Regionalismos

[juancarlos]

Interesting.........guano in Cuba also is the excrement for a certain kind of water fowl and it is used for fertilizer.

And guano is also what we call the royal palm tree leaves used to roof the houses in the countryside and, in particular, the tobacco houses. These are large, tall places where tobacco leaves are stored until they reach maturity.

Guano Bendito, is what you get on Palm Sunday. So this word has many meanings and uses in Cuba alone.

 

[Mirador]

"guano? is the generic name for palms of the genus Coccothrinax. Close to the town of Barreras, Azua, is the home of a rare species of Coccothrinax by the name of Coccothrinax boschiana (known locally as Guano de Barreras), which grows only in a single mountain ridge on Sierra de Mart?n Garcia (Loma del Curro), about 5 km south of the town of Barreras.

 

[Marianopolita]

RE: Follow up to post # 17 & some other comments-

Mirador, I decided to do some etymological research on your theory about "la juma" deriving from "el humo" and all points in that direction. Out from doing this research I also discovered "la jumera" is a synonym of "la juma", which is common in other Spanish-speaking countries. I was also hoping to get some scope on the formation of the adjective "ajumado" and the verb "ajumarse" but I did not find anything concrete.

More about regionalisms:

I was able to acquire a few more regionalisms courtesy of my Panamanian friends which confirms the use of "la goma" in most of Central America as I had indicated in my previous post. When it comes to regionalisms in Central America most of the countries of that region tend to have similarities with the exception of Panama in most cases simply because of its history and demographics. In my experience if there's a common word or expression in three of the countries Panama would surely be different. Common expressions in Panama include: tener una goma (to have a hangover) or estar engomado and the regional expression for to be drunk is "estar en fuego".

There are so many comparisons across the Spanish-speaking world that can be made and exposure is the key to learning these regionalisms if this is an area of interest to you. By having friends from various countries, reading newspapers and books, listening to music etc. regionalisms can be learned. Journalists especially those who write columns use many colloquialisms to add flavor to their articles or to get their point across. There is no need to limit your vocabulary scope. One aspect you must keep in mind is although the Spanish language has a wide range of variations from a lexical perspective from Spain to Latin America and within Latin America the spoken language itself and the rules of grammar are relatively the same across the board. There are grammatical regionalisms and variations but those have been well analyzed and duly noted in advanced grammar studies.

Two weeks ago there was article en El Tiempo.com titled L?xico Nacional and the journalist was discussing Colombian lexical variations of two words in particular. Some of the usage is common among all Colombians and some specific to only certain parts of the country. As mentioned before Colombia is vast therefore lexical diversity within the country itself is no surprise much less comparing it to its regional South American neighbors. Colombianisms are interesting as well as the etymology behind some of the words used in their day-to-day vernacular. Some Colombianisms are identical to those used in other countries and some are extremely unique to Colombia or one of its regions. The article seemed to spark some controversy based on the comments added by various readers. I found it very interesting to read and I passed the article onto my co-workers.

Here is an excerpt from the article for your reading pleasure:

18 de Enero de 2007 - L?XICO NACIONAL
Algunos colombianismos

La infinidad de significados de palabras derivadas de 'berraco' o 'mamar'.

Es dif?cil imaginar una conversaci?n entre colombianos que no est? sembrada de palabras derivadas del verbo mamar y acompa?adas estas siempre del adjetivo berraco (vale verraco tambi?n). Son muchos los matices que cada variable conlleva y la misma palabra significa cosas diferentes seg?n el lugar que ocupa en la oraci?n o, a veces, por su pronunciaci?n.

Berraco puede significar algo positivo, como por ejemplo en el caso de 'qu? gol tan berraco'. Sin embargo, si se hace referencia a una situaci?n negativa o complicada tambi?n se oye decir 'qu? joda (o vaina en Bogot?) tan berraca'. Pero berraco tambi?n significa estar molesto (el berrinchero Moreno de Caro estaba berraco con el Vicecanciller). Y berraquera puede tener el sentido de cojones: 'jugaron con berraquera', pero emberracado implica molestia o enfado al cuadrado. Curiosamente, las palabras berrinche y berraco tienen el mismo origen en el lat?n verraco (cerdo). Puedo imaginar los berrinches del verraco cuando lo capan o de un ni?o cuando le quitan un dulce. Ahora bien, se supone que nuestros berracos no lloran, pues son machos, y m?s bien hacen llorar a quienes no lo son. Todo esto es muy confuso, como lo pueden ser los significados de las palabras que siguen.

En cuanto a la infinidad de palabras derivadas del verbo mamar, sus sutilezas son igualmente innumerables. Mam?n (a) se utiliza para hacer referencia a una persona cansona como el caso del Senador arriba citado ?Qu? berraco tan mam?n! Inmamable tiene m?s o menos las mismas connotaciones, pero tambi?n sirve para describir no solo seres humanos sino eventos, como por ejemplo 'una pel?cula inmamable'.

Mamado, que por lo general se usa como muy cansado, tambi?n en otro contexto sugiere borrachera, que tiene mas cercan?a con el significado original del participio de mamar, tomar la leche materna. Si mamado es muy cansado, remamado es agotado. En cuanto al gerundio mamando, destaco dos de sus acepciones m?s frecuentes. Por un lado, se usa para expresar que una persona sali? mal parada o qued? viendo un chispero: 'qued? mamando'. As? mismo, se puede referir a que algo qued? muy cerca de la meta: la bola qued? mamando el hoyo (muy cerca) o mamandito (cerquitiquitica). Valga decir que los mamones y los mamoncillos tambi?n son frutas muy nuestras.

Regionalisms definitely add variety and diversity to the Spanish language.


-LDG.

 

[Marianopolita]

Goma- vocabulary variations in Latin America-

I read through the comments in a recent thread and "gomer?a" was mentioned and it seemed to be a familiar word to some and not to others. As you all know the Spanish language is vast especially vocabulary used in Latin America. The term "amercanismo" refers to a word that is common to a Latin American country or countries specifically. One of the beautiful and fun aspects about Spanish is deciphering words and the facility to do so if one understands the logic of the language. Gomer?a is one of those words that can be easily deciphered if you have familiarity with Spanish suffixes and word formation. The suffix -er?a is used to indicate the shop where a product is sold or made. The suffix is attached to the noun "goma" to form another noun "gomer?a" indicating where it can be purchased. This suffix is used in many other common everyday words. For example helader?a (helado), carnicer?a (carne), librer?a (libros), zapater?a (zapatos). etc. Please keep in mind -er?a can not be added to all nouns to indicate the shop or where the product is made.

Gomer?a is an americanismo which explains why it may be a word known to some in a general sense and not others. Goma the word for tire is also an americanismo and not used in all Latin American countries. Of course I decided to ask a few my co-workers what words for tire they know and use in Spanish and as usual it led to nice discussion this morning. Collectively we came up with the following:

1/ goma- gomer?a. Used in the Caribbean. None of my co-workers heard of "goma" or "gomer?a". I had to explain to them where it is used with the meaning of "tire" and of course there are other meanings for "goma" in Spanish.

2/ llanta- no specific word to indicate the shop. More commonly used in Latin America. Llanta was the response given by my Nicaraguan, Mexican, Colombian and Peruvain co-workers.

3/ rueda- no specific word to indicate the shop. Commonly used in Latin America. Some said "rueda"- Colombian, Chilean, Peruvian.

4/caucho- (Venezuela).- tire - caucher?a is the place where you can buy tires.

5/neum?tico- tire- no specific word to indicate the shop. We all agreed for sure that it will be understood but not as commonly used in Latin America.


-LDG.

 

[Mirador]

...

4/caucho- (Venezuela).- tire - caucher?a is the place where you can buy tires.

-LDG.

Please let me correct you with the Venezuelan expression. It is "cauchera" (not "caucher?a), and a person who fixes tires is called a "cauchero". In addition, innertubes, which are called "tubos" in the DR, are referred to as "tripas", and wheels are called "rines".

 

[Marianopolita]

Re: The Venezuelan word

Mirador-

That's right. I just checked with them again.


-LDG.