Bilingual drug labels: Can you trust them?
In recent years, laws have been passed in the U.S. at the national and local levels to guarantee that Spanish speakers (and others who don’t speak English) are provided with the instructions for taking the medication in their language. The aim was to make sure that those with a low level of English proficiency were […]
New Words in the DRAE
The new 23rd edition of the Dictionary of Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) has just been published; nearly 5,000 of its 93,111 entries are newly included words, while 1,350 previously accepted words have been eliminated from this latest edition. The new words reflect the invaluable contribution of American Spanish to the language […]
Pronouncing the Spanish B and V: No more confusion!
Among the challenges facing Spanish language learners is that of learning to pronounce words with letters whose pronunciations in Spanish differ from those in English. Some of these differences are well-known, and many learners begin their first lessons already aware that the Spanish “j” sounds somewhat like the English “h” and that the pronunciation of […]
Seseo, ceceo and distinction…or why Spaniards “lisp” and Latin Americans do not
One of the questions frequently posed by students of Spanish concerns the so-called “lisp” that can be heard from most, if not all, Spaniards when speaking Spanish: Why do Spaniards “lisp” (and some seemingly more than others) while Latin American Spanish speakers do not? There are three important concepts that must be understood in order […]
Everyday Lunfardo Expressions Used in Buenos Aires
Much has been said and discussed about lunfardo: its origins, the way it has been introduced in some of the most popular tango songs sang by porteños in Buenos Aires…This has led many people to think that lunfardo is a dialect that is not currently used when this is actually not the case. There are […]
Cancha and Canchero – just what do they mean?
Argentina is a country which has been influenced by the castilla language of the first Spanish colonialists and the indigenous languages spoken by the native Indians – a mixture of Quichua, Guaraní and Mapuche, depending on the region of the country you might happen to be referring to. The rich mixture of violently opposed heritages, […]
“Agarrate Catalina”: What does it mean and where does it come from?
“Agarrate, Catalina,” is another widely-used, Argentine lunfardo expression, probably dating back to the 1940s and the story of a young circus artist called, Catalina. The legend describes the young Catalina as one of the youngest members of a family of trapeze artists in a circus which used to frequent the Porteño neighborhoods of Buenos Aires […]
Lunfardo favorites: what Argentine women just love to say!
Argentine Spanish, or “Castellano,” differs to the more “neutral” forms of Spanish, found in Bolivia or Perú for example, in that it incorporates a distinctive kind of verb conjugation in the second person singular. It’s also crammed to the brim with phrases taken from “Lunfardo;” a dialect developed by working class Porteños (natives to Buenos […]
Ñoqui in Argentina is more than just an Italian meal
Ñoquis might be a popular Italian dish in Argentina, particularly in Buenos Aires, but its meaning goes a lot deeper than Italian gastronomy. In Argentine lunfardo, ñoquis is the word used to refer to someone who doesn’t work, but who still manages to claim a salary at the end of the month. The […]
The Country with the Best Spanish
In the numerous Spanish-speaking countries throughout the world, the language varies greatly from one country to another. Because the Spanish language reaches so many different peoples and cultures, it is not surprising that it takes on many different forms. So, which one is the best? Is the Spanish in one country really better than that […]
