{"id":1144,"date":"2019-07-26T21:41:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T01:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2019-07-26T21:41:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T01:41:59","slug":"slang-in-lima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/2019\/07\/26\/slang-in-lima\/","title":{"rendered":"Slang in Lima"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an effort to learn some Peruvian slang (or\u00a0jergas<\/em>) I’ve been asking a variety of people to help me identify some of the most common local terms and expressions. I’ve asked Peruvians in clothing shops, bars, Uber cabs, and my language school. They have been men and women and have varied in age. One must have been just eighteen or nineteen years old, and others were in their forties and fifties. I’ll describe some of the slang I’ve learned, though I’ll leave out the swear words.<\/p>\n

It’s very common that sang terms are based on formal words that sound alike or have the same letters. When you call a car lenteja<\/em>, literally meaning “lentil,” you’re really calling it lento<\/em>, meaning “slow.” When you call someone mano<\/em>, literally meaning “hand,” you’re really calling them hermano<\/em>, meaning “brother.” When you say you want to go to the ypla<\/em>, you r mean the playa<\/em>, meaning the beach.<\/p>\n

The most interesting expression, which I learned from two middle-aged women in a bar, was estoy Chihu\u00e1n<\/em>. It means “I’m broke,” but it actually comes from someone’s last name. Leyla Chihu\u00e1n is a Congresswoman who infamously complained that her salary in Congress was not sufficient to support her lifestyle. Since most Peruvians make much less money than those in Congress do, the phrase sparked widespread ridicule and produced this slang term. Another phrase you can use when you lack money is estar misio<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Informal greetings are common among good friends but are not used in formal settings. Instead of hello, people sometimes say “\u00a1<\/span><\/span>Habla causa!,” “\u00a1<\/span><\/span>Habla batteria!,”<\/em> or “\u00a1<\/span><\/span>Habla bateria<\/em>!”<\/em> The words causa, bateria<\/em>, and pata<\/em> are used like “friend” or “dude.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I found that you’re often more likely to hear most of those words above from men, but one slang term that I only heard from women was churro<\/em>.\u00a0 It is an adjective used to describe a handsome man.<\/p>\n

There are some “Peruvianisms” that seemed very familiar to everyone I talked with, and most were very comfortable using them. A choro <\/em>is a thief. Chela<\/em> means beer. A pituco<\/em> is a rich snob. A tombo <\/em>is a police officer. When you have bad luck, you say “\u00a1<\/span><\/span>Que pi\u00f1<\/span>a!,<\/em>” even though pi\u00f1a<\/em> literally means pineapple. When you are embarassed or ashamed you can say “!Que roche!<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In an effort to learn some Peruvian slang (or\u00a0jergas) I’ve been asking a variety of people to help me identify some of the most common local terms and expressions. I’ve asked Peruvians in clothing shops, bars, Uber cabs, and my language school. They have been men and women and have varied in age. One must … Continue reading Slang in Lima<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[210747],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peru"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}