Lunfardo in Argentinian-Porteño Communities

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LUNFARDO IN ARGENTINIAN-PORTEÑO COMMUNITIES:

ATTITUDES AND LEVELS OF LEXICAL RECOGNITION

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A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

San Diego State University

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Spanish

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Adriana D’Adamo Moosekian

Summer 2016

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~Nunca me he querido ensuciar para darme corte: me llamarán güífaro; pero lunfardo nunca.

(I’ve never acted improperly to receive attention: they may call me Italian, but never a thief.) --Piaggio, 1887

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Lunfardo in Argentinian-Porteño Communities: Attitudes and Levels of Lexical Recognition by Adriana D’Adamo Moosekian Master of Arts in Spanish San Diego State University, 2016

Keywords: Lunfardo, Argentina, lexicon, Spanish varieties, language attitudes This investigation explores the Argentinian Spanish variety known as Lunfardo among Argentinians from the greater region of the Rio de la Plata. While texts that have served to record this lexicon date back to the late 19th century, the literature on Lunfardo is sparse in exploring its contemporary status. This study examines quantitative and qualitative data collected from speakers in order to determine the extent to which Lunfardo lexical items are recognized as distinctive from standard Argentinian Spanish, and investigates some of the attitudes of these speakers towards this historically stigmatized variety. The analysis also takes into consideration the potential influence of sociolinguistic factors in speakers’ attitudes and levels of lexical recognition of Lunfardo.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ABSTRACT ...... v LIST OF TABLES ...... viii LIST OF FIGURES ...... ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Historical Background ...... 2 The Impact of Immigration ...... 2 Geography & Evolution ...... 4 Defining Lunfardo ...... 5 Lunfardo in Literature and Music ...... 7 Lunfardo in Popular Literature ...... 7 Lunfardo in Popular Music ...... 8 Lunfardo’s Role in Present-Day Argentina ...... 9 Role in Buenos Aires Spanish ...... 10 Linguistic Characteristics of Lunfardo ...... 11 Lunfardo’s Lexical Sources ...... 12 Motivation for the Study ...... 15 2 METHODOLOGY ...... 16 Goal and Objectives ...... 17 Corpus Compilation ...... 17 Description of Texts ...... 18 Data Collection Instruments ...... 19 Interview ...... 19 Word Recognition Test (WRT) ...... 20

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Confirming the Status of Target Words as Part of Lunfardo Lexicon ...... 21 WRT Fragments by Genre ...... 22 Word Recognition Test Instructions ...... 23 Data Collection Sites...... 23 Informant Recruitment ...... 24 Participants ...... 24 3 RESULTS ...... 26 Word Recognition ...... 26 Differences Between Sub-Groups: Statistical Analysis ...... 28 Age and Word Recognition ...... 28 Education Level and Word Recognition ...... 28 Gender and Word Recognition ...... 29 Location and Word Recognition ...... 30 Italian Family Background and Word Recognition ...... 31 Lunfardo Words With Highest/Lowest Level of Recognition ...... 31 Top Lunfardo Words by Location ...... 32 Top Lunfardo Words by Gender ...... 32 Interview Data Analysis ...... 34 4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 42 REFERENCES ...... 46 APPENDICES A INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 48 B BIOGRAPHICAL DATA ...... 49 C WORD RECOGNITION TEST ...... 50 D TEXTS IN THE CORPUS...... 52 E LUNFARDO GLOSSARY ...... 54 F IRB APPROVED CONSENT FORM ...... 60

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LIST OF TABLES

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Table 1. Examples of Lunfardo Words in WRT ...... 21 Table 2. Words in WRT per Genre ...... 22 Table 3. Average Number of Lunfardo Words Recognized (by Sociolinguistic Factors) and Standard Deviations ...... 26 Table 4. Top/Bottom Words Recognized in Overall Participant Pool ...... 32 Table 5. Top/Bottom Words Recognized in Location ...... 33 Table 6. Top/Bottom Recognized in Gender ...... 33

LIST OF FIGURES

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Figure 1. Age and Word Recognition ...... 29 Figure 2. Location and Word Recognition ...... 30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The fieldwork for this study was supported by a research grant from the Tinker Foundation. This project was additionally made possible by the collaboration of several outstanding professors at San Diego State University, and for the many contacts and participants in each of the research sites in Argentina; and I would like to acknowledge them here: I would first like to thank my thesis committee members at San Diego State University who are distinguished scholars and supportive, patient and responsive advisors. Working with these incredible people has enhanced my academic and professional development. To Dr. Eniko Csomay, for your motivation to disseminate the information in my study to the academic community. To Dr. Lauren Schmidt, for your expertise that equipped me with the tools for a robust statistical analysis, and for your careful attention of my investigational design. To my committee chair and advisor, Dr. Alfredo Urzúa Beltran, whose support and mentorship made this project possible. Thank you for your encouragement, for believing in my idea and for helping this project take its form from the start. Also, thank you for guiding me to better organize and more clearly articulate my elaborate thoughts. Your gift of memory and attention to detail are astounding, and I can only aspire to develop as a linguist and writer like you. I would also like to thank Dr. Teresa Bargetto, who inspired me to begin my path in the field of Hispanic Linguistics. Thank you for your unwavering mentorship and faith in your students. Your passion for teaching is motivating and impacts the lives of many. Additionally, this research could not have been accomplished if not for the many Argentinians that welcomed contributing their time and knowledge to this project. The world may know more about your distinct lexicon thanks to your participating in the study, and especially for your open commentary in interviews.

Likewise, I’d like to thank my dear friends and family in the Province of Buenos Aires, who were the first to teach me about your unique linguistic variety, Lunfardo. Your voices, laughter, and exceptional sense of humor best represent what Lunfardo means to me, and are what have helped carry this initial inspiration, interest, and idea into a long-term thesis project. Finally, to my parents, Berj and Dorene Moosekian, thank you for your example, and for teaching me that hard work is never wasted. Thank you for your infinite support, for believing in me, and for every sacrifice you ever made for me. You taught me that I could be anything I want to be; I am the person I am because of you.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Lunfardo is a variety of Spanish found mainly in the region of the Río de la Plata, Argentina. This variety, whose first written testimonies date back to the 1870’s, has played an important role in the collective linguistic consciousness and identity of porteño speakers, i.e., residents of Buenos Aires, the capital city of the country.1 Lunfardo’s evolution over the past century is said to represent the multitude of voices of European immigrants and internal migrants that have shaped Porteño Spanish. Modern and contemporary experts have considered Lunfardo “a living memory” of Buenos Aires (Conde, 2011, p. 86), whose ludic and humoristic characteristics have had a great impact in popular culture, including its most iconic cultural product, the Argentinian tango. Lunfardo is also said to be essential to the communication and cultural expression of porteños. However, although this variety maintains a strong association with porteño speakers, its use slowly rippled throughout the entire province and extended to Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, La Pampa and other bordering provinces (Conde, 2011). Lunfardo is a particularly interesting linguistic phenomenon in that it is tied to the region’s history of immigration and language contact. It reflects word borrowings from various Romance languages (predominantly Spanish and Italian varieties), as well as African, aboriginal and English language varieties. Communication among incoming immigrants and workers in the port areas of Buenos Aires during the early to mid 20th century resulted in the emergence of a vast vocabulary stemming from a mix of these languages, which later

1 In this thesis, the term porteño is used to refer to inhabitants from the two provinces of this study: the Province of Buenos Aires and the Province of Santa Fe, even though these populations do not necessarily refer to themselves as such.

2 extended to the entire area of the Rio de la Plata. Such language borrowings either kept their original pronunciation when incorporated into Lunfardo (e.g., bacán, mina)2, or adapted their pronunciation to standard Spanish phonetics (e.g., manyar from Italian ‘mangiare’). The addition of new words to Porteño Spanish through various linguistic processes has resulted in what is now popularly known as “Lunfardo.” Lunfardo’s wide spread was not only a result of immigration but also social impulses that eventually cut across social classes and reached diverse groups from regions extending from Lunfardo’s center of origin, the capital of Buenos Aires. Also, Lunfardo’s distinct lexicon has led to its study in Argentinian literature, music, and linguistics. However, its association with Argentinian language and culture has not always been readily accepted and, furthermore, it is not clear what the status of Lunfardo is today in Argentinian Spanish and among porteño speakers. This study constitutes an exploration into these issues. The first part of this thesis provides a brief history of Lunfardo’s evolution and linguistic characteristics, as well as its varying roles in different domains or contexts. The second part describes the study conducted in order to investigate the extent to which Lunfardo is identified as distinct from Argentinian Spanish. Through the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data collected from porteño informants in Buenos Aires and its surrounding area, this work aims to contribute to our understanding of what Lunfardo is and how it is viewed in contemporary Argentinian society.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Impact of Immigration Lunfardo is very much tied to a history of immigration in the region of Buenos Aires. In particular, many Argentinians today associate Lunfardo with immigrants from Italy arriving in the ports of Buenos Aires. In fact, Lunfardo’s early evolution and incorporation into Porteño Spanish occurred primarily as a result of two massive waves of Italian

2 The equivalent of all Lunfardo terms can be found in both standard Spanish and English in a glossary in Appendix E.

3 immigration from approximately 1880-1930 and from 1930-1945. These waves were catalyzed by various historical events such as the Industrial Revolution, World War I, the rise of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist state, and World War II. In 1887, 52.8% of porteños were foreigners, of which 32% were Italian, followed by 9.2% Spanish, 4.6% French, and 6.9% of other nationalities (Conde, 2011, p. 149). As a result of this massive immigration, the capital’s population increased nearly tenfold, from 286,000 residents in 1880 to 2,254,000 in 1930 (Fontanella de Weinberg, 1992). The majority of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires came from humble farming origins and often spoke distinct Italian regional dialects, namely Genovese, Piamontese, Lombardese, Napolitano, Milanese, and Sicilian (Buesa Oliver, 1987). These dialects directly impacted the multilingualism and multidialectialism in the Rio de la Plata region. Despite loyalty to the mother tongue, a range of sociolinguistic factors as well as processes of acculturation and adaptation brought bidirectional language change among immigrant and local groups, which consequentially modified aspects of Buenos Aires Spanish for future generations (Fontanella de Weinberg, 1984). European immigrants to Argentina contributed a mixing of mother tongues to the host nation language, but it is the Italians’ influence which appears to be more easily observable in texts. The massive influx of Italian peasants to the Rio de la Plata gave way to the rise of conventillos, tight and impoverished communal living quarters for immigrant workers. According to Buesa Oliver (1987), the living conditions in the conventillos were extremely harsh. Filth, sickness, promiscuousness, misery, ignorance and resentment festered animosity and left inhabitants “sin más horizontes que el trabajo duro, el sueldo mezquino e insuficiente, el hospital o la cárcel” (“without any other horizon than hard work, petty and insufficient salaries, the hospital or jail”). It was within these conventillos that the musical genres of tango and milonga originated.3 Although it is disputed as to whether or not Lunfardo developed first in tango versus the quotidian speech of working class communities,

3 Buesa Oliver cites one of the earliest tangoes that references the conventillos: “Tango de la casera” (Buesa, 1987).

4 conventillos and early tangos are depicted as occupying a single overlapping space where Lunfardo emerged, evolved, and circulated (Conde, 2011, p. 151). As Italian immigrants initially comprised the majority of the working class in Buenos Aires at the time, their speech was associated with the poverty and crime that characterized life in the conventillos. Journalists were the first to inform the public about the threat posed by porteño speakers, especially those using what began to be known as Lunfardo. Its stigma as a lexicon associated with criminals and lower social classes set the tone for generations of Argentinians to negatively associate Lunfardo with the most undesirable members of Argentinian society.

Geography & Evolution In her article, El español de América, Maria Fontanella de Weinberg (1992) divides Argentina into five dialectal regions: Northeast, Littoral, Center, Northwest and Cuyo. Based on these dialectal regions (mapped originally by Berta Vidal de Battini), the Littoral region is most relevant to the discussion of Lunfardo’s extension, which includes the modern

geographical regions of Chaco, Pampas, and Patagonia. The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest province in Argentina, accounting for approximately 11% of the country's surface area and yet 39% of Argentina's total population (approximately 15.6 million). Of the province’s total inhabitants, the majority (approximately 10 million) lives in Greater Buenos Aires, the metropolitan area surrounding the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA). While the Littoral geographic zone is pertinent to questions of Lunfardo’s extension, this study will focus specifically on two provinces: first, the considered the birthplace of Lunfardo, Buenos Aires; and second, the province in closest and adjoining proximity to the capital, Santa Fe. In general, two phases are distinguished in Lunfardo’s history—first, Lunfardo of early Buenos Aires immigration and the tango era, and second, contemporary Lunfardo. Linguists Fontanella de Weinberg and Beatriz Lavandera further differentiate these two primary phases of Lunfardo. The first phase, that of ‘primitive Lunfardo’, considers Lunfardo as a ‘criminal technolect’ that arose during the last quarter of the 19th Century and the first quarter of the 20th Century (Conde, 2011, p. 125). During the second phase, which started in the 1930’s, Lunfardo is described mainly as a porteño colloquial lexicon known as

“continuo post-Lunfardo” (Conde, 2011, p. 125). Linguist Martorell de Laconi adds a third phase, which she defines as a period of diffused differentiation in which Lunfardo absorbed words from so many dominions that lunfardismos and argentinismos become nearly impossible to distinguish (Conde, 2011). This is also a phase of Lunfardo’s vindication, first in Argentinian rock music and later in the local emergence of ‘cumbia villera,’ a hybrid music genre. This is also what Marcelo Oliveri (2013) calls the stage in which Lunfardo “se vale por sí mismo (“it avails itself”).

DEFINING LUNFARDO Lunfardo’s early association with delinquents, immigrants, and the shantytowns of Buenos Aires has led to a history of marginalization and stigmatization, which manifested itself most evidently during its censorship by the government in the 1940’s (more on this below). Furthermore, its negative image was also greatly reinforced by language authorities such as the Real Academia Española, which perpetuated Lunfardo’s stigma as a criminal dialect (rather than popular speech) by relating it to the French argot (Conde, 2011, p. 46).4 However, as mentioned above, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, a vindication of Argentinian national culture catalyzed by a popular rock music movement brought about the (re)appropriation of Lunfardo words in songs, somewhat raising its popularity and acceptance in speech. Nonetheless, Lunfardo is still considered by many as a slang associated with criminals, perpetuating its stigma even into the 21st Century.5 On the other hand, this stigma did not prevent it from becoming part and parcel of what is considered today to be a valued component of Argentinian culture: tango (see description below). Lunfardist Susana Martorell de Laconi (2002) states that Lunfardo can be characterized in relation to two main features: 1) an association with lower social class even

4 Today’s DRAE definition: “Jerga empleada originalmente por la gente de clase baja de Buenos Aires, parte de cuyos vocablos y locuciones se introdujeron posteriormente en el español popular de la Argentina y Uruguay”. 5 In (Conde, 2013) Diccionario del Español Actual, Manuel Seco defines Lunfardo as “Jerga popular, originariamente de maleantes, típica de Buenos Aires y extendida por los países de la Plata” (Seco-Olimpia-Ramos 1999: 2.891). Although Seco’s definition describes the important feature of Lunfardo’s dispersion across geographical boundaries, it simultaneously reveals the deeply ingrained connection of Lunfardo with delinquency and low social class that has persisted even in contemporary studies and perceptions.

6 though it has been integrated into middle and upper social classes, and 2) a variation of registers; that is, it is referred to as colloquial speech despite having also appeared in written literature. Although Lunfardo is often defined as a colloquial porteño lexicon, significant debate exists about its status as a historically bounded lexicon versus one of current relevance to porteños and Argentinians in general. In addition, despite contemporary efforts to reclaim Lunfardo as part of Argentina’s national language and identity, support of its delinquent connection by even the most prestigious authors (e.g., Etchebarne, Clemente, Lavandera, Fontanella de Weinberg) has proven a resilient tradition. Also, Jorge Luis Borges devalues Lunfardo when he describes it as unnatural language, evidenced in the following quote: “El lunfardo, de hecho, es una broma literaria inventada por saineteros y por compositors de tangos…” (“Lunfardo, in fact, is a literary hoax invented by saineteros and composers of tangos ...”) (Conde, 2011, p. 101). According to many such intellectuals, Lunfardo’s primary purpose was to conceal and “to render inaccessible to law-enforcement personnel and to others regarded as outsiders the verbal communication between one member of the underworld counterculture and another” (Chamberlain, 1981). In fact, the first testimonies of Lunfardo, such as in the article “El dialecto de los ladrones” (The dialect of thieves) published in 1978, defined Lunfardo as a codified set of words and expressions used among criminals (Conde, 2011, p. 86). Lunfardo’s first small dictionary was published in 1894 by a criminologist (Antonio Dellepiane) that documented observable vocabulary and expressions in prisons. This early publication history set the stage for decades of Lunfardo’s common association with the language of delinquents and the lower classes. At this point, it is important to mention that the study of Lunfardo might not be what it is today if not for one man: Jose Gobello. In 1962, journalist Gobello established the ‘Academia Porteña del Lunfardo,’ an academic non-profit organization committed to the study of Lunfardo. Thereafter, Gobello dedicated his work to archiving Lunfardo terminology through the publication of etymological dictionaries (Gobello, 1989), and also through literature that sought to debunk Lunfardo as simply a criminal jargon, in order to bring its status closer to that of a register depicting intimate popular speech: “Ya no llamamos lunfardo al lenguaje frustradamente estotérico de los delincuentes, sino al que habla el porteño cuando empieza a entrar en confianza […]” (We no longer call Lunfardo the frustratingly esoteric slang language of criminals, but rather what the porteño speaks when

7 becoming comfortable) (Gobello, 1989; as cited in Martorell de Lanconi, 2002). Gobello’s research paved the way for a more formal acknowledgement of Lunfardo, which opened the discussion to linguists, reporters, historians and journalists for decades thereafter.

LUNFARDO IN LITERATURE AND MUSIC As will be later discussed in the second section of this thesis, this study included a compilation of a corpus of texts used as the basis for the design of a data collection instrument (Word Recognition Test). Thus, the following section regarding Lunfardo in literature, theatre, and music demonstrates its implications in various genres, which in turn assisted in deciding which texts to include in the corpus.

LUNFARDO IN POPULAR LITERATURE The use of Lunfardo has been manifested in literature since the late 19th Century, above all in porteño short stories. José Gobello’s personal contributions to its literature were a series of short stories that reflected the use of popular Lunfardo. He also published a collection of popular porteño short stories: Costumbrismo lunfardo (2004) and Historias con ladrones (2004). One of the greatest exponents of Lunfardo in literature, however, was the novel entitled La crencha engrasada, written by Carlos de la Púa in 1928, which presents marginal characters and emblematic scenes of the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. Conde (2002) refers to the short story entitled “Calo porteño”, written by Juan Piaggio, to debunk the erroneous conclusions that Lunfardo originated as a secret and codified language of delinquents in the prisons of Buenos Aires. He considers that Piaggio’s characters depict everyday life in an “arrabal porteño” (a slum in the port area) and demonstrate the common social role that young people often play in breaking linguistic norms in order to integrate and construct characteristics of group identity through language. Furthermore, Conde reminds us that this process of reinforcing identity through lexicon is by no means unique to young people or lower social classes, but is rather a universal sociolinguistic process of identity construction. With this in mind, Conde characterizes Lunfardo as “una síntesis lingüística, una memoria viva de la historia de Buenos Aires que da cuenta de los diversos grupos sociales que han ido poco a poco configurando el dialecto rioplatense primero, y el habla de toda la Argentina después” (“a linguistic synthesis, a living

8 memory of the history of Buenos Aires that recognizes the diverse social groups that have little by little configured the Rioplatense dialect, and then the speech of all of Argentina”) (Conde, 2011, p. 109).

Lunfardo in Popular Music In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Lunfardo developed a most visible presence in tango, the iconic Argentinian musical genre. Although the earliest tango compositions had no lyrics, Lunfardo words or phrases were implemented in their titles (e.g., La catrera, El purrete, Una noche de garufa). By 1915, tangos with lyrics (Mi noche triste) by composers such as Celedonio Flores and José María Contursí gained tremendous popularity among the masses, and were fully popularized by singer Carlos Gardel. According to Oliveri (2013), taboo themes were expressed in tango songs of the 1930’s by means of Lunfardo terms.6 This strategy contributed to the attention that tango received, and it also highlighted its association to a type of popular speech full of sexual innuendos. On the other hand, it most likely contributed to Lunfardo being banned from the airwaves. When Argentina’s military forces displaced the national government through a series of coups d’éta in the 1930’s, Lunfardo words and expressions were soon thereafter denounced as incorrect and immoral language, and even as “deformed” manners of speaking. In order to slowly eliminate these vulgarities and purify Porteño Spanish, by aligning it with the prestigious variety of Peninsular Spanish, Argentina’s military government censored Lunfardisms and regionalisms in radio broadcasting from 1943-1949. This radio ban from broadcasting Lunfardo terminology had great impacts on tango, forcing composers and other writers to modify any Lunfardic style to that of standard Castellano. Under these orders, many Lunfardo words (e.g., pibes, mangos, guitas, atenti) and expressions, as well as forms of the voseo (e.g., sos, sabés), were listed as banned vulgarities, particularly those that suffered the loss of the intervocalic /-d/ (e.g., confesao, mentao). The censorship of Lunfardo lexical items later extended to phrases and

6 Oliveri (2013) cites a very explicit tango lyric that is set in a brothel: “Qué bueno es hacer franela y estar sentado en las sillas mientras que al otario adentro se le plantan las ladillas!” (“How good it is to rub yourself and be sitting on chairs while the idiot inside is getting crab lice!”) (p. 23).

9 expressions deemed non-standard by those heading the censorship (Oliveri, 2013). This authoritative pressure to push the prestigious Castellano variety in Porteño Spanish and media brought drastic semantic change to many classic tangos, and a generational hiatus of those exposed to Lunfardo through tango. The second half of the 20th Century witnessed a rock music movement that resisted the prejudice that “authentic rock” could only be sung in English. Argentina played a key role at the forefront of this movement early on, producing many national rock artists and groups that gained popularity throughout Argentina and beyond its borders. Furthermore, by the 1970’s, Lunfardisms began to appear in national rock songs, particularly those by movement leaders, such as songwriters Luis Alberto Spinetta and Charly García. Though standard Argentinian Spanish prevails in the majority of their lyrics and those of other composers within this movement, they continue to incorporate, and at times emphasize, popular Lunfardo voices (e.g., afanar, escabio, morfar, bondi). Conde (2011) claims that national rock incorporates its most current terms from the ultimate innovator of language change and trends, “el imaginario adolescente” (“the adolescent’s imaginary”). (p. 436)

LUNFARDO’S ROLE IN PRESENT-DAY ARGENTINA Nowadays, Lunfardo appears to play an important role in Argentina as a mechanism of linguistic and national identity. The 2015 Argentinian government documentary series, “Lunfardo de Ayer y Hoy,” (Lunfardo of Yesteryears and Today) can be taken to represent a clear attempt to express the importance of Lunfardo, not only to Buenos Aires but to contemporary Argentinian society as a whole: El lunfardo habla de nuestro idiosincracia, historia, los rasgos más profundos de ser argentino […] No nos habla del pasado sino de la vida cotidiana. Nos cuenta cómo somos, porque no hay mejor manera de conocer a una sociedad sino por las palabras que elige. (Van Dam, 2015) Lunfardo speaks of our idiosyncrasies, history, the deepest characteristics of being Argentinian [...] It does not speak to us about the past but rather about everyday life. It tells us how we are, because there is no better way to know a society than through the words it chooses. This documentary not only focused on Lunfardo evolution and popular use, but also on its importance as a key national element of Argentinian identity. This identity manifests itself, in part, through Lunfardo words which are in turn expressed in music, literature and other artistic domains, and which encompass diverse groups spread across social classes. Conde claims that Lunfardisms are born because there is not an existing word or phrase in

10 standard Spanish that maintains equivalent power in a desired expression (e.g., depuentear, estar dibujado) (in Van Dam, 2015). He further comments on what he sees as Argentinians’ explicit preference for Lunfardo over standard Spanish words: “En determinadas situaciones comunicativas, preferimos el Lunfardismo por razones de confianza, por razones afectivas, por razones lúdicas, por razones de variar al otro” (“In certain communicative situations, we prefer Lunfardo for reasons of trust, emotion, recreation, for reasons of distinguishing the other”) (Van Dam, 2015). Lunfardo’s productive and humoristic linguistic borrowing is understood by the local community, and although this may not be a conscious awareness, it represents Argentina’s immigrant history and how each group has left a linguistic mark on the lexicon.

Role in Buenos Aires Spanish Lunfardo’s wide appropriation into popular Argentinian Spanish may not be rooted as much in its quantity of lexemes, but rather its referents’ frequency of use. This frequency is propelled by words typically present in the domestic and quotidian ambits, as evident by commonly used words such as laburo (‘trabajo’/job), capo (‘jefe’/boss), and batifondo (‘alboroto’/commotion, uproar). Such frequency of use in popular speech may render the distinctiveness of these terms almost invisible, as there seems to be a lack of an awareness among speakers that they are indeed Lunfardo words. An interviewee in “Lunfardo de Ayer y Hoy” commented on the natural incorporation of Lunfardo into their Spanish: Se vuelve tan parte de uno que yo ni quiero pensar qué palabras son Lunfardo; 60% de lo que digo todo el día es lunfardo pero uno ya no lo divide. It becomes so much a part of someone that I do not even want to think about what words are Lunfardo; 60% of what I say all day is Lunfardo but one does not divide it. Another subject further supported this idea by commenting that, “Uno se olvida de cuáles palabras son lunfardos y cuáles no son porque se mezclaron” (“One forgets what words are Lunfardo and what are not because they are mixed”). The documentary concludes that, to the Argentinian public, Lunfardo words are so frequent in popular Argentinian Spanish that one is likely unaware of most lexical deviations from standard Spanish.

LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF LUNFARDO In the last decades, the study of Lunfardo has received heightened attention in order to document its terminology, both historic and contemporary, as well as describe its linguistic characteristics. In addition to Lunfardo’s normalization through reference books, a process spearheaded by the Academia Porteña del Lunfardo since its creation in 1962, subsequent investigations have focused on its phonological, morphological, and lexical features, as well as its distinctive features in relation to Cocoliche, another variety resulting from immigration and language contact. Although it is clear that both Cocoliche and Lunfardo emerged via languages in contact, their history, presence, and lasting mark on Porteño Spanish differ substantially. Cocoliche refers to a hybrid Italianized Spanish spoken by the first generation of Italian immigrants in the Rio de la Plata. Cocoliche is formally considered a “pseudo- sabir”7 as it unstably manifests Spanish phonemes difficult for the average Italian speaker to pronounce (e.g., change of consonants in Spanish j/g substituted for k: cajón > cacón; alternation of vowels i>e: caminar>camenare, and u>o: orgulloso>orgolloso). As is the case of most languages in transition, Cocoliche gradually disappeared in the 2nd and 3rd generations of Italian immigrants in the Rio de la Plata. In contrast, Lunfardo is commonly understood as an urban argot whose makeup is more complex than that of Cocoliche because its roots and influences stem from diverse immigrant groups outside of Italian varieties, including Spanish, Aboriginal, African, French, Portuguese, and German. In the case of Lunfardo, its vast number of external borrowings are either fully transferred to the lexicon (even if the orthography is adjusted to the Spanish orthographic system, e.g., mangar, bachicia, mate, chala), or modified to Spanish phonetics and morphology (e.g., contamusa, cufa, esputsa, esquiafo). In addition, Lunfardo, unlike Cocoliche, maintained a more permanent presence in Porteño Spanish through the stabilization of select terminology in literature, folklore, and music, and also by permeating its influence into popular speech like a ripple effect extending beyond its center of origin.

7 A pseudo-sabir is an approximation towards the target language’ (Golluscio de Montoya, 1990).

LUNFARDO’S LEXICAL SOURCES Lunfardo’s linguistic system has been best described by lunfardist Oscar Conde. His recent book, Lunfardo: Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentinos (Conde, 2011), is an essential source that lays the foundation of Lunfardo’s distinctive features. Lunfardo is said to constitute a distinct argot in that the majority of its words constitute linguistic borrowings from immigrant languages, including Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Quechua, Guaraní, Caló, and various African languages. Of these lexical sources, Lunfardo borrows the most from Italian and Spanish, which represent 91.16% of all Lunfardo lexical borrowings, with Italian words accounting for 12.66% and Iberian Spanish words accounting for 78.5% (Conde, 2011). Of the Iberian Spanish voices, Lunfardo borrows from varieties spoken in Germanía, Andalucía, and Galicia, in addition to standard Spanish lexicon. However, its main Spanish influence comes from Peninsular Caló, used by Spanish gypsies (e.g., chamuyar, junar, gil, rajar, pisante). Common Lunfardo words also come from Peninsular Portuguese (e.g., cachar, gavión, naco), and Brazilian Portuguese (e.g., groso, masa, joya, bondi, mango). According to Conde (2011), Italianisms can be split into four main categories: standard Italian (e.g., manyar, laburo, espiantar, posta, ñoquis); northern dialects, including Milanese (minga), Lombard (fratacho), Piedmont (mersa), and Genovese (e.g., amurar, chanta, escrachar, bacán, escabiar); Centro-Meridional dialects, such as Napolitano and Sicilian (chucho); and “Gergo” which are considered terms of informal popular Italian slang (e.g., batir, tira, pibe). The majority of Italianisms in Lunfardo, however, come from the Genovese variety. Africanisms represent a small number of Lunfardo borrowings; however, those that have infiltrated are lexical items that have an iconic presence in Argentinian speech and culture (e.g., milonga, tango, fulo, quilombo). Aboriginalisms reflect traces of Argentina’s internal migration towards Greater Buenos Aires in the 20th Century. Like Africanisms, aboriginal voices are of great importance in Lunfardo’s composition, not in their quantity but rather in their frequency of use. Quechua borrowings such as pucho and guacho, and Guaraní and Mapuche borrowings such as matete and che are classic Lunfardo words symbolic of Argentinian popular speech.

Lunfardo has been described as a lexicon that is eminently synonymic and with a limited semantic field. It is said to represent a lack of connection to rural life and is focused on topics such as “la delincuencia, el vicio, la indolencia o de ocupaciones como la música ocasional, los juegos de azar, las carreras de caballos, las suertes de los naipes, sus trampas y fullerías” (crime, vice, indolence or occupations such as occasional music, gambling, horse racing, luck of the cards, their traps and cheating) (Buesa Oliver, 1987). Lunfardo words often embody humor, sarcasm and aggression, and compensate in synonyms where they may lack in diverse semantics (e.g., there are more than 100 words for mujer, more than 70 words for bebida/embriaguez, and more than 30 words for “cárcel”) (Buesa Oliver, 1987; Ricardo del Valle, 1981). Phonetic features of Lunfardo show notable differences when compared to the phonetic system of standard Spanish. However, it coincides substantially with phonetic characteristics of Spanish from Andalusia: seseo, yeísmo, final /-s/ aspiration, and the loss of the final /-d/. However, there is one major phonetic difference between Andalucian Spanish and that from Buenos Aires/Lunfardo: its use of the phoneme sh- []. This is an unusual sound in most Spanish varieties but a common one in languages that helped derive Lunfardo (French /ch/, English /sh/, Italian /sc/ + i/e). Words from the group /sh/ [] plus a vowel (e.g., cafishio, mishiadura) demonstrate this phoneme’s common context in Lunfardo. Lunfardo’s morphological system is similar, for the most part, to standard Spanish morphology. Lunfardo nouns follow the same morphological rules of standard Spanish in that the majority are identified as masculine or feminine based on their endings (–o or –a), or are determined by their article (el bulín, el/la grasa). Verbs in Lunfardo all belong to the first conjugation, whose infinitives end in –ar (chamuyar, boludear, escabiar). In Spanish, most verb borrowings belong to this category. The most common adverbs in Lunfardo are formed with the standard Spanish morpheme –mente (e.g., propiamente, bacanamente). However, borrowed adverbs from Italian varieties are also common (e.g., domani, avanti, minga, posta). Many Lunfardo words have also emerged via derivation. Lunfardo nouns and verbs share the following productive prefixes that are responsible for derivations: des-, en-, and em- (e.g., despelotado, enquilombar, emberretinarse). Lunfardo also employs emphatic prefixes common in the Spanish language, re- and requete- (e.g., rechiflado, remanyado,

14 reloco). Suffixes derive Lunfardo nouns from standard Spanish and Italian dialectal suffixes such as –aje (hembraje, embalaje), –ancia (beligerancia), –ería (fasería, mistonguería), and –ura (pavura, mishiadura). Similarly, adjectives are derived from standard Spanish suffixes, such as –ado (envenenado), -ido (descuido), -ible (ponible), and –udo (macanudo). The traditional Lunfardo suffix –ante, was productive in converting participles to nouns (e.g., visantes from ‘ojos’, and pisantes from ‘pies’), and in deriving Lunfardo words from standard Italian words (e.g., furbante from Italian furbo/‘astuto’ and escarpiante from Italian scarpa/‘zapato’). Lunfardo word creation by means of restriction occurs from the narrowing or specialization of a standard Spanish word’s meaning, e.g., engomar in Lunfardo means ‘cerrar’/to close, but in standard Spanish it means ‘untar de goma un objeto para lograr su adherencia’/ to glue (Conde, 2011, p. 242). Lunfardo word creation by means of extension occurs from the broadening of a standard Spanish word’s meaning, e.g., bronca in standard Spanish means ‘una disputa ruidosa’/quarrel, but its meaning in Lunfardo extends to ‘enojo’/anger. Also, the word betún is a primary example of an extension that in standard Spanish means ‘mezcla que se usa para poner lustroso el calzado’/shoe polish, but in Lunfardo it means ‘soborno’/bribery (Conde, 2011, p. 244). Lunfardo word creation by shift in meaning of a standard Spanish word occurs by way of the following strategies: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and gender change. Through metaphor, Lunfardo changes the meaning of limones, for example, which means ‘limes’ in standard Spanish, but means ‘senos’/breasts in Lunfardo. Additional changes in meaning through metaphor are espáragos, which means ‘asparagus’ in standard Spanish, but ‘dedos’/fingers in Lunfardo; altillo, which means ‘attic’ in standard Spanish, but ‘cabeza’/head in Lunfardo; aceitar, which means ‘to oil’ in standard Spanish, but ‘sobornar’/to bribe in Lunfardo; and camión, which means ‘truck’ in standard Spanish, but ‘mujer atractiva’ in Lunfardo. Metonymy and synecdoche are other strategies that shift standard Spanish word meaning to create a new meaning in Lunfardo. Examples of metonymy are corte (‘cuchillo’/knife), polenta (‘fuerza; animo extraordinario’/strong, extraordinary encouragement), gorra (‘agente de policía’/policeman), and valija (‘visitador

15 médico’/visiting physician). Examples of Lunfardo synecdoche are cráneo (‘hombre talentoso’/talented man), pendejo (‘púber’/adolescent), and funyi (‘sombrero’/hat). Standard Spanish words also acquire new meaning in Lunfardo via gender change. For example, the standard Spanish word ‘pálido’/pale derived the word pálida in Lunfardo, meaning ‘efecto negativo que producen ciertas drogas’/negative effect produced by certain drugs, ‘depresión’/depression, or ‘mala suerte’/bad luck. In personified form (la Pálida), it means ‘la Muerte’ (Conde, 2011, p. 263). Metaplasms (epenthesis, syncope, prosthesis, and apheresis) are another strategy for Lunfardo word creation by shift in meaning. The most common metaplasm in Lunfardo is an extreme case of metathesis, known as “vesre” (vesre = ‘revés’). Lunfardo vesre refers to the manifestation of syllabic inversion in which the last syllable of a word becomes the first syllable, e.g., sope (‘peso’), zabeca (‘cabeza’), bolonqui (‘quilombo’), and feca con chele (‘café con leche’).

MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY As can be seen in the previous sections, Lunfardo plays an important role in the history, the culture, the identity, and the speech of Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas. We see how its use manifests itself in music and literature. Also, we can see how Lunfardo has been stigmatized and how attempts have been made to vindicate it. In addition, Lunfardo has been studied as a linguistic variety and there exist an increasing number of sources that describe its characteristics and its lexical borrowings. However, an aspect that has not been sufficiently studied is how porteño speakers today perceive Lunfardo’s role in current Spanish. In other words, to what point are Argentinians in and around Buenos Aires capable of recognizing Lunfardo terminology. Is it still distinctive from Argentinian Spanish or has it been so fully incorporated into the language that the two are inseparable? And what are the attitudes of porteño speakers toward Lunfardo nowadays? Is the stigmatization of Lunfardo still present? How is it viewed today? The study reported in the next sections aimed to explore these issues.

CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY

This study adopts some of the principles of mixed methods investigations, as it seeks to build on the strengths of pairing quantitative and qualitative data. This research method has been used in the social sciences since the 1930’s (Creswell, 2005, p. 510). Characteristics of a mixed methods study include research questions that are stated and described for quantitative and qualitative approaches, and results that are analyzed using strategies from both paradigms (Gay & Mills, 2006, p. 492). This research design aims to arrive to a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon under consideration. In the study reported next, quantitative and qualitative data are collected concurrently by means of two main procedures. Participants were first asked to participate in a brief oral, face-to-face interview (qualitative data collection). Interviews have long been used to investigate a range of sociolinguistic topics, including language use and language variation (Nunan, 1992). Immediately after the interview, the participants were asked to complete a word recognition task (quantitative data collection). Data from the latter served to conduct statistical analyses to test possible differences in levels of Lunfardo word recognition due to sociolinguistic differences (e.g., age, sex, location, education, family background) among participants. Both data collection instruments were piloted prior to the study in order to evaluate comprehensibility of instructions and questions (which were to be presented in Spanish), check that responses matched instructions, and estimate length of time necessary to complete tasks. The study received approval from the researcher’s IRB office, which included the corresponding participant consent forms (also translated into Spanish).

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES The main goal for this study was to explore the current status of Lunfardo among Argentinian Spanish-speakers from Buenos Aires and its immediate periphery. Two specific objectives were formulated: A) determine the extent to which Lunfardo terminology is identified by contemporary porteño speakers and, B) gather attitudinal data regarding Lunfardo and its use in contemporary Porteño Spanish. Guiding Questions The main questions that guide this study are thus: 1. To what extent do porteño speakers (Buenos Aires and surrounding areas) identify Lunfardo words in authentic texts? a. What words (if any) do these speakers tend to associate as belonging to Lunfardo? b. Are there differences in Lunfardo word recognition due to sociolinguistic factors (e.g., age, gender, location, education, Italian family background)? 2. How do these speakers define Lunfardo and what role do they assign to it in relation to their own speech and Porteño Spanish in general? In order to answer the first question (and questions subsumed under it), a corpus of texts known to include Lunfardisms, i.e., texts representing genres relevant to Lunfardo’s history such as short stories, tango lyrics and rock lyrics, was compiled. In turn, this corpus of texts was used to define and extract text excerpts that would form the basis for the word recognition test (WRT) used in the study. Question #2 was explored through one-to-one interviews conducted with porteño speakers in Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas. This data collection procedure, based on its representation in Argentinian literary and musical texts throughout the 20th Century, and an assessment of Lunfardo word recognition, aimed to cast light into not only the specified variety at hand and its identification among speakers, but to further contribute to studies of Lunfardo from a linguistic perspective.

CORPUS COMPILATION The corpus of texts assembled in order to establish a baseline representation of Lunfardo terminology as it existed throughout the 20th Century drew from authentic Argentinian texts from three specific genres: short stories, tango, and national rock songs. These genres, as explained in the first part of the thesis, represent cultural manifestations in

18 which Lunfardo has played an important role. The texts were chosen from specific decades mostly throughout the 20th Century: 21 short stories dated from the 1880’s-1950’s, 28 tango songs from the 1910s-1950s, and 20 Argentinian rock songs from the 1970s-1990s. The relevance of such genre selections to the study were based on (a) inclusion of Lunfardo lexicon as a reflection of colloquial speech used by porteño speakers throughout the 20th Century, (b) the time frame in which they were most popular, and (c) the respective authors and composers of each text being from the Province of Buenos Aires or the surrounding area. The total number of words overall in the corpus of texts was 23,509. The total number of words accounted for by short stories was 14,651. Each short story contained between 322-1,491 words and averaged 705.33 words per work. The total number of words in the tango subcorpus was 5,368. Each tango text contained between 117-274 words and averaged 177 words. The total number of words in the corpus that rock songs accounted for was 3,490. Each Argentinian rock text contained approximately 150 words.

DESCRIPTION OF TEXTS The first set of texts included popular Porteño short stories from a collection entitled Costumbrismo Lunfardo edited by José Gobello. Many of these stories are said to include characters that use Lunfardo. The short stories included were published from 1887 to 1954, and were written by 21 different porteño authors. The majority of the short stories were published from 1900-1920, but also included three stories from the 1940s-1950s. The oldest short story included was Caló porteño, first published in 1887 by Juan Piaggio. The most recent short story included was Función social del chamuyo published in 1954 by Juan Mondiola. The second set of texts in the corpus were tangos. Tango lyrics are a manifestation of Lunfardo terminology used by immigrant groups of low socioeconomic status in the port of Buenos Aires, and many claim that Lunfardo’s “golden age” between the 1920’s-1950’s corresponds to that of tango (Oliveri, 2013). Therefore, the corpus was also comprised of 28 tango songs written by 21 different composers whose work date from 1916-1959. The oldest tango included in the corpus was Mi noche triste (1916) with lyrics by Pascual Contursi who wrote many lyrics sung by Carlos Gardel. The most recent tango included was Adiós Nonino (1959), written by Eladia Blázquez.

The final set of texts, Argentinian national rock songs, was also included in the corpus in an attempt to represent modern texts in which Lunfardo appears. The national rock movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s sought not only to popularize rock music in Spanish, but also to represent a (re)appropriation of Argentinian culture. This movement often looked back at the language of tango and to Lunfardisms as a way to reinforce a notion of local culture. The corpus is comprised of lyrics from 20 Argentinian national rock songs written by 18 different musicians, from 1971-1999. The oldest rock song included in the corpus was El hombre suburbano by Pappo (1971), and the most recent song included was 19 días y 500 noches by Joaquín Sabina (1999). A list of all texts in the corpus is included in Appendix D.

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS As already mentioned, two data collection instruments were created to gather data from Argentinian informants in order to determine the extent to which they recognize Lunfardo terminology: a word recognition test (with excerpts selected from the corpus described above) and a one-on-one interview. In addition, biographical information was also collected from informants.

Interview The interview focused on questions to gather basic information about the participant’s knowledge about and general perceptions of Lunfardo. Data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews with a variety of porteño speakers. The goal was to quickly assess whether or not the participant had heard of Lunfardo, what words they commonly characterized as belonging to Lunfardo, and what communicative contexts they associated with Lunfardo usage in popular speech. Questions were also included in order to collect information to assess how they perceive this variety’s presence and relevance in contemporary Argentinian Spanish. The interview was conducted in the style of an informal one-on-one conversation, in which the researcher asked the participant the questions, in Spanish, and recorded their responses in writing, also in Spanish. When necessary, clarification or follow-up questions were added. Interview Questions 1. Do you consider that you speak Spanish from Buenos Aires?

2. Do you speak other languages or Spanish from other regions of Argentina? 3. Have you heard of the term Lunfardo? 4. What do you know about Lunfardo? (Where is it used? Is it currently used?) 5. Do you know anyone that uses Lunfardo words in their Spanish? (Who?) 6. a. Could you provide three examples of the first Lunfardo words or expressions that come to mind? b. Do you normally use these words? c. In what situations would you use or not use these words? 7. How important is Lunfardo to the people of Buenos Aires/San Nicolás/Rosario? 8. Is it important to you? Why/why not?

WORD RECOGNITION TEST (WRT) The Word Recognition Test (WRT) included fragments of texts containing Lunfardo terminology. These fragments were selected from the three aforementioned genres comprising the corpus of texts built for the study (short stories, tango, and rock). In order to define which specific fragments to include in the WRT, the texts were analyzed in terms of both word lexical frequencies and inclusion of potential target words in reference books of Lunfardo. Word frequencies were determined by digitizing the corpus of texts, and then processing it through a word concordancing program (MonoConc Pro). This program was used to generate a list of all words included in the corpus and the number of times each word appeared in it. Lunfardo terms on this list were identified and verified using Lunfardo dictionaries, synonym reference books, and the Dictionary of the Real Academia Española.8 Lunfardo words with the highest frequencies on the list were then used to locate fragments from each genre in the corpus that included this vocabulary. Fragments were selected for the WRT if they contained at least one Lunfardo word that was generated 3-4 times in different short stories, 2-4 times in tangos, and at least once in a rock song (as its database was

8 The Real Academia Española is an organization that was formed in 1713, whose main objective since its establishment is the development of a copious dictionary of the Spanish language.

21 smaller, and Lunfardo words appeared much less frequently in rock songs than in short stories and tangos). Once a potential fragment for the WRT had been identified, it was possible that additional Lunfardo words appeared in the surrounding context. The more Lunfardo words that a fragment contained, the greater the likelihood that it was included in the WRT. Each fragment selected included enough surrounding co-text to make interpretation of the meaning of target words possible, with resulting fragments ranging from 13 to 50 words.

Confirming the Status of Target Words as Part of Lunfardo Lexicon For the purpose of this study, it was important to determine that target words included in the WRT were indeed part of Lunfardo, as opposed to regular Argentinian Spanish. Target words in the WRT were considered Lunfardo words if they also appeared in Lunfardo dictionaries, and upheld the Lunfardo meaning and not the standard Spanish meaning (if different) in the context of their fragment. If the word existed in the Lunfardo dictionaries but upheld the standard Spanish meaning in the fragment’s context, the word was not considered Lunfardo for the purposes of this study. Table 1 shows some examples of target words with both their Lunfardo meaning and their corresponding meaning in standard Spanish and English.

Table 1. Examples of Lunfardo Words in WRT Word Lunfardo meaning Standard DRAE meaning batímelo Decir golpear [to tell] [to hit a person or an object] tira Policia trozo largo [police] [a long strip of material] rajar irse, marcharse dividir, partir, criticar [to leave a place] [to divide, separate, criticize] reventaos violar una habitación roto, fatigado, explotado [break into a bedroom] [broken, exhausted, exploited] barro jarra de arcilla para arcilla o mezcla de tierra y agua servir cerveza [mud, mix of soil and water] [beer mug] solfear Robar echar una bronca [to steal] [to start a fight] sapo vaso para servir animal anfibio parecido a la cerveza rana [beer glass] [toad]

WRT Fragments by Genre The WRT comprises 25 fragments in total. Thirteen fragments were selected from short stories, eight fragments were selected from tangos, and four from Argentinian rock songs. Fragments were then fit to one page, and reordered in order to mix fragment genres. The WRT included 652 words total, with 86 Lunfardo lexical items as target words. In the WRT, Lunfardo words represented 11.78% of fragments from Argentinian short stories, 17.70% from tango, and 11% from rock songs. Overall, Lunfardo words represented 13.19% of the content included in the WRT (see Table 2).

Table 2. Words in WRT per Genre Cuentos Tango Rock SUM Total Words 331 209 112 652 Percentage of Total Words 51% 32% 17% 100%

Total Lunfardo Words 39 37 10 86 Percentage Lunfardo Words 11.78% 17.70% 11% 13.19%

Short stories made up approximately 51% (331 words) of the WRT, of which approximately 12% (39 words) were Lunfardo terms. The following are examples of fragments from short stories included in the WRT, with Lunfardo target words underlined: 1. “Salí! Si estaba de piapa. El bacán de Ana la zurda que también cayó a bailar, vieras ...al verme dentrar formó una bronca a la gurda. Vos sabés, que tengo fama de tenorio y no chambón y al tuerto en otra ocasión me fui y le sople la dama.” (Gobello, 2004, pp. 15-18) 2. “Vos ibas con un tarro de conserva pa los ñoquis y se te cayó de la mano, se te cayó; entonces yo lo levante, le saque el barro y te lo di diciéndote no sé qué macana.” (Gobello, 2004, pp. 91-94) Tango made up approximately 32% (209 words) of the WRT, of which 18% (37 words) were Lunfardo terms. Examples of fragments from tango included in the WRT are: 3. “Se dio el juego de remanye cuando vos, pobre percanta, gambeteabas la pobreza en la casa de pension.” (Flores, 1920) 4. “Cuando no era tan junao por los tiras, la lanceaba sin tener el manyamiento, una mina le solfeaba todo el vento y jugó con su pasión.” (Moreno, 1926)

Argentinian rock songs made up approximately 17% (112 words) of the WRT, of which approximately 11% (10 words) were Lunfardo terms. Examples of fragments from rock songs included in the WRT are: 5. “No chamuyés. Che varón, atendé... que nada es gratis en ese puchero. Mucho “nait” perejil, pero seguís escupiéndole al viento. Cacareando, Rapiñando.” (Caballeros de la Quema, 1996) 6. “El "zumba" se colgo del bondi a Finisterre rajando del amor detrás de un beso nuevo Gualicho de olvidar apretado en las manos las despedidas son de esos dolores dulces.” (Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, 1998)

Word Recognition Test Instructions In order to determine the current level of recognition of target Lunfardo lexical items by porteño speakers, informants were instructed to circle any word that they thought was part of Lunfardo and whose meaning they understood. They were also instructed to underline any word that they did not understand. This was included to gather information about Lunfardo words which may be falling out of use. Instructions were both printed at the top of the WRT, and explained verbally to the informant for clarification before beginning the task.

DATA COLLECTION SITES Based on the fact that Lunfardo originated in the port of Buenos Aires (as described in the first half of this thesis), data collection was concentrated in the Province of Buenos Aires and its immediate periphery. In addition to gathering data on porteño speakers’ level of recognition of Lunfardo words, there was also an interest in exploring the possible influence of social factors such as age, gender, location, level of education, and family background. A total of three weeks were spent in Argentina (December 16th, 2015-January 7th, 2016) in order to collect data for this study. Time was distributed between three cities: Buenos Aires Ciudad Autónoma, San Nicolás de los Arroyos, and Rosario. The capital city was chosen based on its history as the site of Lunfardo’s origin. San Nicolás de los Arroyos and Rosario were included in the study based on their proximity to the capital city (distance from Buenos Aires to San Nicolás de los Arroyos is 238 km, and from Buenos Aires to Rosario is 300 km) and for being riverside cities that geographically connect to the Rio de la Plata region. Furthermore, Buenos Aires and Rosario are both prominent urban hubs, while

San Nicolás de los Arroyos is less prominent but has a highly concentrated Italian population.

Informant Recruitment In each of the aforementioned sites, participants were invited to participate in the study in public and private spaces, or on a contact referral basis. They were recruited primarily in public spaces such as parks, plazas, outdoor markets, libraries, and public transportation terminals. Participants were also recruited in private spaces, predominantly cafes, bookstores and local businesses. When approached in public spaces, participants in all three locations were generally receptive to contributing to the study, and especially if unaccompanied by a friend or child. However, it was observed that male participants were easier to recruit than females, which resulted in a somewhat uneven distribution in this respect. In public spaces, women were often occupied caring for small children, and therefore were more likely to negate their availability to participate in the study.

Participants A total of 66 participants were recruited for the study, with a near-even distribution of participant representation in three cities: 21 in Buenos Aires Ciudad Autónoma, 22 in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, and 23 in Rosario. There were 39 males and 27 females, ranging from 18-82 years old; the average age was 39 years (with a standard deviation of 17.22). The participants were divided into three groups according to age: 25 informants in the age range 18-29; 24 informants in the age range of 30-54; and 17 informants in the age range of 55-82. In terms of level of education, 4 participants had completed primary school, 22 had secondary school studies, 17 had vocational studies, and 23 had university studies. 37 participants reported they did have Italian family ties (see Table 3, p. 26). After describing the purpose of the study and obtaining the informants’ consent to participate (see IRB approved consent form in Appendix F), they were first asked the

25 interview questions, and their oral responses were recorded.9 WRT’s were also completed by all 66 informants. Data from this test was recorded in an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). After completion of the WRT, basic biographical information was collected from each participant.

9 As strangers were recruited to participate in the study, it seemed that recording responses using an audio-recorder might be intimidating for potential participants. As I was interested more in the content of their answers rather than their speech, it did not seem necessary to use an audio recorder during the interviews.

CHAPTER 3

RESULTS

WORD RECOGNITION The objective of the WRT was to determine what targeted Lunfardo terminology participants were able to identify, as well as those terms that they did not recognize or comprehend. In order to obtain a sense of the overall level of word recognition among participants (by age, location, sex, education, and Italian family background), the average number of words recognized, as well as the range of words recognized is presented in Table 3. After this, the statistical results and the set of Lunfardo words eliciting the highest and lowest level of recognition by informants is presented.

Table 3. Average Number of Lunfardo Words Recognized (by Sociolinguistic Factors) and Standard Deviations Location Gender Italian Education Age Family 1=primary 2=secondary 3=technical 4=university BA SN R M F Yes No 1 2 3 4 18- 30- 55- 29 54 82

Number of 66 21 22 23 39 27 37 29 4 22 17 23 25 24 17 Participants

Average # 31 38 32 24 33 28 33 28 31 33 37 25 23 28 45 of Lunfardo Words Recognized Standard 18 20 18 15 18 19 18 20 17 20 20 15 17 18 14 Deviation of Averages

As shown in Table 3, the participants recognized an average of 31 of the 86 target words in the WRT. Word recognition ranged from 0 to 64 Lunfardo words recognized. Participant #10 who recognized the most Lunfardo target words was an 82 year-old female from Buenos Aires. Participant #61 who recognized zero Lunfardo target words was a 38 year-old female from Rosario (and claimed she was not aware of the lexicon). Participant #3 recognized only four Lunfardo target words, and was a 22 year-old male from Buenos Aires who also could not provide a personal definition of Lunfardo. Overall, 14 participants recognized at least 50 words, and 7 participants recognized less than 10 words. Of those that recognized the least number of words, 4 participants were 22 years old and 3 were in their 30’s. There was also a noticeable difference in the average number of words recognized by participants in Buenos Aires versus Rosario. There seemed to be a relation between age and level of word recognition; the higher in age, the more Lunfardo words were recognized, with participants in the 55-82 year old group recognizing an average of 45 target words. Conversely, the lower the age, the fewer Lunfardo words were recognized, with participants in the 18-29 year old group recognizing on average only 23 of the target words. In general, the average number of words recognized was not as different as a result of grouping subjects by gender, education level or Italian family background. Males reported a higher average of Lunfardo word recognition than females; however, this relationship may be skewed, since there were 12 more males than females that participated in the study. Likewise, education group 1 (primary) contained only 4 participants, compared to 22, 17, and 23 participants representing the other education groups. Due to this small number of participants, group 1 may not be representative of porteños with this education level and would therefore require further study. It is also interesting that the group that reported to have Italian family relations recognized more Lunfardo words on average than those that reported to not have Italian family relations. Likewise, it is noteworthy that education group 3 (vocational studies) recognized the most Lunfardo terminology, and that education group 4 with the highest level of education (university) recognized the least Lunfardo words on average, suggesting a possible significant difference between groups. Although the averages of Lunfardo word recognition among these sociolinguistic factors of location, age, Italian family, and education

28 level suggest that there are differences, statistical analysis will confirm whether or not these differences were significant. The significance of these variables is reported in the following results section.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUB-GROUPS: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The quantitative data used to process and analyze statistical results in this section comes from the WRT. The following analysis reports on the relationship between level of Lunfardo target word recognition and sociolinguistic factors included in the study of age, location of residency, gender, level of education, and Italian family background.

Age and Word Recognition Given that raw data on average number of words recognized by participants’ age group suggested that age was a key factor, the relationship between age and recognition of Lunfardo words was tested. As shown in Table 3, of the 86 target Lunfardo lexical items, participants in the 18 to 29 years old group recognized, on average, 23 words (SD = 16.95), those in the 30 to 54 years old group recognized, on average, 28.83 words (SD = 17.53), while those in the 55 to 82 years old group recognized, on average, 45.24 words (SD = 13.98). A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant effect of age on Lunfardo word recognition, F(2, 63) = 9.277, p = .000. As shown in Figure 1, Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests indicated that there was a significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition (those words circled in the WRT) between participant age group 1 (18-29 years) and group 3 (55-82 years), p = .000, as well as between age group 2 (30-54 years) and group 3 (55-82 years), p = .008.

Education Level and Word Recognition Historically, Lunfardo has been associated with lower social classes, immigrant populations, and people living in the so-called conventillos. It is likely that these social characteristics were strongly connected in the past to the factor of education, as it is expected that people in the lower social stratum, who live in poor areas, or who immigrate due to financial stress, would have found it difficult to acquire higher levels of education. However, recognition of Lunfardo terminology today does not seem to be strongly related to speakers’

29 level of education. It is interesting that, in this study, there was no statistically significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition according to level of education, as evidenced in a one-way ANOVA, F(3, 61) = 1.547, p = .211. The biggest difference was that between primary and university groups, where p = .107 (Bonferroni Post Hoc); however, it was not enough to be significant. Still, this may have to do with differences in the number and distribution of participants. The primary education represented a considerably smaller sample group (4 participants) compared to groupings of secondary (22 participants), vocational studies (17 participants), and university studies (23 participants), and thus this may have affected the resulting significance (p) value.

Figure 1. Age and Word Recognition

Gender and Word Recognition Historically, Lunfardo has been often associated with male speakers, as it was supposed to have been originated among criminals and thieves, and as it was used to express sexual innuendos that often portrayed women negatively. Thus, the question here is whether or not there is difference in the levels of recognition of Lunfardo words by male and female porteño speakers. In an Independent Samples T-Test, however, there was no significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition (those words circled in the WRT) according to participant sex, T(64) = .966, p = .338.

Location and Word Recognition Results regarding the relationship between participants’ place of residency and level of recognition reflect expectations in that Lunfardo is considered to be most strongly associated with the capital of Buenos Aires. The connection was confirmed when analyzing the corresponding data, also using a one-way ANOVA (Figure 2) F(2, 63) = 3.697, p = .030, which found that there was significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition (those Lunfardo words circled in the WRT) between participants in group 1 (Buenos Aires) and group 3 (Rosario), p = .030. Participants from Buenos Aires recognized, on average, 38.19 Lunfardo words (SD = 20.47), and those from Rosario recognized on average 23.65 Lunfardo words (SD = 14.74). This result was expected to hold true for participants from Rosario’s neighboring city, San Nicolás de los Arroyos, as both are situated over 200 km from the capital city and whose inhabitants do not consider themselves to be porteños. However, it is interesting that there was no significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition between San Nicolás de los Arroyos and Buenos Aires, or between San Nicolás de los Arroyos and Rosario. San Nicolás de los Arroyos reported an average of 31.68 Lunfardo words recognized (SD=17.78), while Buenos Aires reported 38.19 words (SD=20.47) and Rosario reported 23.65 words (SD=14.74).

Figure 2. Location and Word Recognition

Italian Family Background and Word Recognition Even though Lunfardo has been associated in the past with Italian immigration, this factor did not appear to influence participants’ ability to recognize Lunfardo lexicon in the context of this study. An Independent Samples T-Test found that there was no significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition (those words circled in the WRT) according to participant Italian family background, T(64) = -1.079, p = .285.

LUNFARDO WORDS WITH HIGHEST/LOWEST LEVEL OF RECOGNITION The following word sets show that there is a vocabulary that remains active and conserves its association with Lunfardo. However, at the same time, these sets demonstrate that not all Lunfardo target words have the same status, as even words from the same genre appeared in both lists of the highest and least recognized words among participants. Below are the Lunfardo words that elicited the highest and lowest levels of recognition among all participants (as a group; Table 4). The highest recognized of the top words (e.g., chamuyés, fulero, buzarda, bulín, bacana) indicate that these words constitute not only common Lunfardisms but also a set of vocabulary items that are most readily associated to Lunfardo by many porteño speakers, including those living in the periphery of the capital and Province of Buenos Aires. This may be part of a core set of words that remain very much distinctive in terms of their Lunfardo origin and whose meaning is understood by many. The least recognized words in Table 4 (e.g., sapos, güífaro, ancú, carpeta, raid, estrilo), on the other hand, indicate that there are also words no longer associated to Lunfardo by a majority of porteños and those populations outside of Buenos Aires, either because they are no longer in use, or alternatively, because they are not distinguished from other Spanish words, thus having lost their distinctiveness as Lunfardisms. The most recognized Lunfardo words in the overall data elicited recognition from 60.62% to 93.94% of the participants. The least recognized Lunfardo words were identified by less than 15% of participants, ranging from 1.52% to 10.60%.

Table 4. Top/Bottom Words Recognized in Overall Participant Pool High Recognition OVERALL Minimal Recognition OVERALL Word: % Genre: Word: % Genre: chamuyés 93.94 Rock Song sapos 3.03 Short Story fulero 74.24 Short Story barro 3.03 Short Story buzarda 72.72 Short Story güífaro 4.55 Short Story bulín 71.21 Short Story ancú 4.55 Short Story macana 68.18 Short Story raid 4.55 Short Story bacana 1 66.66 Tango estrilo 6.06 Short Story escraché 62.12 Short Story carpeta 9.09 Tango cabrero 62.12 Short Story primus 9.09 Short Story junao 62.12 Tango averías 10.6 Tango caché 60.62 Short Story tigrero 10.61 Short Story bondi 60.6 Rock Song tiras 10.61 Tango

Top Lunfardo Words by Location Looking at the sets of Lunfardo words with highest and lowest level of recognition when grouping participants by location (Table 5), it was noticed that some words are common across participants in the three cities sampled, while others are unique to each location. Among the common ones are: chamuyés, buzarda, bulín and fulero. A word recognized by most participants only from Buenos Aires was atorrar. Words recognized by most participants only from San Nicolás de los Arroyos were junao and faca; words recognized only from Rosario were bondi, farras, and escrachao. The most recognized Lunfardo words in the Buenos Aires data ranged from 76.19% to 100% recognition by participants. The most recognized Lunfardo words in the San Nicolás de los Arroyos data ranged from 59.09% to 86.36%, while in Rosario the data ranged from 52.17% to 86.97% recognition.

Top Lunfardo Words by Gender Some target words elicited high levels of recognition by both male and female participants, such as: chamuyés, bulín, buzarda, fulero, and bacana 1 (Table 6). The most recognized Lunfardo words in the female data (Table 8) ranged from 59.26% to 96.30% participant recognition. The most recognized Lunfardo words in the male data ranged from 66.67% to 92.31% recognition.

Table 5. Top/Bottom Words Recognized in Location High Recognition BA High Recognition SN High Recognition ROS Word: % Genre: Word: % Genre: Word: % Genre: chamuyés 100 R chamuyés 86.36 R chamuyés 86.97 R buzarda 90.47 S buzarda 72.72 S bulín 69.56 S macana 85.71 S junao 72.72 T bacana 1 65.22 T bacana 1 85.71 T bulín 63.64 S fulero 65.21 S fulero 85.71 S morlacos 63.64 T macana 60.87 S bulín 76.19 S fulero 63.64 S caché 60.87 S escraché 76.19 S faca 59.09 S bondi 56.62 R morlacos 76.19 T cabrero 59.09 S escraché 56.52 S cabrero 76.19 S bacana 2 59.09 S batímelo 56.52 S atorrar 76.19 S caché 59.09 S buzarda 52.17 S batímelo 59.09 S farras 52.17 S *R=rock, S=short story, T=tango escrachao 52.17 S

Table 6. Top/Bottom Recognized in Gender High Recognition MALES High Recognition FEMALES Word: % Genre: Word: % Genre: chamuyés 92.31 Rock Song chamuyés 96.3 Rock Song fulero 76.72 Short Story bulín 74.07 Short Story morlacos 71.79 Tango macana 74.07 Short Story buzarda 71.79 Short Story buzarda 74.07 Short Story bulín 69.23 Short Story fulero 70.37 Short Story bacana 1 69.23 Tango bondi 66.67 Rock Song cabrero 69.23 Short Story bacana 1 62.96 Tango bacana 2 69.23 Short Story farras 62.96 Short Story chambón 66.67 Short Story escraché 59.26 Short Story cafisho 66.67 Tango junao 59.26 Tango escrachao 66.67 Short Story

Although the statistics showed no significant difference between male and female Lunfardo target word recognition, women and men tended to recognize certain target words at varying frequencies. These words had a difference in recognition ranging from 9% to 33% between males and females. In the list of Lunfardo words that males recognized with the highest percentage, we find words such as morlacos, cabrero, bacana 2, chambón, cafisho, and escrachao, and words that made this list among female participants only were macana, bondi, farras, escraché, and junao. For example, in relation to the word morlacos, males

34 recognized it at approximately 72%, but, females recognized it at 41%; likewise, men recognized chambón at 67%, while women recognized it at 44%. On the female high recognition list, however, women recognized, for example, the word macana at 74%, while men recognized it at 64%. Likewise, women recognized the word bondi at 67%, while men recognized it at 57%. These relationships show that there are words that all participants recognized, but there were also words that were recognized more by males than females, and vice versa. Even though there was not a significant difference in gender considering all 86 Lunfardo target words, we can see that there were certain differences between genders with respect to specific words.

INTERVIEW DATA ANALYSIS The semi-structured interviews conducted with participants sought to evaluate their understanding or previous knowledge of Porteño Spanish and of Lunfardo. It also elicited information regarding participants’ social interactions in Lunfardo, or with speakers of Lunfardo, as well as explored attitudes about the use of Lunfardo in general. Of the 66 participants, a great majority (94%) reported that they considered themselves to be speakers of the Spanish variety characteristic of their region. Only four participants expressed using Spanish from another region outside of their current location. Three participants reported to be long-term residents of Rosario, but considered they still speak Spanish from the region where they grew up (in these cases, Corrientes and Entre Ríos). One participant from San Nicolás de los Arroyos reported that she speaks a mix of Paraguayan Spanish and San Nicolás Spanish, as she grew up in Asunción but has been living in San Nicolás for the past 40 years. Most participants were Spanish monolinguals, although fourteen participants claimed that they could speak or were familiar with English.10 Of the 66 participants, approximately 83% expressed that they were familiar with the term ‘Lunfardo’ or that at least they had heard it before, while 17% stated that they had never

10 Additional languages mentioned were German (1 participant), Italian (5 participants), French (2 participants), Portuguese (1 participant), and Guaraní (2 participants).

35 heard of the term (3 participants in Buenos Aires, 1 participant in San Nicolás, 7 participants in Rosario). The majority of the 11 participants who did not have any prior knowledge associated with the term ‘Lunfardo’, however, were less than 35 years old.11 Lunfardo was most commonly referred to by participants as a historical dialect, a type of speech used by specific groups, or a slang. Quotes 1-3 make reference to the history of Lunfardo (participant number and location are included in parentheses after each quote). 1. “Una lengua diferente, como un dialecto formado al principio del siglo por inmigrantes.” (A different language, like a dialect formed at the beginning of the century by immigrants) (#26SN) 2. “Un dialecto antiguo de Buenos Aires, de acá.” (An old dialect from Buenos Aires, from here.) (#29/SN) 3. “Su inicial era carcelario que se extendió del idioma portuario...es diferente que el cocoliche que se usaba en los conventillos.” (Its beginning was of prisons that then extended from port language ... it is different than Cocoliche which was used in the conventillos.) (#55/R)

In quote 3 above, it is worth noting that for some speakers, Lunfardo’s origin is still very much in their minds, i.e., it stemmed from prisons and then popularized throughout the greater region of Buenos Aires. Although not many informants referred to this, it is the most common explication of Lunfardo’s origin and development among historians and Lunfardists. Other definitions emphasize the fact that Lunfardo is used only by specific groups of speakers. These groups are defined by their location, age, gender or other contextual factors. Quotes 4-6 exemplify these definitions. 4. “Una manera de comunicar en el puerto…tienes que haber nacido en Buenos Aires para entenderla.” (A way of communicating in the port…you have to have been born in Buenos Aires to understand it) (#48/R)

11 When asked to complete the WRT, these 11 participants were prompted to identify words that they perceived as “regional and unique to the Province of Buenos Aires” instead of according to the term “Lunfardo.”

5. “Se usa por los hombres de Buenos Aires.” (Men from Buenos Aires use it.) (#9/BA) 6. “Lo usan los hombres grandes.” (Older men use it.) (#20/BA) These speakers’ perceptions of Lunfardo’s close association to the capital of Buenos Aires and to older generations of said region coincide with the statistical data analysis that populations from Buenos Aires and older people know most about Lunfardo. In addition, it is interesting that speakers perceived Lunfardo as being used predominantely by male porteños. However, in terms of lexical recognition, the statistical analysis showed no significant difference due to gender. Some informants also commented on the connection between Lunfardo and artistic manifestations. For example, quotes 7-9 illustrate participants’ definitions of Lunfardo in terms of its association to musicians and artists. 7. “Se usa en milongas…me gusta el tango.” (It’s used in milongas…I like tango.) (#55/R) 8. “Es parentado con el tango…se va perdiendo.” (It is presented with the tango ... it is falling out of use.) (#48/R) 9. “Lo usan los amigos, familiares y artistas.” (Friends, family, and artists use it.) (#33/SN) As supported by these quotes, much literature, both historic and modern, also makes connections between Lunfardo and tango. Lunfardo’s dominant and diverse lexical presence in tango songs since the early 20th Century reveal this relationship to the point that, as previously mentioned, even Jorge Luis Borges claimed that Lunfardo was nothing more than an artistic invention. Finally, common definitions also associate Lunfardo with slang, corrupted, or marginalized language, which often depicts a low socioeconomic status, as seen in quotes 10-12. 10. “Es una desviación del idioma donde se utilizan expresiones que no están reconocidas por la lengua oficial.” (It’s a deviation from the language in which expressions are not recognized by the official language.) (#17/BA) 11. “Son palabras de las zonas precarias…son códigos de las villas.”

(They are words from the precarious areas…they are codes from the slums.) (#16/BA) 12. “Habla de la calle, criada de la gente simple, sin laburo, que vive el hoy.” (Speech from the street, from those people brought up simply, without work, who live in the present moment.) (#35/SN) This general association of Lunfardo to delinquents and the lower social classes evidenced among contemporary speakers suggests that Lunfardo’s early stigma as language from prisons persists to a degree even today. Responses were varied regarding participants’ perceptions of Lunfardo use in their own speech, as well as its use in the speech of others. Answers ranged from those who claimed to use Lunfardo frequently, as shown in quotes 13-14, to those who were unsure or indifferent as to their own use of Lunfardisms, as shown in quote 15. 13. “Todo el mundo lo usa…No me doy cuenta que las uso, son tan incorporadas.” (Everyone uses it ... I don’t realize that I use Lunfardisms, they are so incorporated.) (#34/SN) 14. “Lunfardo es una porción de cada persona.” (Lunfardo is a portion of each person.) (#32/SN) 15. Interviewer: “Do you use Lunfardo words in your speech?” Participant: “Más o menos…son palabras normales.” (More or less…they are normal words.) (#44/R) These comments point towards the perception that Lunfardo has been incorporated into the speech of some participants in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish it from general Argentinian Spanish. However, despite the fact that Lunfardo continues to be an important element of Porteño Spanish, crossing social and geographic boundaries, for other informants, it remains a stigmatized way of speaking, and thus they deny it has any role in their own speech. Such complete negation of personal use of Lunfardo is reflected in quote 16. 16. “Yo no, porque es un nivel bajo de hablar y yo estudié.” (I don’t, because it is a low level of speaking, and I studied.) (#58/R) This response clearly relates to the stigmatized image of Lunfardo, denoting a speaker with a low level or no education and/or low social standing. One interesting comment by a

38 participant from San Nicolás de los Arroyos denied that Lunfardo was even used by speakers in his hometown region, as seen in quote 17. 17. “No hablamos lunfardo, hablamos castellano porque nuestros antecedentes son del interior, como Entre Ríos y Tucumán, y son todos gallegos. El lunfardo solo se habla en Buenos Aires, la capital.” (We do not speak slang, we speak Castilian because our ancestors are from the interior, such as Entre Rios and Tucuman, and they are all Galicians. Lunfardo is only spoken in Buenos Aires, the capital.) (#35/SN) However, when this participant was later asked whether or not he personally uses Lunfardo, he responded, “Sí, un montón con los compañeros del trabajo o en los boliches” (Yes, a lot with coworkers or in clubs) (#35/SN). This participant’s self-contradiction between negating relevance of Lunfardo to his region, yet simultaneously claiming to use it in informal social contexts suggests that Lunfardo’s role as a marker of regional identity is not always accepted, but it is perhaps less problematic when it comes to its use in social informal situations. In addition, a couple of female participants commented that they only use Lunfardo in emotional situations within the home, and specified to use it typically when they are angry or surprised. Other female participants also believed Lunfardo to be more strictly associated to males or a masculine perspective, as shown in quotes 18-20. 18. Interviewer: “Do you use Lunfardo words in your speech?” Participant: “No, porque son palabras machistas.” (No, because they are macho words.) (#16/BA) 19. “No frecuentemente porque no se usa entre mujeres, es más entre hombres. Quizás cuando es un momento de exclamación en la casa, pero no con amigas. No con el médico, por ejemplo.” (Not often because it is not used among women, it is more between men. Maybe when I use it in a moment of exclamation at home, but not with friends. Not with the doctor, for example. (#43/SN) 20. “Mi esposo y sus amigos usan el lunfardo mucho mejor que yo, mi suegra y mis amigas porque es más conocido entre hombres.” (My husband and his friends use the slang much better than me, my mother, and my friends because it is more known among men.) (#9/BA) Although these examples illustrate that women participants claimed more often than men that they do not use Lunfardo in their speech, the statistical results show that this lack of use they perceive does not reflect a lesser recognition and knowledge of Lunfardo words, as there was

39 no significant difference in the Lunfardo word recognition results by gender, at least in the context of this study. Those who negated its presence in their own speech but claimed to hear it often in dialogues among other members of their social groups is reflected in quote 21. 21. “Yo no, pero se usa en mi grupo social.” (I don’t, but it is used in my social group.) (#11/BA) In this quote, the speaker accepts that Lunfardo is used within his or her social group, but still distances him or herself from it, suggesting its continued stigma as exclusively vulgar language. Others claimed to use Lunfardo only if prompted to do so by another speaker, but otherwise do not take the initiative to incorporate Lunfardo in their speech, as shown in quote 22. 22. “Si alguien comienza a hablarme con esas palabras, yo también.” (If someone begins to speak to me with these words, I also will use them). (#64/R) This last comment implies that Lunfardo perhaps serves to establish rapport and signal group membership. In general, participants who declared that they do use Lunfardo commented that it is used among friends and family. Its use was also described in habitual informal social situations in which there is familiarity and/or intimacy between the interlocutors, an opinion reflected in quotes 23-25. 23. “Lo usa en ambientes sociales, por ejemplo asados.” (It is used in social environments, for example, at barbeques.) (#62/R) 24. “…habla cotidiana, de intimidad y confianza.” (…quotidian speech, of intimacy and trust.) (#57/R) 25. “Es importante para comunicarse...una manera amigable.” (It is important to communicate…a friendly way.) (#28/SN) This repeated characteristic of Lunfardo as familiar and intimate language reveals perceptions of Lunfardo in a more positive light, and further demonstates that Lunfardo’s stigma is not unanimously viewed among contemporary speakers. When asked to report on what they considered typical Lunfardo words, participants provided, as examples, words such as piola, boludo, guacho, pibe, mina, yuta, guita, chabón,

40 chamuyo, birra, gil, salame, and cornudo. These did not appear in the WRT, but all appear in Lunfardo dictionaries. Other Lunfardo words mentioned were examples of Lunfardo “vesre”, such as lleca (‘calle’); nami (‘mina’); colla (‘flaco’), and dogor (‘gordo’). Words that were mentioned as examples that also appear on the WRT were: laburo, manyar, bulín, chitrulo, bondi, marchanta, and buzarda. Of these words mentioned, bulín, bondi, and buzarda also appeared in the list of top Lunfardo words recognized overall (Table 4). Most of these words were mentioned by older participants from Buenos Aires. In terms of the lexicon, this implies that a few words in the WRT may be at the level of frequent use among older generations since they were mentioned as examples prior to taking the test. Older participants from Buenos Aires providing Lunfardo examples that overlap with a few target words in the WRT corresponds to the results of the statistical analysis that both the oldest generation group and the Buenos Aires group recognized the most Lunfardo words. When asked if Lunfardo was important to porteño speakers, in general, and for the participant him/herself, in particular, some commented, either forcefully or dismissively, that Lunfardo only exists in the capital of Buenos Aires. Many participants from San Nicolás de los Arroyos and Rosario claimed that Lunfardo is not applicable to them because they are not from Ciudad Autónoma Buenos Aires, where it originated. One participant commented on Lunfardo’s lack of personal relevance, as reflected in quote 26. 26. “No me interesa porque no soy de la capital. Si yo me hubiese sido de Buenos Aires, sí me importaría.” (It does not interest me because I'm not from the capital. If I were from Buenos Aires, it would be important to me.) (#25/SN) The perception that Lunfardo is a stagnant linguistic variety is evident in this comment, as it assumes that Lunfardo never developed or reached to influence areas beyond its center of origin, the capital of Buenos Aires. Others stated that Lunfardo is important because it is used mainly as a friendly form of communication, or that it is important to group belonging, as evidenced in quotes 27-29. 27. “No sé, pero tiene su magia, su toque es divertida…es una forma de comunicarse más agradable.” (I do not know, but has its magic, its fun touch...it is a more enjoyable way of communicating and as a means of belonging to social groups.) (#62/R) 28. “Es un código de pertenencia.”

(It’s a code of belonging.) (#57/R) 29. “Es parte de la cotidianeidad, es una manera de hablar particular de nuestra tierra y por lo tanto fomenta el sentido de pertenencia.” (It is part of everyday life, it is a particular way of speaking from our country and it therefore fosters a sense of belonging.) (#17/BA) This sense of Lunfardo as an affable form of communication that creates national or social belonging is an idea that is highlighted in the recent documentary series, Lunfardo Argento (2015), which seeks to inform Argentinians about Lunfardo as an essential characteristic of Argentinian culture and speech. Finally, there were participants from all three cities that commented on Lunfardo’s national value as essential to the history and the cultural identity of Argentina, as shown in quotes 30-33. 30. “Representa a los argentinos.” (It represents Argentinians.) (#44/R) 31. “Es un distintivo de la cultura argentina, más porteña pero se usa en todo Argentina.” (It is unique to Argentinian culture, more porteño but it is used throughout Argentina.) (#57/R) 32. “Son parte de la identidad, no se da cuenta” (They are part of identity, one doesn’t realize.) (#16/BA) 33. “Tiene que ver con nuestra historia e identidad…y que siga vigente.” (It has to do with our history and identity ... and that it continues to prevail.) (#27/SN) The last quote (33), in a sense, reflects much of what has been said so far in this document. Lunfardo has played a crucial role in the history of the region of the Rio de la Plata, and it has influenced the sense of identity of its speakers. The issue that this study has attempted to explore is the extent to which Lunfardo continues to play a role. As the data has revealed, it appears that it does, but there are still many opposing views and contradictions that are perhaps reflective of Lunfardo’s long and troubled history.

CHAPTER 4

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

In the previous sections, we see that there is a remaining presence of Lunfardo among porteño speakers. They give us an idea as to what level Lunfardo continues to be perceived as distinct from Argentinian Spanish in general. In this study, informant responses were analyzed according to the following social factors: age, gender, location of residence, level of education, and family background. Responses were analyzed to determine the informants’ identification of Lunfardo target terminology included in this study. The statistical results tell us that age and location of residency play a role in the recognition of Lunfardo. On the other hand, taking into consideration only those Lunfardo words in the WRT, there was no significant difference between Lunfardo word recognition in terms of gender or education. However, it is interesting that the vocational group recognized more words on average (N=37) than the university group (N=25), which suggests a possible difference perhaps influenced by socioeconomic status. Still, as results did not reach significant difference, it does not seem that recognition according to social status or education level matter as much as it did in Lunfardo’s history. The WRT and the qualitative data analyses indicate that many Lunfardo words, even those included from century-old texts appear to still form part of current Argentinian Spanish from Buenos Aires and its peripheral waterway hubs (32% to 74% of the target words were identified by about half of the participants). On average, participants as a whole recognized 31 of the 86 target words (SD=18). While participants’ commentary regarding their knowledge of Lunfardo and its inclusion in their speech and that of others was varied, it was clear that Lunfardo is still prevalent in informal communicative situations, and that speakers are aware of its status as Lunfardo. Many Lunfardo terms in the WRT were recognized in the context of the fragments in which they were presented. Some received high recognition, having been identified by 61%-

94% of the informants, such as the words: chamuyés, buzarda, bulín, macana, bacana, escrachar, cabrero, junar, cachar, bondi. This recognition suggests a certain level of the participants’ interaction with Lunfardo words, and highly recognized words may even indicate an active presence in popular speech. Conversely, the WRT also indicated that some Lunfardo words may have fallen out of use, as only 3%-14% of the participants were able to recognize these following Lunfardo words in the context of the fragments: sapos, barro, güífaro, ancú, raid, estrilo, carpeta, primus, averías, tigrero, tiras. Of these lexical items, güífaro, ancú, and estrilo also were marked as not understood by the majority of the participants, and therefore suggest they no longer are in use in the dialect. While the WRT was designed to obtain a better understanding of Lunfardo’s presence in popular Argentinian Spanish by measuring Lunfardo word recognition, this test cannot fully determine actual Lunfardo word use in contemporary speech. However, it may point to certain words that may have a more active role in speech. One could imagine, for example, that a word like chamuyés that has 93.94% recognition is likely to also maintain a strong presence in popular speech. The same might be assumed about words that participants provided as personal examples of Lunfardo in the qualitative data (e.g., che, chabón, boludo). However, this would need to be further studied in order to obtain evidence about the actual use of Lunfardo in Argentinian and specifically Porteño speech today. Additionally, the qualitative data and the results from the statistical analysis reveal some discrepancies between participants’ level of recognition of Lunfardo and their perceptions of who uses Lunfardo. For example, many participants commented that Lunfardo was associated with men, particularly older men from Buenos Aires. In this generalization, there are three sociolinguistic factors at play: sex, age, and location. Sex as a factor in Lunfardo recognition proved to be statistically non-significant, thus countering the common perception that women know less Lunfardo than men. On the other hand, the participants’ perceptions of Lunfardo were not completely erroneous with regards to age and location. The statistical analysis, indeed, demonstrated significant differences according to these two factors. Results showed that the oldest generation (55-82 years) recognized more Lunfardo terms. While there was no significant difference between group 2 (30-54 years) and the other age groups, the results showed a linear decline in Lunfardo recognition as age decreased. Also, only participants in the younger groups responded in the interview to never

44 having heard of Lunfardo. This age effect suggests that the notion of Lunfardo (and what specific words belong to this variety) may be disappearing among the younger generations. Also, the data indicated that participants from Buenos Aires also recognized more Lunfardo terms. However, this significant difference in location and level of word recognition only existed between Buenos Aires and Rosario. Curiously, there was no significant difference between participants in San Nicolás de los Arroyos and those in Buenos Aires, despite the fact that San Nicolás de los Arroyos is much closer to Rosario than to Buenos Aires. While San Nicolás de los Arroyos is considerably far from the capital, it is still within the Province of Buenos Aires. The community of San Nicolás de los Arroyos seems stable in that families have been living there for two to three generations. Also, of the 22 nicoleño participants, 16 claimed to have Italian family background and 2 claimed Spanish family background. These two aspects of the nicoleño community, as well as the fact that this community receives fewer migrants from other provinces and is thus relatively free from outside linguistic influences may explain the results obtained. This reasoning may also explain Rosario’s significant difference in Lunfardo word recognition from that of Buenos Aires. Rosario is not part of the Province of Buenos Aires, and was the furthest location from the capital in this study. It is important to also note that Rosario represents a more shifting population, as it receives many migrants from outside provinces. Thus, Lunfardo’s presence showed not as strong in this city. Therefore, the perception of many participants from San Nicolás de los Arroyos that Lunfardo was relevant only to those from the capital conflicted with the WRT results, which indicated levels of Lunfardo word recognition closer resembling those of Buenos Aires, rather than those of their neighbor, Rosario. Furthermore, qualitative data demonstrated that the majority of participants that had never heard of Lunfardo (7 of 11) were under the age of 35 and were from Rosario. This information from the interviews supports the statistical analysis that younger generations and those from Rosario recognized least Lunfardo terms. Definitions and perceptions of Lunfardo proved most varied in participants’ responses. Definitions ranged from informal speech, slang of the lower classes, or a historical dialect connected to Buenos Aires or tango. Use of Lunfardo was claimed by some to be naturally incorporated in their speech and thus indistinguishable from standard Spanish. Others claimed to use it only in familiar situations or emotional topics. Yet others reported

45 that they never use Lunfardo in their speech. Such conflicting views may be interpreted that Lunfardo has shifted away from some of its negative connotations, and/or it is indicative that Lunfardo is losing its distinctiveness as a variety separate from Argentinian Spanish. In sum, analysis of both sets of data served to explore and offer a preliminary view of current levels of recognition of Lunfardo lexicon, as well as the perceived status of Lunfardo among contemporary porteño speakers. Even though this preliminary investigation points to a continuous presence of Lunfardo’s lexicon in the Rio de la Plata region, further research is needed to attest to its actual use in social interactions.

REFERENCES

Buesa Oliver, T. (1987). Lunfardo, jerga del bajo fondo bonaerense. Espanol Actual, 48, 43- 57. Caballeros de la Quema. (1996). No chamuyés. On Perros, perros y perros [CD] Munich, Germany: Ariola Records. Chamberlain, B. J. (1981). Lexical similarities of lunfardo and gíria. Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese, 64(3), 417-425. Conde, O. (2002, December). Los límites del lunfardo. Paper presented at the academic conference Jornadas Académicas “Hacia una redefinición de lunfardo,” Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic. Conde, O. (2011). Lunfardo: Un estudio sobre el habla popular de los argentines (1st ed.). Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Alfaguara. Cone, O. (2013). Lunfardo rioplatense: Delimitación, descripción y evolución. In N. V. Rubio (Ed.), De parces y troncos: Nuevos enfoques sobre los argots hispánicos (p. 82). Lleida, Spain: Revista de los Estudios Lingüísticos Hispánicos. Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitatvie research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Espíndola, A. (2002). Diccionario del lunfardo. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Planeta. Flores, C. (1920). Mano a Mano. [Recorded by C. Gardel and J. Razzano]. On Mano a Mano [record]. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Odeón. Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1984). Language retention and change among Italians in southwest Buenos Aires. Studi Emigrazione/Migration Studies, 21(75), 305-319. Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1992). El Español de América. Madrid, Spain: Fundación MAPFRE América. Gay, L. R., & Mills, E. (2006). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Gobello, J. (1989). El lunfardo. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Academia Porteña del Lunfardo. Gobello, J. (2004). Costumbrismo lunfardo. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: M.H. Oliveri. Gobello, J. (2014). Nuevo diccionario lunfardo (1st ed.). Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Corregidor.

Golluscio de Montoya, E. (1990). Los Italianos y El Castellano de Argentina. Rio De La Plata: Culturas, 10, 59-72. Martorell de Lanconi, S. (2002, December). Hacía una definición del lunfardo. Paper presented at the academic conference Jornadas Académicas “Hacia una redefinición de lunfardo,” Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic. MonoConc Pro (Version 2.2) [Computer software]. Houston, TX: Athelstan. Moreno, F. A. (1926). El ciruja [Recorded by E. de la Cruz]. On El ciruja [record]. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Odeón. Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Oliveri, M. H. (2013). El lunfardo en la cultura porteña. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: Corregidor. Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota. (1998). Gualicho. On Último Bondi a Finisterre [CD]. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic: El Cielito. Ricardo del Valle, E. (1981). Los Términos Metafóricos De ‘Cárcel'’ En Lunfardo. Lebende Sprachen, 26(3), 117-118. Van Dam, S. (Director, Writer). (2015). El lunfardo de ayer y hoy [Motion Picture]. Argentina: Cinemas Coop.

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. ¿Considerás que hablás el español de Buenos Aires? 2. ¿Hablás otros idiomas o español de otras partes de Argentina? 3. ¿Has oído del Lunfardo? 4. ¿Qué sabés del Lunfardo? (¿Dónde se usa? Se usa actualmente?) 5. ¿Conocés a gente que utilice palabras Lunfardos en su español? (¿quiénes son?) 6. a. ¿Podrías dar unos tres ejemplos de palabras o expresiones típicas del Lunfardo que te vengan a la mente? b. ¿Vos usás esas palabras normalmente? c. ¿En qué situaciones las utilizás o no las utilizás? 7. ¿Qué tan importante es el Lunfardo para la gente de Buenos Aires? 8. ¿Y para tí, es importante? ¿Por qué?

APPENDIX B

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA Información biográfica Edad: ______Sexo: ______Escolaridad (grado más alto): ______Ocupación: ______Profesión: ______Lugar de nacimiento: ______Años que ha vivido en la Provincia de Buenos Aires: ______Lugar de nacimiento de sus padres:______Lugar de nacimiento de sus abuelos:______Hay familiares o alguna relación con Italia/italianos en la familia? NO SÍ  ¿Qué típo?

APPENDIX C

WORD RECOGNITION TEST Por favor, circule las palabras que usted identifique como Lunfardo y que entienda. Subraye las palabras desconocidas.

1. Salí! Si estaba de piapa. El bacán de Ana la zurda que también cayó a bailar, vieras ...al verme dentrar formó una bronca a la gurda. Vos sabés, que tengo fama de tenorio y no chambón y al tuerto en otra ocasión me fui y le sople la dama. 2. Con dos catreras jaulas, un roperito, una mesa y dos cajones de kerosene, armaron el bulín que sonreía por sus innúmeras rendijas. 3. Caché el paquete y lo escraché contra el pavimento, lo escrache; aya quedaron los merengues reventaos como sapos pisaos por chata arenera… 4. Se dio el juego de remanye cuando vos, pobre percanta, gambeteabas la pobreza en la casa de pension. 5. El pibe de los astilleros nunca se rendia, tuvo un palacete por un par de dias. Rapiñada montada en los containers, el maldito amor Que tanto miedo da. 6. No hay como los tanos: ellos saben lo que es el mundo. Este güífaro (señalando al que ha concluido de tocar): ya se ganó un cinco. 7. Decime, ¿el "Flaco" te ha güelto a incomodar? Batímelo y le dibujo en el escracho con la punta de mi faca, el raid de Zanni alrededor del mundo... 8. Vos ibas con un tarro de conserva pa los ñoquis y se te cayó de la mano, se te cayó; entonces yo lo levante, le saque el barro y te lo di diciéndote no sé qué macana. 9. Hoy sos toda una bacana, la vida te ríe y canta, los morlacos del otario los jugás a la marchanta como juega el gato maula con el mísero ratón. 10. Son macanas, no fue un guapo haragán ni prepotenteni un cafisho de averías el que al vicio te largó... 11. Así el tuerto de esa vez ancú que me tiene estrilo! Cayó también la lunfarda aquella que "Trabucazo" le metió un espingardazo de bute por la buzarda. 12. Cada cosa era un recuerdo que la vida me amargaba: por eso me la pasaba fulero, rante y tristón. 13. Recordaba aquellas horas de garufa cuando minga de laburo se pasaba, meta punguia, al codillo escolaseaba y en los burros se ligaba un metejón… 14. Bueno, hacete cargo de que uno anda cabrero y que abre el suplemento pa matar el tiempo… 15. Me lo dio la paica. ¿Vamos a atorrar? Son las once. -Estás soñando: hay farras. 16. El "zumba" se colgo del bondi a Finisterre rajando del amor detras de un beso nuevo Gualicho de olvidar apretado en las manos Las despedidas son de esos dolores dulces. 17. Güeno...hicimos la dentrada cada uno con su bacana y comenzó la jarana.

18. Cuando no era tan junao por los tiras,la lanceaba sin tener el manyamiento, una mina le solfeaba todo el vento y jugó con su pasión. 19. Farabute ilusionado por la mersa de magnates que enfarolan su presencia con suntuosa posición, no manyás pobre franela, que aquél que nació en un catre a vivir modestamente la suerte lo condenó. 20. Mi paica se me doblaba igual que pasto en la loma y che...parecía de goma del modo que se meneaba. 21. Y uno recoge lo que siembra, dicen, y es peligroso el barco sin timón, pero quien ponga manos en este juicio, nunca sabrá que satisfecho el ganso murió. 22. Sos la escoria remanyada que esgunfiás con tu presencia de chitrulo sin carpeta, residuo del arrabal tus hazañas de malevo al cuaderno de la ausencia con el lápiz del recuerdo te las voy a enumerar. 23. No chamuyés. Che varón, atendé... que nada es gratis en ese puchero. Mucho “nait” perejil, pero seguís escupiéndole al viento. Cacareando, Rapiñando. 24. Ah! también vide aquel gaita que hace poco han escrachao y hasta el tigrero mentao, cayó con "melena" el taita. 25. En el ropero, la guitarra. Cortinados de tela de araña, gobelinos de polvo. Un Primus hacia tararear el pucherete una dulce canción familiar.

APPENDIX D

TEXTS IN THE CORPUS Short Stories 1. Batifondo a la Villa de Roi 2. Callejera (1905), From: Caras y Caretas 3. Caló porteño (1887), Juan A. Piaggio 4. Cartas a la rea (1925), A. Rienda Suelta 5. Chamuyando, Critica, 9 de octubre de 1916. 6. De matinée, Critica, 29 de setiembre de 1913. 7. De puro pálpito 8. El arte de arrimar la chata (1947), From: Andanzas de Juan Mandiola 9. En el puesto del Mercado (1907), Papel y Tinta 10. En el tango 11. Entre camaradas 12. Escenas Callejeras (1898), From: Caras y Caretas 13. Filo criollo, Angel Villoldo 14. Función social del chamuyo (1954), Juan Mondiola 15. Paradas (1906), Almanaque Joya 16. Sobre el pucho, From: La Vieja Tránsito 17. Todo cambia (1912), From: El alma del suburbia 18. Un chafe suci 19. Un susto (1912), From: El alma suburbia 20. Una paica 'e lei, From: El corazón del arraba

Tango Songs 21. ¡A bailar! (1943), Homero Expósito 22. A mí me llaman Juan Tango (1944), Carlos Waiss 23. A Montmartre (1929), José González Castillo 24. Adiós Nonino (1959), Eladia Blázquez 25. Amor en remolino, Cátulo Castillo 26. Amurado (1927), José De Grandis 27. Anclao en París, (1931) Enrique Cadícamo 28. Aquí hace falta un tango (1950), Teddy Peiró 29. Atenti pebeta (1929), Celedonio Flores 30. Avivato (1950), Lino Palacio 31. Bailarín compadrito (1929), Miguel Bucino 32. Buey manso (1930),Armando Tagini

33. Cartón junao (1947), Carlos Waiss 34. El bulín de la calle (1929), Celedonio Flores 35. Farabute (1928) Casciani 36. Guitarra, guitarra mía (1933), Carlos Gardel 37. La cautiva (1931), Claudio Frollo 38. El ciruja (1926), Francisco Alfredo Moreno 39. El curdela, Jorge Luque Lobos 40. La última curda (1956), Cátulo Castillo 41. Mano a mano (1923), Celedonio Flores 42. Margot (1921) Celedonio Flores 43. Mi noche triste (1916), Pascual Contursi 44. Palomita blanca (1929), Francisco García Jiménez 45. Se acabaron los otarios (1927), Juan Andrés Caruso 46. Sur (1948), Homero Manzi 47. Yira yira (1930), Enrique Santos Discepolo 48. *El atrapador, From: La crencha engrasada (1928), Carlos Púa

Rock Songs 49. 19 días y 500 noches (1999), Joaquín Sabina 50. Blues de la artilleria (1991), Patricio Rey y sus redonditos de ricotta 51. Carlito (1993), Caballeros de la Quema 52. El anillo del Capitán Beto (1976), Spinetta 53. El dinero no es todo (1995), Los auténticos decadentes 54. El hombre suburbano (1971), Pappo 55. El juicio del ganso (1991), La Renga 56. El Matador (1986), Fabulosos Cadillacs 57. El pibe de los astilleros (1991), Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos 58. En el país de la libertad (1973), León Gieco 59. Gualicho (1998), Los Redondos 60. Loco (tu forma de ser) (1989), Auténticos Decadentes 61. No chamuyés (1996) Los Caballeros de la Quema 62. Nunca me des la espalda, (1991) Las Pelotas 63. Persiana Americana (1985), Soda Stereo 64. Prohibido (1995), Callejeros 65. Qué mala suerte (1994), Dos minutos 66. Qué ves (1993), Divididos 67. Rezo por vos (1985), Charly García & Luis Alberto Spinetta 68. Tan solo (1993), Los Piojos

APPENDIX E

LUNFARDO GLOSSARY

Lunfardo Word Spanish Translation English Translation *Most definitions from Gobello (2014) *My translation and Espíndola (2002) Aceitar Sobornar bribe afanar Robar rob Altillo Cabeza head amurar empeñar; aprisionar pawn; imprison Ancú ¡Atención!, ¡Cuidado! Attention! Careful! Aspáragos Dedos fingers Atenti ¡Cuidado! Careful! Averías inmoral, maleante; andanas immoral, malefactor; depredatorias; daño, depredatory swaths; perjuicio damage, injury bacán dueño de una mujer; owner of a woman; a individuo adinerado o que wealthy man or one who aparenta serlo seems to have money Bacana Mujer por antonomasia; woman by antonomasia; concubine concubine bachicia persona italiana an Italian bardear Agredir assault Barro jarro de arcilla que se clay jar used to serve beer emplea para servir cerveza batifondo Alborroto commotion, uproar

Batir Decir to tell Beligerancia Beligerante belligerent betún Soborno bribery Boliche pequeño despacho de small office of beverages; bebidas; discoteca nightclub Bolonqui revés de quilombo reverse of quilombo Boludear hacer/decir tonterías do or say stupid things Bondi Tranvía trolley, bus bronca Enojo anger Bulín habitación; cama room; bed Buzarda Estómago stomach Cabrero Enojado angry cachar tomar, agarrar take, grab cafishio Ruffian ruffian Camion Mujer woman capo Jefe boss carpeta Mesa de juego de azar; Gambling table; ability, habilidad, destreza skill chala dinero; pasión amorosa money; amorous passion chamuyar Conversar converse chanta incumplidor, farolero bullshitter chele revés de leche milk churro cigarillo de marihuana joint contamusa mentiroso, cuentero liar corner Esquina corner kick corte Cuchillo knife crak persona/animal que se person/animal that performs distingue extraordinarily in an extraordinariamente en activity alguna actividad

56 cráneo Cabeza head descuido Hurto robbery despelotado complicado, desordenado complicated, disorderly driblear Driblear dribble embalaje cobrar gran velocidad una charge at high speed a persona, un animal o un person, an animal or a vehículo lanzado a la vehicle on the run Carrera emberretinarse Encapricharse desire on a whim engomar Cerrar to close enquilombar Desordenar mess, disorder envenenado que todo lo considera con consider everything with pesimismo y recelo suspicion and pessimism escabiar beber vino o bebidas drink alcohol alcóholicas escabio vino o bebida alcóholica wine or alcoholic beverage escarpiante Calzado footwear escrachar arrojar algo con fuerza; to throw hard; spank, give zurrar, dar a uno muchos one many blows or punches azotes o golpes espiantar Escaper escape esputsa mal olor bad odor esquiafo bofetón slap, punch estrilo enojo; animadversión, anger; animosity, enmity enmistad fasería cigarro, cigarillo cigar, cigarette feca Café coffee foul falta, foul foul franela asistir a los prostíbulos sin hang out in a brothel gastar ni usar de las pupilas without spending or using

the service fratacho tablita lisa que sirve para small board jaharrar fulero malo, que carece de bad, lacking kindness; poor; bondad; pobre; feo ugly fulo empalidacido por la pale by surprise or fear sorpresa o el miedo funyi Sombrero hat furbante astuto, taimado crafty, cunning gavión burlador que seduce a las trickster who seduces mujeres women gorra Policia police grasa menestral, obrero artisan, worker groso grande, importante, con big, important, with referencia a algún asunto o reference to some business negocio guacho Huérfano orphan güífaro Italiano an Italian guita Dinero money hembraje concubine, manceba concubine, mistress joya interjección para ¡de Agreed! Very good! acuerdo! ¡muy bien! junao Mirar, fijar deliberadamente to look, to deliberately la vista en un objeto fixate on an object laburo Trabajo work limones Senos breasts macana Garrote, palo gruiso y corto; garrote, thick and short Contrariedad, error; stick; disgruntled, mistake; Inconducta; Mentira misconduct; lie macanudo Necedad foolishness

58 mangar pedir, solicitor ask, request mango peso, unidad monetária coin manyar Entender understand masa Interjección de ¡muy bueno! Very good! Excellent! ¡excelente! mate calabaza donde se prepara y gourd prepared to serve se sireve la infusión de yerba infusion yerba mersa Plebeyo plebian milonga payada pueblera Argentinian ballroom dance mina Mujer woman minga no, nada no, nothing mishiadura Pobreza poverty mistonguería humilde, pobre humble, poor morfar Comer eat naco pedazo de tabaco negro; black tobacco; monetary peso monetário coin ñoquis tipo de pasta con harina y pasta made with flour and papa potato otario Tónto stupid, dumb pálida efecto negativo que negative effect produced by producen ciertas drogas; certain drugs; depression; depresión; mala suerte bad luck pavura Miedo fear pendejo Púber adolescent pibe Niño child pisante Pie foot polenta Fuerza strength ponible dícese de la mujer said of the sexually sexualmente apetecible appealing woman

59 posta bueno, excelente, óptimo good, excellent, ideal primus artefacto calentador heating device pucho residuo, resto remains, rest quilombo Prostíbulo; lío, caos Brothel; mess, chaos raid prueba deportiva de sports endurance test Resistencia sapo vaso para servir cerveza cup used to serve beer sope revés de peso reverse of peso tango baile del Río de la Plata dance from the Río de la Plata tigrero audáz, valiente bold, brave tira agente de la policia de police investigator investigaciones visante Ojo eye zabeca revés de cabeza head

APPENDIX F

IRB APPROVED CONSENT FORM Universidad Estatal de San Diego FORMULARIO DE CONSENTIMIENTO INFORMADO La fecha de la versión del formulario de consentimiento: 18 de septiembre 2015

El Lunfardo: Un estudio contemporáneo del español porteño

¿QUIÉN DEBERÍA CONTACTAR SI TENGO PREGUNTAS?

Investigadora Principal: Adriana Moosekian SDSU Department: Español y Portugués Dirección: 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182 Teléfono: (619) 594-6588 Correo electrónico: [email protected]

Co-Investigador/Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Alfredo Urzúa SDSU Department: Español y Portugués Dirección: 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182 Teléfono: (619) 594-6588 Correo electrónico: [email protected]

¿CUÁL ES EL PROPÓSITO DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN?: El propósito de esta investigación es explorar el estatus contemporáneo del Lunfardo, un dialecto argentino del español, tanto en los textos como las perspectivas de los hablantes nativos.

¿QUÉ PASARÁ EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN?

Para determinar si usted es elegible para participar, se le preguntará cuánto tiempo ha vivido en Buenos Aires. Si usted es elegible para participar, se le preguntará que complete un cuestionario de reconocimiento de palabras y una breve entrevista (15 minutos). Después, completará un breve cuestionario biográfico de datos (edad, escolaridad, etc.), por un total de 20 minutos.

¿CUÁLES SON LOS RIESGOS O LAS INCOMODIDADES EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN? Las preguntas le pedirán que reflexionar sobre el idioma español y sus propios puntos de vista con respecto a su uso. Usted puede negarse a responder a cualquier pregunta que le haga sentir incómodo, o puede retirarse de participar en este estudio en cualquier momento.

¿POR CUÁNTO TIEMPO PARTICIPARÉ EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN? Su participación durará aproximadamente 20 minutos.

Institutional Review Board

Study Number: 2151099

Universidad Estatal de San Diego FORMULARIO DE CONSENTIMIENTO INFORMADO La fecha de la versión del formulario de consentimiento: 18 de septiembre 2015

¿HAY BENEFICIOS PARA PARTICIPAR? No hay beneficios por participar en esta investigación. Sin embargo, al participar usted está ayudando a proporcionar información que puede ampliar nuestra comprensión del idioma español y sus variedades.

¿HAY ALTERNATIVAS PARA PARTICIPAR? Una alternativa es no participar.

¿MI INFORMACIÓN ES PRIVADO?

No se grabarán su nombre o información de identificación alguna. La confidencialidad será mantenida en todo momento. Los datos de investigación recopilados se almacenarán en una oficina cerrada en un armario de archivo privado y sólo serán utilizados por los investigadores que aparecen en la primera página de este formulario de consentimiento. Los datos de investigación serán destruidos tres años después del final de este estudio.

Las grabaciones se pueden usar para registrar la información con su consentimiento a fin de recopilar los datos y garantizar la preservación de todos los detalles que usted proporciona. Sólo los investigadores que aparecen en la primera página tendrá acceso a los archivos, que se almacenarán con el investigador principal y se borrarán tres años después del final de este estudio.

Los resultados de su participación en este estudio pueden ser utilizados para la publicación o con fines académicos como presentaciones en conferencias, pero los resultados no incluirán ningúna nombre o información que identifique a usted.

¿TENGO QUE PARTICIPAR? Usted no tiene que participar en este estudio de investigación. Si usted decide no participar no hay ninguna penalidad. Además, puede optar por dejar de participar en cualquier momento sin penalidad o pérdida de beneficios a los que tenga derecho.

¿SE ME DICE SOBRE LOS RESULTADOS DEL ESTUDIO? Los resultados de este estudio pueden ser solicitados bajo petición una vez que el estudio sea completado.

COSTARÁ ME NADA PARA PARTICIPAR Este estudio se llevará 20 minutos de su tiempo.

Institutional Review Board

Study Number: 2151099

Universidad Estatal de San Diego FORMULARIO DE CONSENTIMIENTO INFORMADO La fecha de la versión del formulario de consentimiento: 18 de septiembre 2015

SE ME PAGA POR MI PARTICIPACIÓN EN ESTE ESTUDIO? No hay pago por participar en este estudio.

¿QUÉ HAGO SI TENGO PREGUNTAS ACERCA DE ESTE ESTUDIO?: Si usted tiene alguna pregunta acerca de la investigación ahora, por favor pregunte. Si tiene preguntas después de la investigación, puede ponerse en contacto conmigo, Adriana Moosekian, [email protected], (619) 594-6588. Si usted tiene alguna pregunta sobre sus derechos como participante en este estudio, o en el caso de una lesión relacionada con la investigación, puede comunicarse con la División de Asuntos de Investigación de la Universidad Estatal de San Diego (teléfono: 619-594- 6622, correo electrónico: [email protected]). En cualquier momento durante la investigación usted puede ponerse en contacto con la oficina de SDSU IRB para preguntas sobre los derechos en la investigación, para hablar sobre problemas, preocupaciones o sugerencias, o para ofrecer retroalimentación.

CONSENTIMIENTO PARA PARTICIPAR: La Junta de Revisión Institucional de la Universidad Estatal en San Diego ha aprobado este formulario de consentimiento, según lo indica el sello de la Junta. El formulario de consentimiento debe ser revisado anualmente y vence en la fecha indicada en el sello. Su firma indica que usted ha leído la información de este documento y ha tenido la oportunidad de formular las preguntas que tenga sobre el estudio. Su firma también indica que usted se compromete a participar en el estudio y se les ha dicho que puede cambiar de opinión y retirar su consentimiento para participar en cualquier momento. El investigador ha proporcionado una copia de este formulario de consentimiento con información sobre a quién contactar en caso de que tenga preguntas.

Institutional Review Board

Study Number: 2151099