LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

Recently, a "professor" of Argentinian Spanish (?) was telling people in Instagram that in that language "coger" means to have sex, and "pillar", means to urinate, and advised her students not to say  "terminar" because it means to have an orgasm. The lesson ended there, thank God, because otherwise, we would have learnt that it is impossible to use plain run-of-the-mill vocabulary in Buenos Aires without offending someone. Of course, the same problem we might encounter in Peru, Chile, Mexico, or Spain, and that´s why I promote the study of cultured, educated, language, in any language. An educated Bolivian will always understand an educated Mexican. So, please, stay away from "colloquial" dialects and stick to mainstream language which will always keep you in good stead. 

I previously wrote about the incorrect grammar used by the high-flying lawyers of a top law firm in New York, in the NETFLIX series SUITS. This firm only hires Harvard law graduates, and it is suggested that other law schools are below them. My experience with lawyers and judges has been sad but still, I enjoyed the series. Nevertheless, I was stunned not only by the faulty grammar used by these "lawyers" but also by their language: "Put your shit together." "This is bullshit. "You little piece of shit." "Shove it up your ass." "You fucking know..." "Fuck you." "Asshole..." and many more unconventional expressions that can be found in any slang dictionary, including my own "An English and Spanish Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Language."  My only objection is that I cannot believe that such high-class lawyers could ever utter such language, including judges, prosecutors, and even women, who are...

Todos tenemos, en los idiomas que hablemos, un vocabulario activo –palabras que conocemos y empleamos- y uno pasivo –palabras que reconocemos pero que no empleamos. Debemos tratar de aumentar ese vocabulario activo para expresarnos mejor. Pero siempre sabremos palabras que jamás emplearemos, por lo que sea. En inglés hay una, “dude”, que encuentro irritante y que no forma parte de mi inglés. Es vocablo antiguo pero que con el significado actual proviene de los años 60. Se oye en películas, en la conversación juvenil, en la charla informal. Yo tiendo, con reparos, a emplear “guy”, que pertenece más a mi generación. “ Who's that dude that's talking to your sister? ” El caso es que se me ha ocurrido buscar su equivalencia en español y me he quedado boquiabierto. Voy a reseñar lo que he descubierto para “dude”: Tío (coll., Spain). ¿Quién es ese tío? Güey (Coll., Mexico). “Ese güey es bien escandaloso.”) Huevón (Coll., Chile). ¿Sale tu hermana con ese hu...

The N word is taboo among polite society, and that is why instead of "nigger" people use the silly euphemism "the N word ." Nigga, nigger, niggar refer to a black person. I suppose this is so because black people react violently when th ey are addressed as "niggar". If they did not react, wh ites would probably s top calling them "nigg ars" and would have to find another word. Blacks call whites "kraka", and whites feel insulted by the term . I sort of like it myself.  Most of my friends are krakas and they are all right, most of them. Of course, people addressed as "niggars" or "krakas" must take offense, otherwise it´s no fun. YOLO is a new acrony m used on the internet, mainly by those who are still wet behind the ears, and it means You Only L ive Once.  It is used to justify whatever one does because, after all, we only live once, so what the hell!     A Spanish has a saying I love: "Dame pan y dime t...

Urban Dictionary is "a crowdsourced online dictionary" for slang vocabulary and phraseology, started by a certain Aaron Peckham, in 1999. This so-called dictionary is a useless tool, put together by a crowd of illiterate halfwits, and blessed by the founder, Peckham, who being a moron too, he is at least a "smarty pants" who is probably making some "dough" out of this trashy, worthless slang wordbook. I suppose no one checks the definitions, spelling, grammar, syntax of the contributors, and certainly the veracity and existence of the words are not checked either. No proper citations are given. They do include sexist and racist comments, and there are sprinkles of insulting terminology, and plenty of ignorant references to the female anatomy. Urban Dictionary ´s scholarly definition of "pussy": "Something men babies spend 9 months getting out of - and the rest of their lives trying to get back into ..." (The other definitions of...

The N word is taboo among polite society, and that is why instead of "nigger" people use the silly euphemism "the N word ." Nigga, nigger, niggar refer to a black person. I suppose this is so because black people react violently when th ey are addressed as "niggar". If they did not react, wh ites would probably s top calling them "nigg ars" and would have to find another word. Blacks call whites "kraka", and whites feel insulted by the term . I sort of like it myself.  Most of my friends are krakas and they are all right, most of them. YOLO is a new acrony m used on the internet, mainly by those who are still wet behind the ears, and it means You Only L ive Once.  It is used to justify whatever one does because, after all, we only live once, so what the hell!    

Dicen que las palabras se las lleva el viento, pero lo escrito, escrito está… y se puede releer, y sacar a relucir años después. Y lo que escribimos enfadados hoy, quedará para siempre, y a lo peor nos lo echan en cara en el futuro. El lenguaje familiar, coloquial, argótico, juvenil, se acepta en el discurso cotidiano, hablado entre familiares, amigos, colegas, conocidos, compañeros de clase… pero que puede chocar cuando lo empleamos en una carta o una nota. En una segunda lengua el peligro es aún mayor. Habremos oído a nativos emplear expresiones como fucking car , damn traffic , shitty teacher… que en lengua inglesa parecen normales y no suenan tan mal como jodido coche , maldito tráfico , profesor de mierda. Pero suenan mal, si no peor. Es curioso, pero en boca de un extranjero el insulto, la palabrota, el argot, la jerga, suenan peor. Y suenan peor porque nunca esperamos que un extranjero sea grosero y malhablado. Se espera más del foráneo que del nativo. Palabras com...

Como ya he dicho en otro lugar (ver French) los ingleses vienen sacando motes a otras nacionalidades desde siempre. Los norteamericanos recogieron el testigo y han ampliado la lista de epítetos que abarca e incluye a casi todos los que consideran inferiores (¿?). Los franceses son Frogs. A los italianos se les denomina wops. Y la palabra Italian la pronuncian “aitalian” para más recochineo. Los irlandeses son potato diggers. Los puertorriqueños y “latinos” son spics. Un polaco es un Polak o Polok. Los mexicanos e italianos son greasers, o greaseballs. Esto es porque huelen a sebo, a grasa. Los alemanes son Krauts, Squareheads, Fritzes. “And since Hencke had a name he was no longer simply another bloody Kraut but a real character…” M. Dobbs, Last man to die.(London: HarperCollins, 1991). Un “negrito”, que dicen en España es un nigger. “It wasn’t the nigger’s fault that he had nothing to do for the moment.” Marjorie Darke, The first of midnight. (London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd, 198...