Lunfardo
In Argentina and parts of Uruguay, the locals share more than just mate. At the end of the 19th century, after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento wrote his great literary work called Facundo that invited Europeans to join the Argentine community, Lunfardo was born. Lunfardo is a Spanish argot. Meaning that it is a way of speaking, though not slang, that utilizes words that are not Spanish. However, many of these words have become very popular and have wound up as part of the daily Spanish of those living around Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The development of Lunfardo occured because of the arrival of European immigrants specifically thought to be derrived from Italian immigrants. Many others believed that the Lunfardo words originiated in jails and were only spoken by prisoners. Today, the words are unintelligible to other Spanish speakers around the world. Lunfardo is mainly used in Tango lyrics to supplement the usage of words that allude to sex, drugs and other criminal activity that characterizes the Tango. An example of Lunfardo is the word for girl: amina. Laburar means “to work” and is directly derrived from the Italian word “lavorare,” of the same meaning.
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