Lunfardo (slang from Buenos Aires) had a shady start. First used by criminals in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, later popularized in tango lyrics (see Edmundo Rivero) and the lower-class, today lunfardo has spread to every class without prejudice. Whether you’re in classy San Isidro or seedy Pompeya, porteño lunfardo words are peppered throughout most Spanish conversations in Buenos Aires, and even stretching to Uruguay and Chile. You might even hear a fur coat clad abuela grandmother in Recoleta telling a misbehaving child not to act like a tarado! For newcomers to Argentina who want to learn the “castellano” spanish of Argentina, you’ll need a crash course in lunfardo to really be able to understand the locals.

Edmundo Rivero has another nice starter course in the form of lyrics to a tango called “Milonga Lunfardo”…

En este hermoso paí­s
que es mi tierra, la Argentina,
la mujer es una mina
y el fuelle es un bandoneón.
El vigilante, un botón.
la policí­a, la cana.
el que roba es el que afana.
el chorro un vulgar ladrón.
Al zonzo llaman chabón
y al vivo le baten rana.

The difficult thing about learning Spanish is that there are 21 different countries that speak their own version, each of course claiming their own dialect to be the “true Spanish”. What is avocado for me is aguacate for my Mexican friends, yet palta for my Argentine gente. Compound these differences (vos vs. tíº, coche vs. auto vs. carro) with local slang, and your Mexican and Colombian friends will be just as puzzled as you when “Che” over there asks you “Che, Como va el laburo?”

Laburo is lunfardo for trabajo, or work. The word is borrowed from Italian, like the word lunfardo itself, from “lombardo” / outlaw. Besides Italian, some lunfardo words come from Indian languages like Guarani and Mapuche, an even French, Portuguese and some African languages as well. To top it off, a lot of lunfardo words are actually just regular spanish words made from swapping the syllables around (ie: telo is lunfardo for hotel, swapped).

Help is on the way…

Lunfardo is alive, and like all modern languages, it changes and evolves. There exist some lunfardo dictionaries which you can buy at bookstores (look along Corrientes west of the obelisco), or on-line, but the best way to learn is to talk with your Argentine friends. Sooner or later you too will be calling the girls “minas” and the guys “pibes.”

iPod App

For those with iPhones/Pods/Pads, we recommend downloading the Porténo Spanish App at the iTunes store or here. It features a dictionary as well as a quiz to help you learn and remember lot’s of Porteño Spanish words. After the quiz, you’ll learn to move past trucho and speak like a real local!

And finally, some words to get you started:

Many lunfardo words are not considered polite and can actually be quite offensive. This list will help you understand some words that you might hear, but we do not necessarily condone using them.

• boliche – dance club
• cerebrar – to think something up (cerebrar from cerebro “brain”)
• faso — cigarette
• fiaca – laziness, or lazy person (from the Italian fiacco “weak”)
• garpar – to pay with money (vesre for pagar “to pay”)
• gomas (lit. tires) – breasts - offensive
• laburar – to work (from Italian lavorare “to work”)
• mango – peso (“No tengo ni un mango” / I don’t even have one peso.)
• mina – (African origin, a common word for woman)
• morfar – to eat (from French morfer “to eat”)
• pavo (lit. turkey) – silly, stupid
• pibe - “kid”, a common term for boy or, in more recent times, for young man
• tipo – “guy, dude” OR also used interspersed in speech like um, so, or like in English

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