Comments on: Vos vs Tú: A Los Pedos

By: Angela @SanTelmoLoft

Angela @SanTelmoLoft — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:45:39 +0000

Hi Shelley… Italian helped me so much when I got here. Best of luck to you. BA is gorgeous right now.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:53:53 +0000

Thanks very much for this. I am heading to Buenos Aires on a cargo ship in just over two weeks. I will stay in Buenos Aires for a few months and just started learning Spanish. So thid blog was really interesting to read. A couple of years ago I learned some Italian too so -perhaps that will come in handy!
Shelley´s last [type] ..Quiero hablar italiano no espaol

By: Angela @SanTelmoLoft

Angela @SanTelmoLoft — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:45:13 +0000

Thanks, Heidi. I’m so glad you got a kick our of the post. We had a blast putting it together!

By: Heidi

Heidi — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:58:37 +0000

thank you so much! i love socio-linguistics too and had a blast reading this blog….

By: Angela @SanTelmoLoft

Angela @SanTelmoLoft — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:52:19 +0000

So glad you think the post is fun. I love sociolinguistics, too. One of my favorite things about traveling (well, that and the food and music). Thanks for adding “en pedo.” I was trying to remember all of the phrases using “pedo” when I wrote this and knew I was certainly missing something.

Oh, and Iove that George Bernard Shaw quote. Awesome!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:00:27 +0000

You’re probably well aware of this, but for those who aren’t: ‘en pedo’ in its colloquial sense means “drunk”. So “Ni en pedo!” means “[I would]not even [do that] drunk!”

Once again, fun post, thanks! I love sociolinguistics, even if I’ve never delved too deeply into it. Just love the different idiomatic foibles and idiosyncrasies and connections I come across in life. A related quote I like: “England and America [USA] are two countries separated by a common language” — George Bernard Shaw

By: Argentinean Slang: Ni Un Sope — San Telmo Loft

Argentinean Slang: Ni Un Sope — San Telmo Loft — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:23:49 +0000

[...] best things about Argentines is their creative use of language. We’ve covered this topic before here and here. And you can find all of our posts about language in the category [...]

By: Anquises

Anquises — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:17:02 +0000

1. El voseo (el cambio en la conjugación de la segunda persona del presente y el imperativo de los verbos):
tú miras / vos mirás
mira /mirá,
no aparece solo en los países rioplatenses sino en casi todos los países latinoamericanos -con la excepción del Perú y los hispanoparlantes del Caribe. En la Argentina y Paraguay la sustitución es completa, en los demás países es parcial o solo se halla en algunas regiones.
También hay un cambio en la conjugación de la segunda persona del plural:
Vosotros miráis / Ustedes miran
Mirad / Miren

Aquellos que han aprendido el español que se habla en Perú, en casi todo México o en España, no deben preocuparse por estas variantes: serán perfectamente entendidos en cualquier país de idioma español, de modo que, en principio, no tienen por qué cambiar nada. Los españoles que vienen a la Argentina o los argentinos que van a España nunca lo hacen. En cuanto a las expresiones vulgares, lo mejor es no utilizarlas hasta que uno tenga dominio completo del lenguaje (si alguna vez necesita decir algo subido de tono, hágalo en su propio idioma, no hay nada más tranquilizador que los juramentos en lengua materna
2. La lengua oficial de la Argentina es el castellano o español. En la Argentina se sigue utilizando la primera palabra en los libros de texto de las escuelas, aunque es un poco anticuada. Las primeras 14 ediciones del diccionario de la Real Academia Española (de la que ahora forman parte 22 academias de países hispanoparlantes) llevaban el título “Diccionario de la lengua Castellana”, pero desde 1925 el diccionario se llama “Diccionario de la lengua Española”. Tal vez sería apropiado imitar a los angloparlantes y llamar “española” (spanish) a nuestra lengua.

My two 5 pesos bills (sorry, but I need my cents for the ‘colectivo’)

By: Enrolling at University of Buenos Aires « Still Life in Buenos Aires

Enrolling at University of Buenos Aires « Still Life in Buenos Aires — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:52:41 +0000

[...] For the test, it’s important to understand the use of “vos” rather than “tu,” and “sos” instead of “eres.” Take a primer on Argentinean spanish here. [...]

By: santelmoloft

santelmoloft — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:09:16 +0000

I’m realizing I wasn’t very clear in my post about why I used the word castellano. I said “castellano” and not “Castilian” because Argentines say they speak “castellano” not “español.” I was trying to be a little humorous by saying Argentines don’t speak Spanish, they speak Castellano. And I linked to the wikipedia page because it’s a good explanation of just what Rioplatense Spanish is. Did you read that wikipedia page? It was the most clearly written and useful description online-not too academic or technical for those who just want an overview. Blogs, wikis, etc. aren’t authoritative sources, so people taking their information from them should always double-check the facts. But there are times when wikipedia gets it very right.

The Englishes spoken in the UK, Australia, and the US are different dialects of the same language. The same is true for Rioplatense Spanish (called castellano by those who speak it). It’s a dialect of Spanish because not only are there differences in pronunciation, there are differences in vocabulary and grammar. I didn’t mean to imply that Argentines have invented a new language, although I have talked to a lot of tourists whose Spanish skills come from the dialect of Spanish spoken in the States that think it’s a totally new language when they first arrive. I personally love the fact that languages are so alive and malleable. How dull life would be if we were all alike.

Hope you had a good weekend!