wednesday.” I think those are words that are living here in England, Londoners also say it, so they are expressions that as you said before, aren’t in a business environment, but even so they are very natural, and it's like people tend to say them, so it sounds rude.
Of course, you think once you say it, maybe it sounds a bit rude, but people do not interpret it so… They interpret it as an informal conversation, but not as rude.
I think that in Spain that is now more evolved, I think that even in an office environment you say, “Ostias I screwed up”, and nobody says anything, and it’s supernormal and already part of the idiosyncrasies and they are recognized as such.
You hear it and it's like very, but a normal person hears it and you say, “I screwed up everything”, and they say, “What have you done?” , it's not “what did you just say”, it is, “What have you done?”
Even, on podcast, name it as, “I S88t,” but it's reality [laughs], that's how they talk on the streets and it’s as one wants [to be able to speak]
So you don’t learn it but at least understand what it is and also because these words are related to the emotions and the situation in particular.
I think those words are also changing a little bit because sometimes, “I screwed up”, it was used for “I messed up” but there's also times they use it related to fear, “I’ve s**t myself, I've got scared”.
Sure, because it comes from when there are times when you crap yourself because of fear that is, “I screwed up”. At least it is used in two ways, “I screwed up”, like “I left it”, “I don’t care”, or I s**t with fear
Yes it's true, that part I like very much like the language withinin different languages, like that there is that double standard with the language that you can try to speak, very formal and very decent, but, in reality sometimes the language is more, I don’t know what word to say, “rude”, but more honest when it’s like that, with emotion [laughs]
It's like something that blows you away, it's something that amazes you that catches your attention, it's something very big, it's like, “I don’t like it, “me flipa”, I love it “, or, I'm blown away with this thing, it has impressed me”, something you don’t expect.
It sounds crazy to me without your explanation, I would have thought that it has to do with “horns”, like a “cornuda”, when someone is “given the horns”, they say in Colombia, “Your husband was unfaithful”
The “tochos” in Spain.
No, “cojonudo”. Something “cojonudo” is something great, it can be related to a person, an object, something, “It's a hell of a thing, it's a great thing”, but then there's the phrase, “Don’t touch my balls”. Which really is bad, it’s “Don’t bother me”, but the word “cojonuda” is positive, it's a good thing.
Okay, “Pirarse”.
The thing is, I think the words are more identifying-
I don’t know, is that affectionate [words], they are influenced a lot from English, because now many people talk about … like in the United States.
Something like that … if you happen to be in love with someone, “Amorcito”, I don’t know, but there are no phrases of these that you say, that’s really related to it.
Any other regional differences? Because I understand that, I have not had the opportunity to travel a lot through Spain but I know that there are marked differences in terms of the slang, how they speak more or less in the south, how they are classified in the language, those in the north, those in the south, those on this side, who speak better [laughs]
The north has an accent like more closed, harder, it's like the strongest words, I don’t know, sounds, like more … There are times when it’s hard to understand them because they talk very closed. Then the south is like the more sung accent, it has a very distinct accent that I like a lot, but it is like everything more synthetic, many letters are eaten, the eses for example, disappear many times.
Coincidentally, that happens also in Chile, I was talking with a guy, our friend Sebastián, in some parts of Chile they also don’t pronounce the “s”, on the coast of Colombia also, sometimes they don’t pronounce the “s”.
It's like they synthesize a lot and there are times when they leave the word halfway. For example, in the south they say a lot, “Quillo”, it's like “Uncle”, but they relate it to, “Quillo”.
Yes, because it also has sounds that you don’t have in the rest of Spain, in Valencian for example, there are words that end in, “ell”, in two “l”s, two “l”s together.
Yes, “Castell”, then there are people who don’t, for example from Madrid, cannot say that sound, the same one you say, “keys”, the same sound, what happens is that the accent is at the end.
It's, “Castell”, but you have, “castell”, “fill”, you have a lot, and in Valencia it's like more strange sounds, like fusions, in Andalusia they “eat” the “s”s and there are times in Valencian that there are two “s”s, and that sound is changed to Castilian because I don’t speak Valencian in my day to day life, but those sounds can be noticed at the time of speaking. For example, a word that is used a lot in Valencia is, “Arreu”.
Yes, in Valencia, yes, but people from other parts don’t understand it, because it's a filler word. It's like, “I dress y arreu” and I leave, that “arreu” is without thinking, in the centre my friend from Toledo, for “man” she says “little horse”.
“Cabalito” is like just, we are talking about a person and suddenly he appears, “Look cabalito”, we were talking about you, they don’t say that-
That's also like a stereotype of the capitals.
Yes, stereotypes are another world, because in Spain there are a lot of stereotypes. [laughter] It's like all the autonomous communities, they have their point, of course, we Valencians are the “chulos”, the “chungos”.
When you say the autonomous communities, what do you mean, like the regions?
I understand, the Valencians are the bad guys.
The Valencians are the bad guys, the Madrilenians are the posh ones.
The Andalusians are about the party and the siesta, the lazy ones, they never want to work, the Catalans are the stingy ones, those who look at the money a lot, stingy, that concept you have it-
A stingy person is a person who measures a lot of money, who is miserly. The Basques are the brutes, the rough ones, and the Galicians are the indecisive ones, who think about everything a lot.
What stereotype do they have? Those of Murcia.
Those of Murcia are like “villagers”.
Those in the field. In Colombia there is also something similar, we also have five regions, but not as specific as there, but I think it is the ones on the coast, because they are on the coast, it’s more about party, life is more relaxed, more calm, more lazy too, the ones from the centre, like what you say, the posh ones, those who work a lot, there is the South that is in Pasto they are called the slow ones, but it is a lie, because actually today they have many good universities, but they are stigmatized for being slow and simple, those of Pasto.
In the way of speaking also in Andalusia they are more relaxed, the accent is like I said more sung, the phrases are like more I don’t know, more of colloquial conversation or more distended everything, so that's why they are seen as calmer people, more like they like party too, flamenco is very big there, that is the Spanish stereotype, in general people expect flamenco and bulls, many people are expect flamenco and bulls and that really is there [in Andalucia]. Those who are most related with flamenco and bulls, they’re also very nationalist, the Andalusians are very
Nationalists. What do they say about the Valencians?
Yes, with those who can say things to your face, who are going to trick you, I don’t know if you use that word, “vacilar”.
Interesting, I loved this podcast. I will have the opportunity to go to Spain and explore more directly all these cultures, thank you very much Daura for joining us.