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[ View this article in Spanish ]
We can define a Language as:
“The expression of a culture, a means of communication; language is an instrument serving the community which uses it; always evolving”. (UNESCO)
In the month of Living Languages I would like to share some comments relating to language and the present situation in Argentina.
Language in evolution:
Due to the latest events in our country (unemployment, demonstrations, new ways of making a living, etc.) society has made up new words to refer to them. Some examples are as follows:
Motoquero: Person extremely keen on motorbikes and everything related to them.
Falopero: Drug addict.
Cartonero: Person who collects and selects, from the garbage, pieces of cardboard and other materials to sell them later.
These are some of many words we use nowadays. But we have also acquired words from other languages. Shop windows are a good example of this, where you can find words such as SALE, OFF, etc. A craze? Globalization? Market lexicon? The most striking fact is that people have learnt to use these words without knowing their meanings or the foreign language.
Words such as “arbolito” (little tree) are coming into popularity again. This word was coined to name somebody who sells dollars in the street and offers better prices than the currency exchange stores. This person is “planted” in the sidewalk and has a lot of “green” bucks. The word “arbolito” originated two decades ago in the middle of an economic crisis, disappeared during the convertibility, and has reappeared due to the present financial crisis.
Language Varieties:
Argentina has different dialects within the official language: Spanish. It is funny to listen to people from different provinces with the singular pronunciation and idiomatic expressions. You may well compile all this to make an interesting book.
The contributions from the border areas, from the aboriginal communities, and from the migration waves are some of the factors that make up this diversity.
Native Languages:
To my knowledge, none of the native languages spoken in Argentina had a written form. The oral tradition was the only means to keep customs, social rules, and moral values through the ages. Later, missionaries helped develop grammars and dictionaries. This facilitated the translation of the Bible into these native languages.
In the last decade bilingual and intercultural syllabuses have been adopted to foster written native language and to create a native alphabet.
Currently, twelve out of the original thirty five languages spoken at the arrival of the Spaniards can still be heard. Examples of this are: Mapuche, Wichi, Toba, Quichua santiagueño, Guaraní, Mocoví, Mbyá, Pilagá, Nivaclé, Chorote, Chiriguano, and Tehuelche. And one of the typical words is: Curuzú Cuatía, which means “paper cross," is the name of the place where I was born.
I hope these simple words have been of some help to show the linguistic richness of our country Argentina.
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Martín Miguel Arias
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