1947  Use of lunfardo and tango

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 21:39:15 -0500
From: Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Use of lunfardo and tango

This is to answer all those that ask about Lunfardo and its proper use.

Lunfardo cannot be considered to be a language, nor a dialect, not even a
jargon. It has no syntax nor grammar.
Those that use lunfardo words, think in Spanish using the Castilian
structure and grammar, and then replace one or more of those words by their
lunfardo equivalent. The meaning of the paragraph does not change, but it
takes a different shade.

Another important element is that the use of those words is totally
conscious: the speaker knows that the word "mujer" (woman) exists, but he
decides, to use "mina" (lunfardo) instead. This constitutes the main
difference between Argentinism and lunfardism.
Argentinism is the use of an incorrect word because the speaker ignores the
correct Castilian one.

Lunfardo has a very small vocabulary, the total number of words are not
sufficient to express all the ideas that a person has, not even Dirk's.
Many of the words (perhaps 5000) are equivalent, many refer to a few subject
such as sex, the different body parts, food, drinks, money, clothing, crime.

Tango and lunfardo were born at the same time and in the same place.It was a
vocabulary proper of people of low social condition.
Little by little, in great part due to tango lyrics and the radio the
lunfardo reached all the social strata. It started to be used in popular
literature and also in theater.

It was however considered an improper form of speech and from 1940 on, there
was a tendency by the media not to use it.
Tango lyrics were purified of lunfardisms and their subject shifted from
life in the periphery to Nostalgia and Moral (Homero Manzi and Discepolo).

In recent years, coinciding with the tango resurgence young people started
using some lunfardo words which also appear in the lyrics of Argentinean
rock.

In summary lunfardo is part of Buenos Aires and Argentinean popular
culture. It is seen by a great part of society with prejudice.

A large number of well educated Argentineans consider the use of any
lunfardo word vulgar.

This prejudice and the "caricature" of lunfardo presented in Kate's article
make taking it seriously, totally absurd.

We all know now that it was pure fiction.